37 minute read
Special Report
Special Report Managing expectations
Leadership in the farming sector Leadership
Morrison says solutions have to be found.
“We need to address these problems, not kick the can down the road because they are not going away.”
He says leaders are forceful when lobbying the government.
“There is a difference from drawing a sword and a public letting of blood.
“We are working responsibly yet forcefully. Respect and understanding from both sides is very important with these debates.”
Morrison says the HWEN model has successfully united 11 primary sector groups and could be used for other issues such as nutrients and freshwater.
MUSTERING THE MOB: Industry observers say the farming sector has good leaders, but su ers from a lack of ‘space to deal with complex challenges and challenging conversations’.
Neal Wallace NEWS
Leadership
THE effectiveness of rural leadership has faced intense scrutiny in recent years as sector chiefs tread a fi ne line between activism and blunting the sharpest edges of government policy.
Leaders say they have tried to work constructively with a government that has a Parliamentary majority, but it has been challenging – and in the past two weeks the gloves have come off.
There has been a noticeable increase in defi ance in the pointed language used by farming leaders, angry at the government’s response to their He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) proposal.
Industry observers have told Farmers Weekly that the sector is well served by its rural leaders. It is the environment in which they operate that is the issue.
Those leaders who have taken a co-operative stance with the government have sometimes done so at the expense of their relationship with members and levy-payers who feel primary sector leaders have been too placating.
This has led to rise of splinter groups such as Groundswell, which attracts a large following of rural people prepared to take their anger and frustration onto the streets.
Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard says leaders have been dealing with a government that appears to be trying to catch up with a legislative programme that was stymied in its fi rst Parliamentary term by its coalition partner NZ First.
“It sucks up time and is incredibly frustrating trying to get changes at the same time as farmers are wanting to take pitchforks into the street,” he says.
The government’s response to HWEN shows they are not being listened to, he says.
“The fact they came back with a document that says one in fi ve sheep and beef farming families will be required to move off their land, that they are effectively happy with that, is just crazy.”
Hoggard says HWEN leaders are now shifting the message, telling New Zealanders that the government is content to see 20% of sheep and beef farmers leave their land.
Two years ago, Hoggard says, interaction with the government was more diplomatic as rural leaders contributed to solutions and also had the ear of coalition partners, but that has now changed and the government does what it wants.
The toll on farming leaders was illustrated earlier this year when three of the federation’s sevenmember board retired citing the workload of dealing with government policy.
They said they were buckling under the rushed and poorly timed process of implementing complex and far-reaching legislation such as that affecting freshwater.
Now the government has set aside just six weeks leading up to Christmas for consultation on its response to HWEN.
Beef +Lamb NZ chair Andrew Morrison says leadership is about empowering or enabling the performance of those you work with or represent.
While accepting some people will be angry with outcomes,
Andrew Hoggard Federated Farmers
“I think this is a real maturity for the agriculture sector as it does not pit sector against sector.
“It was highlighted when DairyNZ chairman Jim van der Poel said the government’s response to HWEN will not work because it does not meet the needs of sheep and beef farmers.”
Hamish Gow, the Sir Graeme Harrison Professorial Chair in Global Value Chains and Trade at Lincoln University, says the HWEN debate does not refl ect a lack of leadership, but an adversarial decision-making process.
“There is not a lack of leadership, we have good leaders. What we don’t have is a space to deal with complex challenges and challenging conversations.”
He is advocating a system used in the United States and Europe where facilitators bring together society, agriculture, industry and the government along with relevant knowledge and research to freely discuss and debate issues and potential solutions.
The system has “someone in the middle who translates in an unbiased way and facilitates frank and open discussion”.
Such a conversation is missing in the government’s decision to be the fi rst in the world to tax methane emissions, making NZ a fi rst mover when, he says, a safer option would be being a fast follower.
“We are dealing with the economic wealth of NZ. We need to sit down, take a breath and ask what is our strategy ... The cost of getting it wrong is so high that this is where we need a facilitator asking what is the economic cost to society if we get it wrong or the cost if we are a fast mover and what is the difference?
“Those are the conversations we are not having.”
Looking for one voice amid all the yelling
Neal Wallace PEOPLE
Beef + Lamb NZ
ANDREW Morrison knows he is not participating in a popularity contest.
As chair of Beef + Lamb NZ, Morrison realises that not all farmers agree with the body’s decisions, but he says these challenges will not go away and must be addressed.
That is the challenge of leading through change.
Accepting the sector is facing challenging times, Morrison says finding consensus is difficult given farmers are, by nature, individualistic and generally unreceptive to being told what to do.
A question recently posed to Morrison by a farmer resonates: “Does NZ have trouble with leadership or followship?”
“Leadership at its very essence is not about the individual, but all about the team,” he says.
In the lead-up to the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) debate, Morrison says the partnership engaged with 3000 farmers, which he considers an achievement.
Decisions not only have to reflect farmer feedback but also the best information available, including information and knowledge that is not always widely known.
This is especially true with the current debate on reducing agriculture greenhouse gases.
“Consumers we meet in market, people who have been in market and market research, gives us a broad picture of the challenges we face or will face,” he says.
That feedback reveals consumers are increasingly concerned about the impact of food production on climate change.
“The reality is that more than 90% of our primary sector production is exported and we have to listen to what the concerns are of our customers.”
Information gathering also includes input from climate scientists such as Miles Allen at Oxford University, David Frame from Victoria University, the Climate Change Commission and the Parliamentary Commission for the Environment.
They regularly meet and discuss climate change issues with farmer bodies from other countries.
“We want the right metrics globally for ruminant methane,” Morrison says.
Perception is also relevant and Morrison says business leaders have told him that agriculture should be paying for its emissions, as business does, over and above fuel and coal usage.
Having a government with a Parliamentary majority changes the dynamics and the way groups interact with politicians.
“The Labour Government were given a mandate by New Zealanders through a democratic process,” Morrison says.
Knowing the challenge this posed, farming groups spoke to two former prime ministers about how to be effective with their lobbying.
Morrison said one told them the sector was “terrible at getting themselves aligned”, and historically officials “could drive a bus through anything they presented”.
Another said the sector was “very good at yelling at each other”.
The solution was to create HWEN, a collective of 11 sector groups to provide a united solution to agricultural greenhouse gases.
Part of its strength is that it is one voice speaking across the spectrum of the primary sector.
“The size of the organisation is not the point, it is a shared approach to the challenges we all face.”
While this united body has fronted the climate change issue, Morrison says it could be a vehicle for other issues as well, such as ongoing nutrient and water quality legislation.
He has faced criticism over issues he has fronted, and says he can handle this when it is about the topic.
As soon as that criticism turns personal, he knows the critic has lost the argument.
Morrison says reaching decisions is not easy but he is relaxed when they are collectively supported by the sector and backed by science.
“If we believe we have issues that need to be addressed, if a decision is supported collectively and backed by science, then I can sleep at night.”
CROSSFIRE: Andrew Morrison says one former prime minister told him the sector was terrible at getting themselves aligned, and historically officials could drive a bus through anything they presented. Another said the sector was very good at yelling at each other.
Andrew Morrison Beef + Lamb NZ
CONCERNS: BLNZ chair Andrew Morrison says that with more than 90% of New Zealand’s primary sector production being exported, ‘we have to listen to what the concerns are of our customers’.
“At Ravensdown, we are committed to leading the ever-evolving challenge of enhancing land growth potential, as well as leading and exceeding the sustainability and emissions obligations of New Zealand’s primary production sector.” Garry Diack, Chief Executive Officer
FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – October 31, 2022 Special Report
More heat than light on complex issues
UPSTATE UPSET: Professor Hamish Gow had fi rst-hand experience of consensus building on seemingly intractable issues when he was part of a process involving dairy farms and New York City’s water supply. Neal Wallace POLITICS
Policy and regulation
NEW ZEALAND does not have a leadership crisis, but a policy making system that prevents constructive decision making on complex issues, says a leading academic.
Hamish Gow, the Sir Graeme Harrison Professorial Chair in Global Value Chains and Trade at Lincoln University, says given that adversarial system, the agricultural sector is being well served by its leaders.
He believes a new process is needed to address complex and far-reaching challenges such as climate change.
“What NZ is missing is an unbiased forum that can bring everybody together,” he says.
Such systems exist in the United States, through the Land-Grant University, and in the Netherlands with the Wageningen University.
Their role is to bring society, agriculture, specialists, industry and government together with the relevant knowledge and research and facilitate the free discussion of issues and potential solutions.
“It puts someone in the middle who translates in an unbiased way and facilitates frank and open discussion,” Gow says.
This system also ensures discussion centres on impartial facts so that agreement attracts greater buy-in from the various parties.
Currently, science is often delivered within its silo of expertise, but Gow says it needs an entity to provide details on its application and economic context.
That facilitator role was fulfi lled up to the 1980s by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, but was left vacant when that structure was dismantled.
Given the economic importance of NZ’s primary sector, Gow says an unbiased decision-making process for complex issues is important but requires intellectual and cultural horsepower.
The current consultation process allows a rehash of opinions that have already been considered.
“It’s all based on someone testing the tide of opinion. We don’t go and get evidence to do modelling and undertake intellectual debate.”
Gow experienced this facilitating process when working at Cornell University in the 1990s on an accord for the drinking water catchment for New York City.
It involved the Cornell Cooperative Extension department working with dairy farmers in the catchment to change their systems to mitigate the risk of water contamination.
“There was plenty of confl ict but we brought everyone together, worked out a process and rolled it out to every farm. It was all done through a facilitated process.”
Gow can see a facilitator’s role for NZ’s two land-based universities, Lincoln and Massey, and has next year invited the presidents and deans of selected Land-Grant Universities in the US to visit and discuss the merits of the process.
A University of Otago leadership expert says leadership struggles to retain unity when trying to address multiple issues, as the primary sector is trying to do at present.
Dr Lynnaire Sheridan, a senior lecturer in management, says ideally leaders identify and focus on one goal and encourage their followers to focus on that issue – “it’s that ability to make a decision about what to tackle fi rst, regardless of what the consequences are and explain that to their followers”.
Change is always frightening and Sheridan says leadership in a crisis creates order rather than control.
If there is a leadership vacuum, Sheridan says, followers can fi nd another leader and cause to rally behind.
Fractured membership risks creating the public perception that the sector does not care about the issues – and that is the time leaders need to promote what is positive about the sector.
Hamish Gow Lincoln University
Silver Fern Farms builds leadership at board level
Richard Rennie NEWS
Governance
AGOVERNANCE course run by Silver Fern Farms, Farmlands and LIC is helping develop the skills and talent demanded by modern co-operative agribusiness boards.
Silver Fern Farms (SFF) chair Rob Hewett said the To the Core governance development programme came from a conversation between himself and former chair Robbie Burnside about the need to develop a better talent pipeline for emerging director talent at the company.
“We kicked it off six years ago, ran solo for a while and then realised there were other coops having very similar issues. Farmlands came on board, and more recently LIC.”
Hewett says SFF is also taking a holistic view of leadership development, recognising the skills learnt through any course can also be applied within the communities the company is active in, down to the level of volunteer sports club and charities.
The To the Core programme gives interested and aspiring director talent an introduction to the demands of director leadership.
“We make it clear if you want to go on there are lots of other opportunities we can help you with, but if you do not then fi ne, the skills learnt will help beyond Silver Fern, in the communities as well.”
For those keen to progress, the process has an advanced stage, familiarising individuals with a higher level of the business’s operations.
The fi nal “leg of the stool” is the extended development group, identifying the cream of the crop who are fully committed to directorship roles and leadership.
Candidates are encouraged to fi nd a mentor who fi ts with their personality. Hewett says a key trait he looks for is a candidate’s level of curiosity about the world, New Zealand’s place in it, and the company’s role in the bigger picture.
He says he is noticing that, of those candidates advancing, there are a number of farmers who exhibit a high level of corporate experience having come back to farming from fi nance and business backgrounds, often overseas.
“That is not to exclude anyone who may have been on the farm their entire time. The reality is, however, that these are big complex operations. People with corporate experience do tend to put their hands up.”
He hastens to add that simply following the governance programme is no guarantee of a board placement.
“Shareholders vote these candidates in. The fact the board thinks they are good does not guarantee a place on it.”
The existing SFF co-operative board includes three members who have come through to the extended development group stage.
Hewett says while there are no guarantees of placement, the courses ensure a level of depth, and provides a bench of potential candidates.
“You have got to have options there.”
Compared to even a decade ago, the demands on director leaders are intense.
Directors’ legally enforceable fi duciary responsibilities have grown in the wake of events like Pike River, while digitisation and the internet mean the speed of business is simply faster.
Despite there being fewer larger farms, the calibre and interest from farmer shareholders wanting to develop their skills beyond the farmgate remains strong.
“We are still getting talent that includes corporate farmers putting their hands up with a generally well-rounded skill set,” Hewett says.
LEADING: Silver Fern Farms chair Rob Hewett says the skills picked up in the company’s To the Core programme can also help build better community groups and clubs.
Neal Wallace POLITICS
Leadership
THE perception that rural leaders were capitulating to politicians prompted two southern farmers to act.
They were increasingly hearing from farmers that their producer bodies were not representative of their views. Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie felt they needed to give them that missing voice.
Groundswell was formed to try to breach that perceived gap between grassroots farmers and sector leaders – but also with the goal of having the sector speak with one voice in confronting issues such as climate change.
“We were formed to give farmers a voice and would have happily got in behind Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ), Dairy NZ and Federated Farmers to provide some unity prior to negotiating with the government,” says co-founder McKenzie.
“But once we got in the room with them, they weren’t interested in that. They were only interested in what the board or they themselves thought farmers needed.”
That included pushing their preferred version of He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) despite, McKenzie says, substantial resistance from their levy-paying members.
“Farmers are feeling disconnected,” says McKenzie, a West Otago farmer.
Fellow founder Paterson says in regard to climate change and water quality, farmers feel politicians and sector leaders are not recognising that they are among the most carbon-efficient food producers in the world.
“Blanket planting of trees or kicking sheep and beef farmers off the land will not solve anything,” the Waikaka farmer says.
McKenzie agrees.
“Farmers need to know somebody has their back, which is why people have hooked in behind Groundswell.
“We are standing up for them and defending what they are doing, which is something they haven’t heard before.”
They are not against change, they say – farmers constantly adapt and change, but those historic improvements have been ignored.
Paterson says they oppose regulations that lack common sense and logic. He cites new rules for managing freshwater, intensive winter grazing and significant natural areas.
McKenzie says ideally he would like leaders to listen more to farmers and to be united in opposition to legislation that is obviously unworkable.
He says HWEN is an example of something that began with the right intentions, but to achieve consensus the various parties had to concede ground and the result is unpalatable.
Farmers have never been more frustrated and he despairs of the impact on younger generations entering the industry.
“We are really concerned about what we hear from young guys who are asking ‘Why would we do it?’ ”
They reject the notion that dealing with a government that has a Parliamentary majority changes the relationship between politicians and representative bodies.
Paterson says that makes it even more important for leaders to advocate more strongly on producers’ behalf, to be united and speak and act with a single voice and to listen to their grassroots members.
That is especially important given that the government doesn’t appear to take notice of the submissions from farmers, they say.
Groundswell has used social media to spread its message and to organise members.
Paterson says monitoring in the past month of social media engagement reveals that BLNZ had 12,300 engagements, Federated Farmers 14,300, DairyNZ 27,300 and Groundswell 473,800.
Paterson says some think farmers should not protest, but the fact they are prepared to take to the streets reflects farmers’ frustration.
“We don’t want to be too scared to put our hand up,” he says.
Farmers need to know somebody has their back.
Bryce McKenzie Groundswell ONE VOICE: Laurie Paterson, left, and Bryce McKenzie say they started Groundswell in the hope of giving New Zealand farmers a united voice before negotiating with the government.
To be carbon neutral, we need to be positive
Taking action now means taking control of our own future
The world’s population will reach over 10 billion people by 2050. The scientific and political consensus is that we must contain global warming to 1.5° C. Food producers are faced with the challenge to feed a larger population while reducing carbon emissions. However, there are also opportunities. Find out about the challenges and opportunities for New Zealand’s agribusinesses at rabobank.co.nz
FOOT IN THE DOOR: Catchment groups can play a key role in re-connecting farming leaders and the government with grassroots farmers, whose voices have been lost in the debate over lowering farm emissions, Bay of Plenty farmer Rick Burke says.
Catchment groups the key to grassroots connections
Gerald Piddock PEOPLE
Communication
THE government and primary sector leaders need to re-establish their connections with grassroots farmers, says a leading Bay of Plenty farmer.
If they do not, they risk more groups like Groundswell emerging and fi lling that leadership vacuum, Rick Burke says.
The best way to re-connect with grassroots farmers is to empower and better utilise farmer catchment groups.
These groups are the ideal vehicle for getting key government people and policy makers out onto farms to better understand the issues farmers face, he said.
“I think this is where you can overcome a lot of the issues around not connecting properly with grassroots farmers or industry.”
These groups operate in the middle connecting both grassroots farmers as well as industry and the government.
If set up right, catchment groups operate like discussion groups where farmers can better engage. It can take years for a farmer to have the confi dence to try something, but if their neighbour is doing it as part of a catchment group initiative, it gives them an avenue to become involved.
“It’s that close to you that you can’t avoid it,” Burke says.
“If the government puts the resources and the funding in behind those groups, the leaders are sitting within those groups to connect with the government – and I think that’s a massive opportunity.”
It is a powerful concept that the government is not properly utilising. It has the potential to expose policy makers to ideas they may not have considered.
It would also be the ideal vehicle to empower the next generation of farmers, he says.
Burke has been heavily involved in farm advocacy over the years, including rallying against the Waikato Regional Council’s Plan Change One (PC1) and, more recently, being a signatory in the “Waka adrift” open letter addressed to farmers and published in Farmers Weekly.
He predicts a blow-up if predictions prove correct of 20% of sheep and beef farmers exiting the industry if the government’s farm emissions reduction policy is passed.
“There’s no certainty for farmers out there at the moment. That’s why I believe the solution is to create a vehicle to get farmers to connect with farmers who can drive things through the middle. We have lost that connection with grassroots farmers.”
Groups such as Groundswell have fi lled the resulting vacuum and Burke questions whether farmers who advocate for Groundswell know what it wants.
“They just turn up because they’re pissed off. If we had that connection, then they would understand what we had to do and they would know what success would look like, but they have no idea because we are not connecting with them.
“What we are ending up with is that we’re forgetting about the people. As Māori say, ‘He tāngata, he tāngata’, and I think we’ve moved away from that and it becomes more about economics and big business looking after themselves and we forget about the people.”
The farming industry has tried to do something in a collaborative way through He Waka Eke Noa but is failing because it is trying to please everyone.
Trying to meld outcomes for both sheep and beef and dairy farm systems is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, he says.
Consultation becomes prescriptive because of tight deadlines around submissions and the end result is farmers at the bottom having little input and it becomes very “top down” in approach.
“Then you get the uprising, with us and particularly with Groundswell. They recognised it a long time ago that grassroots farmers weren’t being engaged with and you end up with this polarisation of farmers and it gets really messy.”
Intensifying the issue is the sheer volume of legislative change that has been thrown at farmers over a short period of time, along with the disruption caused by covid, which prevented people from gathering to thrash out the issues.
This all exacerbated the problem, Burke says.
“It’s been compounded by the fact that we have had so much loaded onto industry and it’s just been too much for farmers. Beef + Lamb NZ, Federated Farmers and DairyNZ, they have had to take a lot of it on board themselves and have had to drive it fast, and it’s ended up being very top-down.
“Advocacy is not working all that well. The collaboration principles need to be looked at and managed a lot better in terms of managing confl icts of interest, and hidden agendas.”
Burke believes in splitting advocacy between the different sectors to ensure policy outcomes suit their farm types, whether they be vegetable growers or dairy or sheep and beef farmers.
Tailoring emissions policy frameworks for those different sectors will also prevent infi ghting between the sectors because they have different emission profi les and challenges around freshwater.
Once those frameworks are settled, those policies can then be dovetailed rather than building frameworks across the whole industry, he says.
“Our drivers and principles are totally different and we’re trying to do something across the board. If we can work together on different waka but collaborate across the different waka to land on something that’s enduring for both sectors, I think we would have a far better outcome.”
Rick Burke Bay of Plenty
TAKING RURAL NEW ZEALAND FORWARD
Backing Primary Producers
The National Party stands alongside you - the farmers, businesses, families, and workers who are the lifeblood of the primary sector and the backbone of New Zealand’s economy. In visits to farms, stockyards, and packhouses, National MPs and I have been listening. We know that being in business is much harder under Labour. National takes its environmental commitments seriously. We are committed to achieving net zero by 2050 in a way that does not cripple the economy or our rural communities. As proud champions of New Zealand’s primary sector, a National Government will make it easier for you to get on and do what you do better than so many of your global competitors.
NATIONAL’S COMMITMENTS TO YOU
Enable water storage to improve climate resilience and raise the productivity of farms and orchards. Cut red tape. Stop loading unnecessary new rules onto you.
Embrace science and technology to ensure New Zealand continues to be a world leader in food production. Resolve staff shortages. Free up immigration rules and invest in education to expand the skilled workforce. Back farmers to reduce emissions sensibly, without destroying rural communities.
Ask Jessie Chan what makes a good leader
Annette Scott PEOPLE
Leadership
JESSIE Chan is standing down as chair of the Ruralco rural supply chain next month, acknowledging it is time for fresh blood to take on the role as she looks forward to new governance challenges.
She says it is important for leaders to recognise when the time is right to step aside.
The fi rst female to head a major New Zealand agribusiness cooperative, Chan, at 54 years of age, boasts an impressive governance career spanning almost 20 years. It includes leadership and director roles with Alpine Energy, Ngāi Tahu Farming, DairyNZ, Fonterra Shareholders’ Council, Federated Farmers, Business Mid Canterbury, and nine years with Ashburton Trading Society (ATS) Ruralco.
She was the 2017 Dairy Woman of the Year, the Canterbury Institute of Directors aspiring director 2014, and in 2022 was bestowed the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to dairy and agriculture.
Chan is currently a director of Bio Protection Aotearoa and NZ Pork.
She is quite deliberate in what she takes on and is always looking to ensure her governance roles inter-connect in a way that serves the community and wider industry.
“It is also important to know when your job is done and the time is right to step aside and make way for fresh blood,” Chan says.
This, she says, is key to effective leadership.
In her leadership style Chan strives to inspire people to take up leadership roles and to help others to achieve their goals.
She says skills are important, but ultimately it is attitude that determines the effectiveness of those skills to lead with integrity, consistency and fl exibility.
“There is a fi ne line between humility and leadership around making bold decisions and taking a lead while also bringing people with you.
“It is important to know why we do what we do and what is the end goal.”
In co-operative governance the shareholders must not be overlooked.
“Farmers have skin in the game so governance and leadership often rely on shareholders to make changes on farm for strategy to go forward.
“You are not there to represent farmers; you are there to take a lead and grow shareholder wealth.
“It’s important to understand and listen, as if you don’t take the shareholders on the journey, you come unstuck.”
Being clear about core purpose and being purpose-driven is key.
“The best form of communication is what you do and how you do it.
“How you connect with shareholders and stakeholders will make or break a successful outcome,” Chan says.
“Farmers are actually quite sick of the spin; they want tangible difference – difference in terms of everyday life as farmers.
“Get some runs on the board, do what you say you are going to do and do it really well, again be clear about purpose and take the shareholders on the journey with you.”
Being positive, realistic, brave and open-minded is especially important.
And there is another fi ne line: “You want to be brave, but not brave and arrogant.”
There are a lot of pathways to leadership, with governance programmes across the sectors and opportunities for people to put their name forward.
“I don’t think that is a problem, but we need to work on the producer mindset.
“Industry bodies and cooperatives sometimes suffer from more of the same [people in leadership roles] because we elect people the same as us.
“It’s not always about the structure of the leadership but more so the mindset of leadership and sometimes producer apathy. Hopefully that will change with the next generation of our shareholders and industry bodies.”
Effective leaders must have humility and truly listen and they need to have the ability to take constructive feedback without getting defensive.
“Being arrogant is not effective or attractive. Often the loud ones get the limelight but that doesn’t always attract the right people.
“With humility you can still be strong in what you do but still take the people with you.”
Any leadership group needs open-minded people with a range of thinking.
“We need independent thinkers. Regurgitating what others say is not leadership, that’s the ability to listen and repeat.
“Independent thinking and diversity in thought is really important.”
If repeatedly asking the same questions is not getting answers, clearly it relays to doing something different.
“There are industry bodies out there struggling with this mentality in leadership.
“Good leaders look at a range of different angles to get a good outcome.”
There will always be risks but it is how risk is managed that counts.
“Smart leaders adapt and adjust as need may dictate, for example the covid pandemic, but keep core purpose the same as they amend and tweak to meet the challenges.
“Those who knee-jerk everywhere lose sight of the core purpose and that’s another trap leaders can fall into.
“Changing the core purpose will not solve tactical problems.”
Chan said good leaders have open minds and are also often involved in other industries and entities, and that combined knowledge can be good in any governance role.
But yet again, there is a fi ne line.
“If you do too much and spread yourself too widely you risk over-committing, and to be an effective leader you must be fully committed to the task at hand.”
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING: Industry director Jessie Chan says it not always the structure of the leadership but more the mindset that matters. Photo: Annette Scott
Jessie Chan Director
Backing rural businesses
In 1963 Ruralco was created by farmers for farmers. Today, nothing has changed. Ruralco continue to meet the needs of farmers, contractors, and support businesses in our communities with products, services, advice and know how. Simply put, Farmers. We’ve got your back.
FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – October 31, 2022 Special Report
‘Next stage of growth’ for iwi agri leaders
Richard Rennie PEOPLE
Leadership
IWI farming interests are asserting themselves as shareholders in processor coops and as entities in their own right, opening up leadership options for the next generation.
Nukuhia Hadfi eld, drystock farmer and chair of the Ahuwhenua Trophy award committee, says Onuku Māori Lands Trust, one of the fi nalists in this year’s trophy awards, highlights the efforts made to engage a younger generation in leadership roles.
“They are talking about not only mentoring the younger generation, but also getting them engaged a bit earlier than usual. And it is also about not forgetting about that middle generation.
“It is not something that is just handed to them, but something they are proactively doing to ensure success becomes ongoing,” Hadfi eld says.
Just as any business faces the challenge of replacing an aging generation of leaders with younger faces, iwi trusts and corporations are also having to deal with the issue.
“We used to be at a stage earlier on when you had to keep those old heads there, as iwi enterprises started up. But we are now at a stage where governance and foundations have been reasonably sorted.
“Our Māori businesses are going in leaps and bounds, and you can afford to bring on younger ones with less experience. The foundations have been set through trial and error, and we are moving to the next stage of growth and the new ideas the next generation
TIMELY: Nukuhia Had eld says as Māori farming interests come of age the opportunities for young iwi to lead a new generation of farmers are more exciting and greater than ever. Photo: Alphapix
brings.”
She says some organisations are handling succession well, others not so much.
“Of course, it is always easier to get people to come on board when something is going forward, than when something may be struggling.”
She believes younger Māori are realising the opportunities that lie in moving through iwi land-based businesses.
“In the past it was perhaps looked down on somewhat, but not so much now. There are so many opportunities to bring up a family and be part of an industry where covid showed you are actually contributing to the country. There is a lot of pride in that.”
She says the Ahuwhenua Trophy has played a big part in helping iwi shout their successes louder than they may normally do – as well as helping to identify emerging leadership and talent within the sector.
The structure of the trophy’s judging process aims to encourage early achievers in a way that does not bring any fear of failure if it is their fi rst time. Judging is initially done anonymously, with the top talent selected for further judging.
“It is below the radar and the entrants get feedback to take back to their trust and board members and hapū. It is black and white evidence that they can use to improve their businesses, even if they don’t go further.”
Hadfi eld says the awards are encouraging for iwi farming entities and young Māori farmers because the win is not necessarily just in getting the trophy.
“All the fi nalists come away with different wins for themselves. This is an opportunity to celebrate what is great about Māori agriculture.”
BLUNT: Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says he has learnt in discussions that are ‘blunt and harsh at times’ that ‘some industry leaders agree with our decisions and some don’t’.
Neal Wallace POLITICS
Leadership
LEADERS have a responsibility to use their position to create a better future, not just a better present, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.
“We need leaders who lead for the people who come after us.”
O’Connor says leaders are not a guarantee of leadership, but the type of leadership is infl uenced by the objectives of those in that role.
It has been claimed that the government is not listening to rural leaders, but O’Connor says that is not the case.
Agriculture sector leaders have made contributions on issues such as Mycoplasma bovis, the covid pandemic and the climate change debate.
Similarly, he says, sector leaders have pushed their case to the government, describing discussions as “blunt and harsh at times”, which was what he expected.
That does not mean the government blindly follows their every wish.
“Ultimately the government has to arrive at what they think is the best long-term outcome. Some industry leaders agree with our decisions and some don’t.”
Leadership also means encouraging discussion and debate on issues such as climate change, which O’Connor says is a topic that has “for 25 years been kicked around”.
The growth of social media has altered the debate and the shape of lobbying, providing a vehicle for what he calls “uninformed and irresponsible comments”, which can undermine the efforts of sector leaders.
Agriculture has always had splinter groups and O’Connor says the difference now is that social media gives them an effective platform to spread their message and to solicit, communicate and organise their supporters.
Meet the people behind the farm gate
New reality confronts young rural leaders
Neal Wallace PEOPLE
Leadership
ROOM needs to be made for the voices of young rural leaders to be heard in the debate over current challenges facing the farming sector.
New Zealand Rural Leaders chief executive Chris Parsons says those young leaders come from a different generation and are highly motivated, purpose driven and educated in a different way to current leaders.
“We absolutely have good leaders but we need more and a pipeline of them coming through,” Parson says.
For the past 30 years or so, the sector has had relatively few challenges compared to what is faced today, he says. Current challenges require a new skill set.
Given the speed and breadth of change occurring in the rural sector, leaders are needed that can identify and articulate what he calls “a new status quo”.
The game is changing and Parsons says leaders cannot ignore change and still expect to be successful.
There are two common responses to change: an angerdriven reaction or re-imagining a new system.
Parsons says a new generation of leaders will have a role in that transition.
“I genuinely have a high confidence in the young people coming through and their ability to step up.”
They do need some coaching, but also an invitation to lead.
Chris Parsons New Zealand Rural Leaders YOUNG GUNS: New Zealand Rural Leaders chief executive Chris Parsons says highly motivated, purposedriven young leaders have been educated differently to current leaders.
“Young leaders need to step up into the breach, but there needs to be a bit of space created to give them confidence and to let their voices be heard.”
Parsons says research and studies completed by Kellogg and Nuffield scholars have helped inform the current debate, but he says leadership is one of the most studied but least understood topics.
The role comes with scars and stress, which Parsons says feeds into NZ’s biggest industry: chopping down those who poke their heads above the parapet.
“Leadership is a lonely place, which is why some people do not step into it.”
He urged people to respect and support leaders who are trying to find solutions to challenges.
Leadership also requires a healthy conversation or debate by the wider sector to discover the best ideas.
Parsons says success will come from the sector working collaboratively as a team instead of as individuals.
“It’s not the best brain that will go on and win, but the most brains working together.”
That requires leadership to organise groups, identify and use the different skills and styles needed, which differs from how leaders have operated in the past.
“Leadership is not about egos, pride, coercion or manipulation; it’s about connecting people to purpose, championing a cause, coaching and vision, and seeing the possibilities over the horizon.”
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