Reading Time: 3 minutes Why should we care about the culture of our business? Culture captures the essence of what makes a business tick, yet it is poorly understood. Culture has reached cliché status as a management concept, and that’s regrettable because understanding what culture really is, its connection to leadership, how it is created and how it has […] Read more
Farm CEO: Culture matters
Are you paying attention to the culture of your farm or farm business?
Become a farm CEO: Why make the shift?
Executive-level behaviour is good for both the farm and farmer
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s time that farmers develop beyond being the world-class farm managers they are today. That’s the vibe I’m getting from clients, program participants and industry professionals. The conversation around what abilities Canadian farmers need to develop, and how they should acquire them, is already underway. If a farmer is successfully operating his or her business, […] Read more
Metamorphosis
Empower the people around you to be transformational leaders
Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve all seen a fuzzy caterpillar make its way across our path. Inching across the pavement makes it vulnerable to the traffic and the weather, but it must get to a cocooning spot. It seems so small and sluggish but it has something more inside it. It will become that something more. It will morph […] Read more
Trailblazing
Women farmers reveal how they have succeeded in agriculture, and how other women can too (Part 1)
Reading Time: 4 minutes Country Guide asked for more on how we define a culture that is inclusive, equal and conducive for a successful female heir or independent business person from within a family unit. In this first part of a three-part series, I went across Canada and asked trailblazers — highly successful women in farming, agriculture and agri-business […] Read more
Leading in the community
An inside look at how the community wins — and how their farms and farming in general win too — when farmers go to town as community leaders
Reading Time: 9 minutes When Max Kaiser decided to try for municipal council four years ago, he harkened back to a famous and fairly recent moment in farming history. As he’s a crop and chicken farmer (in the Town of Greater Napanee near Kingston, Ont.), it was fitting — but also a great strategy. When election time rolled around, […] Read more
Leader development versus the quick fix
Management without leadership is like tightening a nut with no wrench on the bolt head
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every once in awhile I have a casual conversation that goes like this: “Leadership is nice (guess what comes next), but I have real problems right now, and I have to do something; I don’t have time for leader development, I’m busy.” In my view, we are all busy, but this sentiment is the verbal […] Read more
Leader effectiveness meets the leader
Good leadership points you in the direction of building a successful business
Reading Time: 3 minutes I want to share what I’m noticing in small business these days in terms of leadership, and what I say to those who ask about leader effectiveness. First, I also want to say that I do not share client stories even with the names redacted. Agriculture is just too small, and my work with leaders […] Read more
Time to Talk: Creating opportunity
Yes, you can talk your farm to a better bottom line
Reading Time: 4 minutes Since farming is all about productivity, most farmers would rather “do” than talk. The old cliché that time is money is never more true than when seed needs to get into the ground or livestock needs to get to market. And yet, some of the most successful farm businesses in the country are those that […] Read more
Six traits of highly effective leadership
If we want to generate a higher return on investment (ROI) on our leadership, describing how leadership can be developed and characterizing why leadership is effective are all well and good, but what do highly effective leaders do? How do they behave? What fundamental abilities do they possess that enable them to achieve the kind[...]
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Leader effectiveness deconstructed
Leadership matters most in tough times ... Will we have what it takes when we need it most?
Reading Time: 3 minutes In my last article I explored the important components of leader development that can improve leader effectiveness. Some who read that article might have thought, “I’m already a good leader.” Or, “I don’t have many employees — it’s mostly family, so leadership doesn’t really apply.” Wrong. Studies have consistently found that leaders who think they[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
