Recruitment and selection are not the fondest areas of work for most beef producers. It, therefore, is important to productively focus your energies. To better understand the importance of focus, we start with a discussion of the circles of concern and influence.

As you know, dairy farm operations cannot stop for holidays. You and your employees, however, are members of families and social groups that have holiday expectations, traditions and plans.

We all agree leadership is important. What, however, do leaders do? In this article, I address this question. My focus is on leaders like you and me.

Does a manager manage? You are probably thinking, “Bob, what a stupid question. Of course that is what a manager does.” Actually, I will argue in this article that the answer is “yes and no.”

Let’s think about what is happening today in the production agriculture industry:

Let’s think about what is happening today with dairy farm business owners – you: Milk prices refuse to rebound despite continuing predictions that higher prices are ahead. Many parts of the country have had excess rainfall, delaying planting and hay harvest. The divisiveness of the presidential election shows no sign of lessening.

As with many questions, the answer is: “It depends.” We start our investigation to understand what it depends on by looking at two hypothetical but realistic employees.

Recall your feelings the last time you arrived at a meeting – conference, board of directors, lunch – at an unfamiliar location. What were your emotions? Did you know where to park? Did you know where to go? Did you know what to expect?

Our habits are important in establishing how we behave and how others perceive us. I worked with a supervisor who was habitually discrediting employees with negative body language and derogatory comments.

Even though this year’s NFL draft is two months away, sports pages and sports talk shows are buzzing with speculation about draft choices. Why do NFL teams spend millions of dollars preparing for the draft and football fans become almost fanatical about it?