“Getting in to the All Blacks is the easy part, staying there is the biggest challenge!”
While our top rugby players must deliver consistently at the highest level, we all have just as much challenge in making sure our farm businesses keep on generating the results we really want. How can we do this? Here are the main three areas we will examine under this topic:
1. Staying on track - Focus (April 2010)
2. Using solid systems that deliver results (May 2010) Read more.....
3. Basing it all on solid principles (June 2010) Read more.....
Staying on track - Focus
As discussed in previous articles, you must have a plan and you must work the plan. This ensures you only do what is relevant, saving time, energy, stress and money. Ask yourself questions such as:
What is my next step?
When do I need to achieve this by?
How will I go about doing that action in the best way?
Ask them with the spirit of searching for the best way forward to deliver results. They will keep you looking in the direction you want to go in rather than being sidetracked down seemingly urgent but unimportant lines of thought.
Positively link all actions back to the vision (overall goal) making them meaningful and likely to be carried out e.g. “I have to offload these animals prior to winter to ensure I have great covers for newly lambed ewes to fully feed on after lambing, thereby bringing better liveweight gains, healthier stock and more lamb value earlier for sale, so to increase the profit and spare cash so we can employ someone to free up our own time from the farm.”
Flexibility is crucial so you can make adjustments to the plan when necessary. Someone once said “build your goals in concrete and your plans in sand.” This is not to give an excuse for rearranging deck chairs but rather a reason for finding the best action you can. It may mean changing to new or better strategies part way through the plan. For example, you may find that if you lighten up the on breeding ewe numbers a little, better pasture covers through the winter and better feeding through the spring will mean better lamb growth from birth. Less stock also means the ability to handle an adverse winter just fine. If it is a kind winter the extra pasture will be there ready to go for lambing onwards, or some other opportunity in the spring. Win - Win!!
Have an objective person on your team to use as an ongoing accountability mechanism, a sounding board, a mentor, a trainer and a support person. This is a role that a coach typically fills. Top sports and corporate business people use coaches to perform – you as a farm business owner can too. An objective and trained set of eyes helps you with accurate thinking, prods you when needed and opens your awareness to other ways forward. After all, none of us know everything!
Schedule your time usage according to your planned priorities and take continuous action on the plan. For those who do this every action is meaningful down the path that is most important to them and sidetracking seldom occurs. Have an accessible planner system (diary, MS Outlook or some other mentally external method) to schedule actions and to help you stay accountable to that schedule. Holding your farm business and all the appointments / tasks you need to do in your head, is a recipe for missed opportunities. Scheduling also allows changes to be easily incorporated.
Never lose sight of a new goal without taking some action. When you set a new goal, take action immediately! This is what kick-starts momentum. It all goes much better with momentum.
My next article (Part 2 of Ensuring the base keeps generating sustainable results) will focus on using solid systems in your farming business that deliver results.
This article appears in the GrowFARM Connector (April 2010) - our monthly e-Newsletter. Click here to subscribe to the e-Newsletter