Halfway There – Accountability is the one thing missing from agriculture

When I left Texas A&M in January, it was like I was shot out of a cannon. A full week with some of the greatest minds in agriculture and I was ready to take over the world. I had my list of action steps, and on Monday I was becoming a new leader.

 

Here we are in July, six months later, and I am trending at 26% completion (6 tasks out of 23 completed). The fact that I still have the list of items puts me formidably ahead of most, but this almost hurts my ego looking at this poor showing. These lists took me hours to identify the key concepts and changes I wanted to make for the betterment of all streams at the Hebert Group, and I was scoring a failing grade. Classic story of how I got busy working “in” the business and forgot that my job is “on”.

 

When we built Farmer Coach it was meant to be different. I had been part of peer groups and education sessions across many different streams from University to coaching to professional courses. You sat in a classroom, took notes on the important content, and then used the binder as a coaster for the next two years on your desk. I am currently looking at my TEPAP tasks list sitting under a stack of financial statements and workbooks. The problem remains that I am accountable to very few people, and most don’t have the time to notice my list is incomplete.

 

In agriculture, we often believe that farmers grow grain. I have said it many times before but the true farmer is the CEO and President of a multi-million-dollar business. As such our job encompasses the vision, the strategy, and the accountability of not only our team but also ourselves. In many aspects we may be a one-man band and if this is the case you are only accountable to yourself and your family. This is why change in the industry and any adaptation to new methods is met with a sledgehammer. We don’t have the time, we don’t have the money, and we don’t have the mental fortitude to move forward.

 

So how do you hold yourself to higher standards in an industry built on minimal standards? You set processes and procedures in place to do so. This could be things as easy as writing things down and putting them in a place that you view daily (the wall over my computer screen is usually my catch-all). With size, this may then turn into weekly meetings with your team where the items continue to come up again and again until you scratch them off the list.  This is partially why we went down the route of EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System). My staff and employees all know my goals every quarter and I know theirs. This makes the stakes higher and the failure worse. 

 

For those who still cannot find the sweet spot, you have peer groups or executive coaching. I hate to provide a self-sell, but sitting in Farmer Coach and identifying a lack of movement over the last quarter is not something anybody wants to admit. I can still remember my first few Strategic Coach sessions where I thought I had achieved something great for hiring a new employee and the guy across the table just completed a $200M merger with a competitor. Comparison is the thief of joy, but accountability is the thief of forward progression.

 

So, what can you do today to keep the needle moving forward or the ball rolling? Here is a simple list of items that will take much less time than brewing a new pot of coffee.

 

1. Write Things Down – What you measure you manage. Without writing items down you are considerably less likely to ever achieve or remember what you wanted to achieve moving forward. 
2. Transparency – Tell others your thoughts; even if you only run your operation with a few select family members or employees, being transparent means the item is out in the open and others know you said it. It also makes the loss worse which is motivating not to fail (rather than just motivation to succeed).
3. Set Deadlines – Moving into a position of leadership the hardest shift has been not having a finish line. I often find myself jumping back into operations just so I can feel like I completed a task during the day. Being a leader is looking out long-term and often you don’t complete a real goal or task until years later. This is a difficult skill to remain accountable for longer periods of time.
4. Allow Others to Help – Whether it be coaching, peer groups, or your neighbour down the lane, we all need to strive for continuous learning. In the end, we have a finite amount of information we ourselves know and can learn or maintain, allowing others to assist makes that more infinite.

 

In the end, this may be “fluffy” for you in comparison to working in the dirt. But to be fair, those that don’t want to work in the dirt for the rest of their lives may need to step back and get a little fluffier. The act of goal setting, strategy, vision, and all those other CEO tasks is often seen as less productive, even though we all know the truth. Without the big picture thinking, all we have is calluses and dirty fingernails.