“The Visionary Listener”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
Every team needs a manager, and there’s as many kinds of managers as there are managers. But effective leadership requires a delicate balance between strong, visionary command and flexibility based on open, vertical, two-way communication.
Ideas (fresh, innovative, cost-saving, labor-saving, etc.) can come from anywhere. Managers in agriculture are often over-consumed with the daily emergencies that there is no time to look around at their own operation, peer operations, suppliers, or customers. But one ever-present source of information is the very people with to most to gain from many of these ideas—your production team.
However, if you haven’t intentionally carved out priority time in your calendar for meaningful dialog with team members, this potentially priceless resource could be lost. In addition to the intrinsic value of regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with team members as a critical time for the manager to fully understand and address any issues present at the production level in real time, this time can also be invaluable as a source of operational improvement. When one team member thinks the process can be improved through a given modification, it’s worth noting. If the entire team has the same suggestion, it definitely warrants further investigation.
All organizations would say they value their people, but do they value their input, their opinions, their expertise, their experience? Again, the modern manager is too busy to go out and constantly canvas the industry for bright ideas, and good consultants are well-paid for their experience and expertise. Why not fully capitalize on the resource you already on hand—your team and their know-how.
If you don’t have people worth listening to, it’s time to upgrade your people. But that’s rarely the case. It’s just a matter of not finding, but MAKING, the time, frequently, to listen. Even the most visionary leaders listen; where do you think they got their vision?
