Business Bites – Leading in uncertain times

There is an old cliché that says something along the lines of those who stand for nothing, fall for everything. I think it dates back to the second World War but could be wrong on that. It seems to me that we are again in the environment of needing to be very clear as business owners and leaders what we stand for. Indeed, a few world leaders might be well advised to reflect on what they really stand for before it is too late. Populism is the antithesis of long term strategy. It will ultimately fail the test of time in my humble opinion.

Boom Times transitioning to headlines of “Doom and Disaster”

For many of our agricultural clients, we have seen boom times with good rainfall and production seasons, top decile pricing for goods produced and very low interest rates. This of course is offset by others in floods and other sectors such as tourism/hospitality clients in the depths of despair with pandemic closures and lack of people traffic. For the sake of this article, I’m referring to those who have been in good times and are now facing surging input costs, rapidly rising interest rates (albeit from a very low base), a shortfall in the availability of human resources, transitional change in management and increased biosecurity threats.

Leading Teams

Someone in every business is ultimately leading the team. Some do it autocratically, others collaboratively but the buck needs to stop somewhere. Good leaders don’t need to make a show of their leadership, they merely get on with getting the job done. In uncertainty, there is a greater need to reinforce the things that you know are right. You will never have all the information you need to make a risk free decision. You will, however, have enough information to make a right “direction of travel” decision. If it is the wrong one, make another one. Don’t let uncertainty cause you to do nothing. Doing nothing will almost certainly not be the best path to take. With this in mind, I’m attempting to walk the talk by providing my own version of what leadership needs to look like at the present time.

1. Start with strategy. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will do. The flipside of this is that it is easy to be distracted by the acute, the urgent and the squeaky wheel rather than focussing on the important, the coherence of activity with the alignment of strategy.

2. Be nimble with your tactics. It is not a deviation from strategy to be nimble with tactics. Quite the opposite in fact. The best intuitive leaders know where they are going, and can take any number of routes in the very short term to proceed towards the destination. Uncertainty creates opportunity. Nimble thinking allows the grasping of that opportunity.

3. Be inflexible with your destination. The ability to look over the horizon is key to sustained long term success. Therefore, if the destination is right, and that is the prize, you should pursue it vigorously.

4. Be patient in your explanations. It may appear obvious to you, but your success as a leader is dependant on your ability to bring the team with you. The famous saying of genius being 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration holds here. I was lucky enough to be at Joel Selwood’s 350th match celebrations on the weekend. It struck me that part of his ability to inspire is built on the bedrock of his willingness to roll up his sleeves and lead by example. The care for the people is undeniably important and part of what sets him apart from others, but the bedrock is a steely determination to do whatever it takes to pursue a common goal. I like this form of leadership and think it sustainable through all aspects of the competition cycle and by extension the production cycle.

5. Celebrate along the way. I like saying “inch by inch it is a cinch, yard by yard it’s too hard”. Anthony Stewart gave this one to me when operating as a sports psychologist with Cricket Victoria. It is so true. If you are only focussed on long term outcomes, the likelihood increases that you will drop off along the way. There needs to be mini wins along the way, milestones to pass, moments to pause and reflect, momentum to be built.

What does this mean in Agriculture

I can almost feel readers rolling their eyes and asking what does this mean for us? Usual disclaimers aside about advice needing to be tailored to each family and their own goals and risk appetites I think some things are universal. They are to set and communicate strategy within the family group. This strategy ought involve the collecting together of minds that you trust and who’s advise you will act on to help identify and manage uncertainty (risk) and pursue opportunity (blue sky) on the pathway you have set for yourself. Set up systems to mitigate key person risk, be abundant with your praise and discerning with your constructive criticism. People don’t come to work to do a bad job. Remember that and see every mistake as an opportunity to make two new plans to succeed.

Set mid-range business plans with actions attached that are consistent with and direct activity toward the achievement of that strategy. I have heard lots of people talking about input costs to the exclusion of all else, or trying to see interest rates in a vacuum holding everything else equal. Everything else is not equal, all activity needs integration and all humans need positive reinforcement from time to time. Celebrate the production success. If you consistently achieve high quality production, no matter what your enterprise, and do this with good management, then prices ultimately take care of themselves. On the flipside, if production suffers, so too does everything else, including succession as “choice” itself is compromised.

Be nimble with very short term tactics to give the best probability of success throughout the journey. Does this mean applying less Urea due to price, or does it actually mean applying same or more Urea with a view to having more production when others drop off. What is the strategy, based on what parameters. What is the forum to have this very important debate. What is your view of supply chain disruption – how long will it go for, what is your plan for next year etc.

The destination is the destination. The Big Hairy Audacious Goals need to be set. What we are talking about now is whether we need to nuance the approach on our road to that destination. Should we be spending capital on biosecurity over the next 2 years instead of or as well as upgrading equipment. What path will we take? When will we review? Who do we need to communicate with (stakeholders)?

Finally, let’s be grateful for all that we have, for those who have sacrificed along the way to make this possible and embrace some of the hardship that makes success all the more satisfying. Nothing worth doing has ever been easy. If it was, everyone would do it. Rumours of demise are usually grossly overstated. Can I leave you with the Joe Frazier adage – “If you cheat in the dark of the morning, you’ll be found out later under the bright lights” – This just means do the work, pursue the goal, celebrate it, don’t get satisfied, set a new goal and go again. Tick, tick, tick, time is moving on. Let’s get to it.

Kind regards

Clinton