Leadership lessons learned by a farm kid

While I have a master’s degree in Adult Learning/Leadership and Organizational Development, many of my most important leadership lessons were learned as a child on my family farm. It is interesting to reflect on how my early experiential learning connects to my academic learning.

My parents purchased a dairy farm in the Kuna-Meridian, Idaho area the same year that I entered kindergarten and sold the farm well after I started my own family. I learned many life and leadership lessons while living on a dairy farm during my childhood. These leadership lessons provide the background for my current role as a Human Resource Consultant.

#1 - Take care of your family. My first coworkers were not “like family,” they were my family. We worked together and took care of each other because it was our family’s livelihood. Many human resource professionals care deeply about the people at their organization. Simon Sinek noted, “If you really have a strong corporate culture, people will think of each other as brothers and sisters.”

#2 - Hard work seems easy when you have a purpose. As a dairy farmer, your purpose is taking care of the animals so that they can produce milk to feed people. Like most farmers, our family put in long hours, getting up Christmas morning to feed and milk the cows before opening presents or having breakfast. The animals did not know about days off or holidays. Because it was our way of life, I did not feel like the long hours or hard physical work was a burden.

#3 - Focus energy on things you can control. Choosing to be a dairy farmer requires that a person recognize there are many factors that are beyond your control. For example: the price of milk, the cost of fuel, and the weather. I learned at an early age to maximize my impact by focusing my energy on the factors that I could control and to choose strategies that would set-up future successes. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey illustrates the Circles of Concern and Circles of Influence and encourages us to focus our time and energy on our Circles of Influence.

#4 - Look long-term, there will be setbacks. Even with good strategies and careful planning, unexpected events happen. Cattle get sick and die, crops do not grow well, and the economics of the industry change. Being resilient and keeping your long-term goals in focus are important as you navigate these setbacks.

#5 - Be flexible, success may look different than what you planned. When I was a child, there were hundreds of small dairies in the Treasure Valley. Today, there are just a handful of large dairies in the valley. The way of life that I experienced as a farm kid on a small family dairy is no longer economically viable. My family had to be flexible and adapt to changes in their business model. I learned to be open minded when visualizing my picture of success.

I challenge each of you to think about leadership lessons you learned as a child that apply to your professional work. We all have valuable leadership experiences and can reflect and connect these valuable leadership lessons to our current situations.