THEREFORE UTILIZATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GOOD LEADERSHIP PRACTICES, INCORPORATED INTO AN OVERALL MANAGEMENT PLAN IS HIGHLY BENEFICIAL TO A FARMING BUSINESS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
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Introduction
There are many characteristics of a good leader. Some leaders will be strong in respective areas although the best leaders will spread their skills across many of these.
Table one highlights some major leadership skills and the results obtained with these skills.
Table 1: Characteristics of a good Leader
source: WWW.DDIWORLD.COMPAPER
Therefore a business manager possessing a balanced of these skills will bring much to a business and create more effective property management.
Can Leadership be Learned
Effective leadership relies on a level of respect among peers and employees. There are two ways in which respect can be gained. The first is by possessing natural people skills, thus being likeable and gaining respect because of mate ship. Although this type of leadership can be quite effective especially in smaller businesses it will require additional leadership skills to ensure adequate people resource management. It is these skills that can be acquired or learned.
People management skills can be learnt and are required in order to maintain moral between both staff and upper management. This relates also to legal implications and indeed skills involved in conflict resolution between staff.
Similarly there are many other skills that are relatively simple to practice and may appear to be common sense in most cases. Although these practices can be taught, most business leaders are unaware of the big differences that subtle changes can make.
Therefore the difference between natural leadership through peer respect due to personal nature and the finer points of leadership must be noted and educated in order to create improved farm business managers.
Leadership Strategies
In order to create an environment in which staff works as close as possible to maximum performance, farm manager’s need to apply some basic management strategies.
Farming staffs generally perform jobs that they would rather not do; because of this managers must recognize the effort applied by staff. Also high amounts of overtime need to be recognized in the same manner. This could be as simple as a “thanks mate” at the end of the day or a beer on the verandah. The main point is that the employer acknowledges effort and the employee knows this.
Openings for increased responsibility are also a good way of to maximise performance, as more responsibility placed on an individual creates higher concentration, resulting in an increased work ethic.
Similarly a slight amount of independence or freedom can create increased work efficiencies because employees could within reason select when particular tasks are performed for example.
There are many strategies that can be implicated into good management practice in order to create near maximum work efficiencies. These will change according to business structure. The main point to note is that business managers must be aware and recognize that there are ways in which staff moral can be manipulated in a favorable manner.
Leadership Costs
Costs are continually evaluated and good business managers will look from an economic view at all business sectors. Leadership is one of these costs.
In the true sense of the word leadership will cost cash. This could be in the form of training courses, time spent implicating leadership models and time spent creating these models.
The reason good leadership has no cost and actually creates it, is through benefits arising from good staff management. Business wealth is created through increased staff efficiency as a reduction in labor cost per unit of output is achieved. Also staff is more likely to maintain machinery etc. to a higher level, which reduces maintenance and or replacement intervals to the business. Similarly there will be an increased marketing advantage, as the business will be held in high regard and spoken highly of.
Therefore effective leadership creates wealth for a farming business, although relatively small cash outlays may be encountered. Conversely if farm managers are unaware of the implications arising from poor staff management the opposite of the above examples will occur and in that instance leadership will be costing the business money.
Conclusion
There are many factors that will compile a good farm manager. No single facet is of outmost importance rather all factors will compliment one and other. Once a farm manager possesses a balance of these skills effective property management can be obtained. Therefore if a farming business desires to perform effectively it is of utmost importance to create successful leadership.
RBM – 3: Human Resource Management – The Importance of Management to Framing Businesses. BEN NICHOLS
