Reading Time: 3 minutes Sure, a positive workplace culture can make your farm a more enjoyable place to work, and who doesn’t want a few more smiles in their day? But will a better workplace culture really improve your bottom line? According to a growing body of psychological research, the answer is a clear “yes.” The new science says […] Read more
Summer Series: Creating a positive culture
[Make it Count] Will creating a better workplace culture really improve your bottom line enough to justify all the buzz it’s getting?
Summer Series: Develop leaders, not labourers
[Leadership] Allowing people to safely struggle is good. Let them know you are there for support, but they’re expected to figure it out and get it done
Reading Time: 3 minutes A leadership expert offers his advice to help answer the question “What’s at risk if I don’t help others on my farm develop their leadership skills?” – April Stewart, CG Associate Editor Part of having an executive mindset on the farm is developing others. Developing others might seem like a basic function of management, which it […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Making up your mind in 2022
It’s what people who aren’t business leaders rarely understand. Leadership means knowing how to make big decisions when you don’t have full information, like this year
Reading Time: 2 minutes I have been asking myself this question all spring. I’m sure you have been too. Five years from now, when we look back at 2022, who are we going to say made the best decisions? Who pulled the right levers? What choices turned out to be the right decisions? Which turned out to be not […] Read more
Are you a good boss?
Take our quiz to find out. The payoffs can be much bigger than you ever thought
Reading Time: 6 minutes You have a good rapport with your team. They mostly return season after season, and you have even started hosting an annual luncheon to reward them for their hard work. Even so, the farm doesn’t exactly do an employee satisfaction survey to tell you what your team members and employees really think of your leadership […] Read more
Three Lean books to read in 2021
Guide Books Review: How about a holistic approach to management?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Lean in Agriculture: Create More Value with Less Work on the Farm By Vibeke Fladkjaer Nielsen and Susanne Pejstrup The Lean Dairy Farm: Eliminate Waste, Save Time, Cut Costs By Jana Hocken with Mat Hocken The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency, and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work By Ben Hartman […] Read more
Outward-looking business
AME Management: It takes discipline, but an outward focus pays off in more business
Reading Time: 4 minutes Have you ever been disappointed that people who work for you don’t take initiative to do what you want done? You don’t feel comfortable getting away for a week because things won’t get done the way they are supposed to? You and the generation ahead of or behind you have ongoing tension that stands in […] Read more
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 […] Read more
Leadership on the go
What does it take for farmers like Saskatchewan’s Bernie McClean to make themselves into better business leaders?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Growing as a leader takes stretch goals, and it takes finding out about your weaknesses and strengths. It might also take consciously building a network of smart, capable people, and finding mentors and role models to look up to. Plus it takes learning how to really listen, and how to be really heard. And none […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A better way to start the day
Reading Time: 2 minutes Of all the bright and memorable things you’ll find in our March 27, 2018 issue, the one I keep coming back to is the advice from Harvard prof Linda Hill in Maggie Van Camp’s, “Are you a good boss?” Her advice is simple. Let me lift it straight from the story: “She (Hill) suggests starting […] Read more
Alberta names new deputy ag minister
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta’s deputy provincial environment minister, a civil engineer and 28-year veteran of the Canadian Forces, has been named the province’s new top agriculture bureaucrat. Premier Rachel Notley on Tuesday put through an order in council appointing Andre Corbould as Alberta’s deputy minister of agriculture and forestry effective Wednesday, replacing Beverly Yee. Corbould, the province’s deputy […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
