During family farm meetings it’s important for everyone to take off their family hat and address each other in a professional manner. Follow these tried-and-true tips and tricks for successful family business meetings.
– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor
At one of their first business meetings on their farm, Betty Green served coffee and cake to everyone present, including her son. When he put the plate on the floor beside him, Green admonished him, telling him to put it in the sink instead.
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Her son turned to her and said “Mom, we are in a business meeting!”
“That was a big ‘aha’ moment,” Green says, and she remembers realizing “he’s right because in here I am not Mom, I am his business partner.”
It has become a key learning. In their farm meetings, it’s important for everyone to take off their family hat and address each other in a professional way.
“It’s a mindset,” Green says today. “If you can get into that, it changes everything. When we have business meetings now with our grandson, who is farming with us, we see him as the crops manager, and that really does have an impact.”
Besides being co-owner of the family’s cattle ranch near Fisher Branch, Green is former provincial co-ordinator of the Verified Beef Plus program in Manitoba, past chair of the Manitoba Beef Producers and she was a 4-H leader for many years.
Through their involvement in the beef industry, she and husband, Robert, had come to realize how important business meetings can be and they began several years ago to hold monthly sessions on the farm.
“Business meetings are important in terms of building trust between partners and maintaining a level of communication that you think you have on a day-to-day basis, but you don’t,” Green says
If done properly, she says, business meetings give each participant a voice and formalizes their roles and responsibilities. “Without those opportunities,” Green says, “you can lull yourself into going day-by-day and never having those higher-level discussions.”
Green’s advice for anyone starting out with family business meetings is to open your mind and just try it because it’s a chance to step back and look at the business with a more professional and critical view, and you might be surprised by what you see.
“You will see, first of all, how well you’re doing and secondly, where there are places that you are able to improve,” Green says. “I know it’s daunting for some people who haven’t had a lot of experience at meetings but my advice would be, don’t make it so formal that you feel uncomfortable. Make it work for you.”
Before you meet up
Through experience, Betty Green has learned tips and tricks so your first family business meeting will be successful. The goal is to ensure the meeting is run smoothly and is as productive and valuable as possible to everyone involved.
1. DECIDE WHO SHOULD BE AT THE MEETINGS
This is a big one. Do you limit it to family members directly responsible for day-to-day operations on the farm or do you include extended family and in-laws even if they are not actively involved?
To make that decision, it helps to think in advance about what types of issues and decisions need to be a part of the regular business meetings versus those, such as transition planning, that might better be dealt with in a different context or set of discussions.
The Greens have decided that only actual business partners attend the business meetings.
“We don’t include spouses who work off the farm and don’t have a lot of interest in the farm,” Green says. “If we decide that we need additional professional support for an issue — for example, financial or veterinary advice — we rely on the person responsible for that area to contact the support and bring that information back to the next meeting.
When it comes to succession planning, they treat it as a separate discussion, and they either bring everyone in or sit down with each individual separately for those discussions.
Ultimately, though, every family situation and dynamic is different, Green emphasizes, so it’s about finding a system that works best for you
2. SET A TIME, A PLACE AND AN AGENDA
How often should you meet? Whatever your answer, Green believes, it’s important to hold the meetings regularly, and that everyone knows they need to set aside that time and date in their calendars.
An agenda is also essential to keep the meeting on track and make sure nothing is overlooked.
“The agenda, preferably circulated ahead of time, should include requests for updates from the last meeting. If there’s something that’s outstanding, or hasn’t been decided, the agenda does two things: It gives the person that was responsible for that item a chance to bring forward what they’ve found out, or if someone forgot to do something, it’s a way of reminding them in time so they are prepared for the meeting,” Green says.
Some people advocate having business meetings off the farm, or at least not in the place where the family gets together to share meals. The Greens still meet in Betty and Robert’s home on the farm, but have learned to make sure the meeting is differentiated in some way.
“When we first started having meetings, I thought it was a good idea to do it over a meal, but that didn’t work for us because it doesn’t differentiate from the family, and it’s distracting for me because I am one of the partners,” Green says. “We still meet in our home because that’s where the office is, which makes the financials and business files easily accessible.”
3. USE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE
Probably one of the biggest things farm families struggle with is separating their family and professional relationships. However, the Greens find that using a different language can help.
“We haven’t done it yet but one thing I am determined to try is using first names,” Green says. “I believe it will remind our grandson that he is a true business partner. He knows that, but I think that would send an important signal.”
4. COME PREPARED
Each person should come prepared to give an update on their particular area of responsibility, but that doesn’t mean they need to go into minute details.
“If the crop manager is talking about the crop plan, he might propose what crops to grow and where, but not to the level of what variety he is planning to grow,” Green says. “The recommendation keeps everyone informed and offers a chance for discussion, but you don’t need to get down to the weeds.”
Not only does this keep the meeting on track and avoid time-wasting, it also allows each person a chance to grow into their role and to build trust in their capabilities, Green says.
5. LET EACH EXPERT TAKE THE LEAD
Instead of having a rigid structure with a chair for the meeting, the Green family prefers a system where each person has the lead for a specific role (i.e. crop management, herd health, financial reporting) and takes a turn giving an update for their area of responsibility.
“I know what the importance of a chair is in a meeting, but I believe it can stifle the growth of leaders in the small setting that we often have on the farm,” Green says. “When you’ve got new people coming in, you want them to grow into their roles without always deferring. A big problem with farm families is that the younger generation feel they have to defer to the senior members.”
Discussing all aspects of the farm operation provides an opportunity for some cross-training and engagement in all aspects of the farm. That will be invaluable as the succession approaches.
By having each person take the floor and provide a report to the others, it gives everyone a moment of leadership, Green adds.
6. STAY ON TRACK
Stick to the agenda. It’s okay to discuss issues, ask questions, make suggestions and request more information to make sure that you understand an issue fully, but it’s not productive to start micromanaging another person’s area of expertise.
“On herd management I might say, ‘We’re going to stick with the same herd health protocol, is there anything I’m missing?’” Green says. “Then someone might bring up that they have heard of a potential problem with an area and suggest considering that. I take that recommendation, do the ground work, consult with our veterinarian and then report back.”
7. ACHIEVE CONSENSUS
Business meetings can be very structured and formal or they can be more fluid and flexible when it comes to making decisions, but for the Green family, what’s important is reaching consensus.
“Some people can get overwhelmed by meeting protocol and family meetings don’t have to be like that,” Green says. “We don’t have votes. We work on the level of consensus and we’ve found that works for us.”
8. TAKE MINUTES
Minutes record what was decided and who is going to do what and when. It holds each person accountable by reminding them what they have committed to do.
Someone will also have to take responsibility for taking minutes and making sure the agenda is circulated well in advance of the meeting. This ensures everyone comes better prepared for their own reporting segments, and that they know what other items are going to be discussed so they can think about questions they may have before the meeting.
This role can rotate among family members or it can be assigned to one person, but it’s crucial that the job get done if the meetings are to be efficient and productive.
Says Green, “Effective communication is the key to success for any business, and regular business meetings help build the foundation for it.”
– This article was originally published in the October 2022 issue of Country Guide.
