Communicate and give staff full picture
Spring is upon us and most are still extremely busy on farm.
Calving is winding down or done and now you’re looking towards mating time.
The warmer season approaching may have put a feeling of optimism in the air or simply added to the pressures of an extremely wet few months. However, tension continues to play its part within rural employment.
People often ask me about how to discipline staff? How to get staff back on board and focused? The first key to all of it is communication.
Effective communication isn’t easy to achieve. A common fear for business owners is the cost involved when miscommunication occurs.
Employees, on the other hand, don’t have the full picture of the pressures and reality of running a farm business – weather, payout, banks and so on. How can employers help employees understand the values and goals of our farming business? We need to communication to them.
Even when it’s really busy, we still need to be communicating with our team, even more so when we are all going flat out. We need to let them know how they can make the farm stronger and better so that it can also do more for them. When everyone is working well together and know what they are aiming to achieve, there is a huge amount of trust within the team between staff and managers/owners, and that comes from great communication.
Here are some practical communication tips to help achieve great communication.
Make sure you and the team meet at least once a week. Met regularly, talk farm and keep a good record of what you cover. The responsibility of any communication being understood is on the sender. Use feedback skills to ensure you are understood. Get the receiver to repeat back to you to ensure that they understand what you are wanting.
Ask them open questions like what will their next steps will be. If they still haven’t understood you, you need to adapt your message until they do understand.
Look at how they react to what you say - do you use too many big words? Or maybe you think so fast that all the words come out in a rush or some get missed altogether?
Also, beware of the person who says ‘‘yes’’ when you ask if ‘‘they’ve got it’’ because they are too embarrassed to say ‘‘no’’.
Have a clear agenda. Have an agenda and outcome in mind before you begin to communicate something. If you want to communicate quality workmanship or detail to your staff, make sure you know exactly what you are wanting before you begin.
Be constructive in presenting this, you want them thinking this is great, not feeling as though they’re being told off. Take time to get it done right.
If something is important then do not rush it. Plan, look at all the angles, then present. Listen. It is so often said, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
If you ask someone for help or advice, then listen. Good staff want to contribute and it’s great to ask for their input, but not if you miss the answers.
Listening is a vital skill and needs practice. Give people your attention. No matter how busy you are, if you are going to listen to something someone has to say, stop what you are doing and listen to them.
If you really can’t stop then let them know you have something urgent to deal with, that their issue is important to you and you’ll be with them as soon as you can.
If this has touched a chord in where you are at or what you are doing on your farm, then feel free to give me a call on 07 889 8838 to discuss further.
Let’s see if we can help you unlock the team you want and deserve with your farm.
-John Brosnan, Human Resources & Business Development Advisor, CooperAitken Ltd.