Business Coaching is an Important Investment for all Farmers

For the last couple of months, I’ve been talking to farmers about our new farmer business coaching programme: The Farm Ambition Blueprint. We’ve had lots of positive feedback and again and again people have remarked that business coaching is an area which is very poorly served within the farming industry.

Farmers have said:

“I need help clarifying my long term goals.”

“I have loads of ideas for my business, but I need help getting them out of my head and turning them into reality.”

“I’m excited about building a network of farmers who think the same way that I do about the future.”

Before the Farm Ambition Blueprint, there didn’t appear to be anything out there which really satisfied these needs. We are excited to start working with these farmers at our first workshop in November 2019 and about the progress they are going to make with their business, as a result.

I’ve also had several conversations with farmers who would benefit massively from this programme but have talked themselves out of it.

These Farmers say things like:

“This is for bigger farmers who have bigger teams than me.”

“I don’t have the time to commit to something like this.”

“I do all my thinking on the tractor so I don’t need any coaching.”

Coaching is one of those things which is only right for you if you are open to it. If you are not open to changing your mindset around the problems that you face, then you will not benefit from the experience. Once that mindset shifts, however; I do believe that investing some money every year in business and / or self-help coaching is an important investment for all farmers and one that is often sorely overlooked.

A coaching programme like the Farm Ambition Blueprint gives you 3 things:

1. Coaching gives you time to think actively.
2. If there is one characteristic that is common to almost all farmers, indeed; almost all small business owners, it is that there is never enough time to stop and think.
3. There is always so much to do that we get consumed by the day to day and we never stop to lift our head up. Farmers like to say, as I alluded to above, that driving the tractor is good thinking time but this is not what I would call active thinking time.
4. My personal belief is that unless you are writing your thoughts down it is little more than day dreaming.

If you take the time to write down your thoughts, your plans, your wants - in a journal - it doesn’t have to be anything smart, they don’t have to fully formed ideas - then the ideas start to take shape.

This process forces you to articulate what it is that you mean and your brain takes this seriously as a result.

The Farm Ambition Blueprint will work with you to turn your ideas into reality.

1. Coaching helps you to get clear on what you want.
2. Separating your ambitions for yourself from those you have for the farm is an important distinction. It is very easy in a family farming business to fall into the trap of doing things because your parents want you to, or you know that it would make them proud, or it is what the business in its current form demands of you. The Farm Ambition Blueprint will help you to establish a plan for the future.
3. Many farmers do not really have a plan, other than to continue. Leading a business like a farm demands an ability to see further down the track than those around you. This is a skill which can be developed and coaching can help you get there.

It is important that every farmer no matter what age or experience level, takes the time to clarify to themselves what it is that they want from their business and from their life.

Many, many farmers never do this and the consequences can be disastrous.

Take an assumption about something that you want and ask yourself “why” three times - write down the answers. You might be surprised where you end up.

1. The Farm Ambition Blueprint will help you to establish a pulse of ongoing workshops which rejuvenate and re-energise you.
2. Many of us will have had the experience of reading a book or attending a conference which has energised you. Your mind is buzzing with possibilities and full of the changes that you want to implement immediately on your farm.
3. Somehow, when you get back to the farm, it can be difficult to maintain this level of energy and enthusiasm. Reality gets in the way and you dilute your plans or drop them altogether. This is completely normal, but it can be damaging to your confidence, which is why the Farm Ambition Blueprint is set up as an ongoing series of quarterly workshops.
4. Every quarter (circa three months), our farmers will come back for another workshop and they will leave more confident and more energised for the future. They will share this experience with other farmers in their group. Every quarter some things will have gone well, other things will not have gone so well.

A quarterly “pulse” of workshops gives farmers a chance to regroup, re-plan and move forward again with confidence.

If you are a farmer interested in joining this years intake for coaching, apply for a place on the Farm Ambition Blueprint by visiting  https://www.smallrobotcompany.com/farmambition.

Our first workshop (Monday 25th November) is almost full and we must close all applications mid-October 2019.

We will be launching a second round for intakes mid-late 2020 so apply today, to avoid disappointment.

Numbers have been capped to ensure delegates can get the most out of each session.

If you require any further information on the course, please email [email protected]

Photo Credits:

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash