I was going to write about something else this week but changed my mind tonight when something happened at the gym.
I’ve started going to the gym now I am living a somewhat more ‘metro’ lifestyle.
My aim is to be as fit as I was when I was jackerooing near Blackall almost 10 years ago.
The last few reps were hard tonight, and as others finished they came over to me and started being my support team to get me through to the end.
It worked. I finished the workout and it felt good, and I pushed myself harder than I would have if I was doing it on my own, without the pit crew.
Why do businesses who get succession planning right always have a stronger business than those who don’t?
Why do high performing individuals keep improving and helping others?
Why do successful sporting teams and people keep improving and winning?
They all have good teams behind, around or beside them – generally all three.
Whether it’s family, team mates, advisors, clients, education institutions, friends, community. It will be a whole range of people.
I hope that many of you reading this can all relate to a time when you’ve had a cracking team near you and supporting you to achieve something you didn’t think you’d be able to, or to stretch yourself that extra mile, or simply to try something new like a new bloodline, marketing strategy or fencing plan.
If you haven’t you need to find some good people to get around you.
Most people understand this concept, but how often do we actually live it in our businesses and industries? Be honest.
There is so much rubbish going on all the time between all levels of stakeholders in the industry, if the energy and resources that went into supporting the rubbish were allocated to something worthwhile and devoted to the advancement of agriculture in Australia, imagine what we could achieve.
I was on a teleconference the other day and was literally seeing silos built up on the call.
I believe most people are good and they have good intentions, however we need to be aware of what we are not aware of and continually take holistic stock of a situation – get a view of the whole picture.
A drone view if you like, remove yourself from it for a moment and see where it fits in a broader scheme.
A rising tide lifts all ships.
There are many great opportunities and exciting times ahead for our industry, as my fellow columnists also write about, lets position ourselves to do absolutely maximise this and capitalise on it.
As someone who I greatly respect has said, ‘it needs to start from the soil up for sustainable change to happen’.
Get your team, be proactive, talk about things and make a plan to shoot through the silos and listen through the noise.
- Dan Korff is a director of Future Farmers’ Network.