It is Hard to Lead if No One Is Following

By: Dr. Nels Lindberg Production Animal Consultation

As we work day to day in the feedyard, there are many moving parts involving multiple teams of people with seemingly hundreds of objectives to perform daily. Flake the right weight of corn, ship fats and ensure an accurate count, deliver the right feed to the right pen in the right amount, and that is just the beginning. There remain tens to hundreds of pens that need to be ridden each day and overseen with great focus, while mission-critical data need to be accurately captured.

All of this is accomplished with teams of people who are of critical importance in performing their respective duties and responsibilities. These tasks can be executed at a variety of levels, from just barely acceptable to exceptional, but who desires mediocre results? We all are inspired by athletes who perform at a Super Bowl Champion level. Why would we want anything less, especially if it was in our power to produce? Bill Belichick and Tom Brady do the basics beyond the typical Xs and Os. The same mindset and example will be required of us if we want to be and lead a team of champions. There are many basic skills that current and future leaders can be intentional about adding to their skill sets in order to set themselves and others up for success. However, great leaders also possess many intangibles which are second nature to them and are hard to coach.

All of us have a path or history that has led us to who and where we are today. Along the way, we have experienced great times, bad times, horrific losses, tremendous wins, personal tragedies, memorable accomplishments, and lows that have buried us. All of these life experiences work together to make up the very fabric of our current DNA and the physical wrinkles we own. Believe it or not, people under your care want to know about your journey, your scars, and the soul behind those wrinkles. They want to know about the great times, and possibly even more, they want to hear about your struggles and how you encountered and survived adversity. Tell your people your story. Your story is unique, powerful and insightful. It brings perspective to who you are and why. Your story provides credibility to your standing as a leader, and credibility is foundational to leadership. Leaders without credibility have few followers.

In addition to sharing our story, we must share our purpose. Purpose drives us to do what we do every day. In feedyards, that purpose is to produce beef. There is nothing more noble than to help feed the world, and raising beef is our contribution to that virtuous effort. If you operate a 20,000-head yard and the average out-weight of an animal is 1250 pounds with an average yield of 63 percent, your yard produces over 30,000,000 pounds of beef a year. That is enough beef to supply Kansas City for a year! That is a noble purpose!

So how do you take this big-picture purpose and break it down into manageable and actionable bites for your team? Is it to care for the health and well-being of 10,000 animals each day? Is it to make sure 10,000 animals have feed and water each day and are comfortable in their environment? Every feedyard has great purpose in caring for thousands of animals each day, and every team within the yard needs to share in that vision. Leaders must continually communicate and inspire others with the importance of the mission, especially during challenging times. Successful leaders put purpose before profit, which ultimately leads to teams who drive revenue through the roof. And remember, roughly 75 percent of millennials agree that finding a sense of purpose in their work is more important than salary.

Crew leaders and yard managers who desire to succeed in leading people must also exhibit care and compassion. It is hard to be a leader if no one wants to follow. Caring for your people begins with one-on-one interaction and communication. Do you sincerely inquire how their life is going or how their family is doing? Do you ask what you can do to help them meet their family’s needs and achieve their goals? Are you there for them in their brightest and happiest times? What about in their darkest moments? Imagine the impact you might have if you attend their wedding or the funeral of a parent. What is the impact if you take pizza to the family when they are ill or go to the hospital and see the newest addition to their family? Are you physically and mentally present in times of tragedy to support them and even hug them if necessary?

Words are not always necessary, but physically being there can make all the difference. Caring for your people is not about meeting your own needs; it is about meeting the needs of your people. We must care for our people so much that it bleeds out of our pores. As Simon Sinek says, “The responsibility of leadership is to serve their people so that their people may better serve the customer. If leaders fail to serve their people first, customer and company will suffer.” Some of the most successful businesses and people hold this character trait in common – that they love and care for their people. “If you don’t care for your people, you don’t deserve to lead them” (Dave Ramsey).

Getting people to follow our lead can be a very frustrating aspect of our leadership journey. For me, it took years to not only fully understand these key intangible points, but to live and execute them through daily action. We must be massively preoccupied with serving the needs of our caregivers, the folks that are responsible for delivering a quality feed, the team that makes sure the yard is held together and functioning well, and the office that brings all the numbers together and makes sure the bills are paid. Great leaders grow their people so their people can grow the business. Great leaders have a title, but what makes them great is they do not wear it! People do not follow titles! They follow courage, trust, purpose, authenticity and care! And in the feedyard business, we play for the Super Bowl every day, not just one day a year. Work daily to give your people what they need to be motivated and inspired to follow your lead.