Few are intuitive leaders, moving through life with the masses following them. Most of us have to learn leadership. It’s always an interesting journey in my work with agricultural advocates to watch them go from succeeding individually to learning to bring others along in the “agvocacy” journey. More than once I’ve had the conversation “This no longer about you, but the bigger picture. Your work is to now create more advocates like you.”

Only the best become true leaders. Many get distracted by ego, politics and the latest bright shiny object. When I see leaders rising through the ranks, I start watching to see if they’ll be able to make the jump from “me” to “we.” I have the great fortune as a professional speaker to witness many of these journeys; when people make the jump to the “we” of agriculture, it is my single greatest motivator.

Two ladies who farm in Oregon and North Dakota, respectively, are great examples of this. Both have reached well beyond the “me” sphere and shaped the work of others giving voice to agriculture. I’ve known both of them for a few years and have watched their journey; it’s inspiring.

Marie Bowers is a spark plug. The woman makes things happen and I’m fairly certain she won’t take no for an answer. She didn’t think Oregon had enough of agriculture & natural resources people as a part of social media, so she created a workshop that pulled together 20+ natural resource organizations to learn social media and corralled others to help her. I had the chance to work with the group and was very excited about the level of discussion we had; there is no doubt that Marie laid miles of road to bringing others into the agvocacy arena. She does a great job herself; check out her Oregon Green blog.

When I first met Marie at a American Agri-Women workshop hosted by Syngenta, I was pretty certain she thought I was a little over the top. Now I know her real story; it’s so fun to watch her journey. She’s a new board member of the AgChat Foundation, chairs the weekly AgChat/FoodChat committee and will be the President for Oregon Women for Agriculture next year.  Yet her titles have nothing to do with leadership; it’s all about her heart and ability to bring others to the cause.  I do have to warn you though, she knows how to shoot a gun and isn’t afraid to use it.

Sarah Bedgar Wilson always has a smile on her face and a funny story to tell. I first met her in the Young Dairy Leaders Institute, where her skills stood out and she always had a million questions about the advocacy assignment. She’s now on her own mission as a speaker, a mom of three children under the age of five, a farm partner and in charge of the North Dakota Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers program.  I don’t know how she does it all, but after being in North Dakota – I know she does – and with great accolades from others.

Sarah leads people with her heart for the good of agriculture.  She and her husband have had some amazing challenges on their farm, but she’s never let that diminish her concern for the bigger picture of getting the story out. She works constantly to reach out and develop human connections, whether through her blog, work, teaching children or just being Sarah. The smile is always there to brighten people’s day, which certainly helps humanize the world of farming.

The impact that both of these women are having on others as leaders makes it a privilege to work with them – and an honor to have them as friends. More importantly, Sarah and Marie are a case study of what happens when agriculturists move from “me” to “we.”  Are you taking steps in that direction to bring others to the cause?

Sidenote: More on leadership in agriculture and food is available here – you can subscribe for 2x monthly updates.

Apparently I’m supposed to write about customer service. The last month has involved hours of  conversations and a lot of headaches related to how businesses treat their customers. I was even frustrated enough at one point to inform our daughter that if she ever owned a business, she’d better deliver on what she promised. Funny enough, she knows what service is at a young age; she still talks about a restaurant that kept us waiting an hour for lunch a year ago. All of this makes me ask if  I serve my clients with class – and does agriculture think about our customers?

Before we go there, let my try to succinctly explain a few of the issues. The most fun one is the tractor I bought for my husband.  He had spent hundreds of hours researching what we needed, so I called the dealer and explained if they could find one to be delivered in two weeks that they’d have the sale. Kyle at Bane Farm Equipment was great; he responded immediately, treated me with respect and even translated some terms to my language (I had told him I was a farm girl but not mechanical, so we’d need to talk thing-a-boppers). The deal was finalized as I was driving to the airport, they delivered a nicely washed tractor to our neighbor and I drove it across our field as a huge Christmas surprise. We feel great every time we look at it in our barn.

Contrast that with our Direct TV experience. We only purchased satellite a few years ago, so we were excited to watch Spartan basketball. Our excitement diminished whenever we had to call them, but the final straw came when we returned home to a failed receiver after being gone a week. It deleted several recordings that we were looking forward to, such as Michigan State’s victory over IU. We don’t watch much TV, so it was very disappointing to have our favorites gone. Then they wanted $20 to ship their equipment and refused to guarantee delivery for a party we were having two days later. Their last chance came when I was trying to explain customer perspective to a manager and told him customers don’t really want to spend 30 minutes arguing with their satellite provider about failed equipment late at night after they’ve been in five airports in 36 hours. His response was “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  We’re no longer customers. If a business can’t understand how valuable their customer’s time is, they fail.

Another electronics saga was the TV system we bought before I was laid up with knee surgery in the fall. We’ve never had much of TV, but we invested in a HD system with a GoogleTV box, along with a sound bar. First aggravation was the cable  that the salesman told us was necessary. It didn’t attach at the right angle, so the the sound bar won’t sit on a shelf . But the kicker was the remotes. Our HH Gregg salesman told us they’d all program together. I spent hours (and a few choice words) trying to get the sound bar programmed with the TV remote. We finally called  HH Gregg tech support last Sunday and they weren’t too keen to help us over the phone, but said they’d program the remotes if we brought them in. When I took them to the store (45 minutes away), no one had a clue. After getting shuffled around, I found a service person who would look at them. He picked up the two remotes and said there was no option they’d work together because of incompatible systems.

You can imagine my frustration level at that point with over-promise and under-delivery! The tech service person suggested I go back to the store and talk to a manager.  I was expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised that the manager’s first response was  an authentic “I understand your frustration.” He made it apparent immediately that he was going to work to help us. And he tried hard to find a solution that was compatible with our needs and set-up. Unfortunately, the new speakers didn’t work, but at least we don’t have a bad feeling every time we look at the TV. He made sure he personally connected so we knew we have someone to turn to.  He listened. He responded. He cared enough to try to fix a problem.

Does agriculture do that when people ask questions? I’m not sure I can say we do enough. Most of society would say time is their most precious commodity. Are we doing enough to provide quick and easy info about food and farming so we’re respecting people’s time? I’d suggest we be more proactive than my experience with GE, where I had to tweet complaining about their lack of service to get customer service. Are you managing concerns of customers quickly and before they have a significant issue? By the way, if you farm, the people who are ultimately consuming products ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS.  Do they know they can turn to you for answers – even if you don’t have the perfect solution?

~guest post by MRS

One morning HandyMan called me from work and asked me how my day was going. In the middle of changing a diaper, I propped the phone between my ear and shoulder and told him that so far that morning I was 3 for 3. Confused he asked me what I meant and I replied that I had changed 3 diapers so far that morning and all of them had been poopy, thus 3 for 3. Such is the glamorous life of a stay at home mom.

Sadly that’s not an abnormal morning for me. Sometimes it seems like all I get done all day is feeding the kids and changing their diapers. When Blue and Daisy wake up in the morning they both act as if they’re starving and demand food. Blue waits, temporarily appeased with an episode of Thomas & Friends (Blue is obsessed!), while I nurse Daisy. Then I change both their diapers and get Blue and myself breakfast. And so goes the rest of the day.

Recently we added even more feedings to our day when we started Daisy on solid foods. I had put off introducing baby food because Daisy was premature and because it would just add that much more to my day. I thought as long as she was satisfied and gaining weight well with just breastfeeding that I would hold off on giving her baby food. But at her 6-month well child appointment, the doctor strongly encouraged me to start giving Daisy solid foods. So we did.

And while it has added more to my daily “to do” list, it has also been fun. Daisy hasn’t had a lot of variety yet, but I really enjoy watching her learn and experience new things. The faces Daisy makes as she tries a new food for the first time and the excitement she shows when she really likes a new food are so fun to watch. Sometimes she is literally bouncing in the high chair while I feed her.

But what about the safety of baby food? As a stay at home mom, I have enough to do trying to keep up with laundry, cleaning and taking care of the kids that it seems overwhelming to add making baby food to the list, but I want to make sure the food I’m feeding her is healthy and safe. To ease my concerns about the safety of baby food, I did a little research and learned that the plastic used in Gerber baby food (the kind I generally buy) is BPA free and just by reading the labels of baby food learned that the only added ingredient is water.

So I continue to buy baby food. And this gives me more time to play “choo choos” with Blue, cuddle with Daisy and change all those poopy diapers.

~guest post by MRS

As a rule, I don’t make resolutions, mostly because I’m terrible at keeping them. Like a lot of people, I think about things I need to change, activity levels, eating healthier, keeping our house cleaner, etc. Then I try really hard to accomplish these things for a few weeks, but before I know it I’ve missed a few days. Then a few weeks pass and I’ve slid back into the old habits. Our house is cluttered, I’m spending too much time on our couch and I’m thinking, “What diet?”

I know I’m not the only one who does this.

But as I think about what our life is going to look like this coming year, potential job changes, growing kids and more involvement in our family farm. I realize, that eating healthy foods plays a huge roll in our ability to accomplish those things.

Blue is a very busy toddler. He loves to play in the mud and is obsessed with trains, but he struggles with constipation. If we don’t give him enough fruits and vegetables to eat, he has painful bowel problems. So I buy fruit, lots and lots of fruit. And I feed it to Blue like it’s going out of style, but I don’t eat it myself. I sit down to lunch with Blue and he’s eating fresh fruits and veggies and what do I have? Generally, I’m eating a turkey sandwich, potato chips & drinking a can of pop. What am I teaching him by doing this?

Daisy is 6 months old now and we’ve recently started introducing her to solid foods. She is still deciding whether or not she likes them, but over the next few months we’ll transition her from a liquid only diet to a diet that isn’t just pureed fruits and veggies, but also finger foods. By the time her birthday rolls around, she’ll be eating mostly table foods. It’s hard to imagine that now, but the next 6 months will bring a lot of changes to Daisy. She’ll practically be a whole new kid!

As my kids grow, it’s increasingly important that HandyMan and I teach them what it means to be healthy. We need to drink water and not pop, eat fruit and vegetables instead of potato chips because if we just tell them how to be healthy without actually showing them what being healthy is, what are they learning? So it’s time to make some changes, to start practicing what we preach and leading by example.

Here goes nothing.

What are you hoping to change in 2012?

A reminder of what really matters...

What’s the greatest gift you’ve ever received? If you’re like me, you enjoy finding and giving gifts – especially if it’s something special for the recipient. My husband thinks I’m a bit overboard with shopping and making gifts, especially for our little darling, but I find the resulting glee to be incredibly satisfying. Contrast that with hubby’s typical response of “Thanks, this is nice.” said in a perfect monotone with the all the excitement of a stone – no matter if it’s a requested tool or a pack of gum. Who knows, that might change this Christmas (or he’ll at least fake it since I’ve publicly thrown him under the bus)? More on that later.

This time of year, it’s easy to think about all of the presents under the tree. However, our greatest gifts are often overlooked. These are a few of my favorites.

• Health: If you have it, you likely don’t think about it. A few scares this year taught me that’s a mistake. Don’t take your health for granted. Just ask Leontien.
• People to thank:  Those who provide friendship, comfort you, support you professionally, work with you, challenge you and  inspire you deserve gratitude. And don’t wait to utter words of thanks and respect; I learned that the hard way this past week with the sudden death of Chris Raines.
• A driving passion: Mine is obviously building connections between those who grow, make and consume food. I consider a blessing to have a life’s passion that drives my work, though it’s also a challenge to keep that balanced with my personal passions invested in our little family.
• Enough food: We grossly overeat around the holidays – I started today with sugar cookies for breakfast. It’s easy to forget the one in five that are hungry in this country while we’re shoving food in our mouths.  May I suggest you make it part of your 2012 to not forget those without?
• Grounding: The arrival of  Paynacres Perfect Peppermint this morning (our first heifer in nearly two years) reminded my of the importance of staying grounded in my roots  – as you can tell from her name. The prefix is the only thing I have left from my parents herd and Perfect is the matriarch of the family that I paid $7000 for when I was 12 years old and she was a six month-old heifer.  I’m sure Peppermint will provide reminders of husbandry, perseverance and patience while she’s in our barn. Even more importantly, she’ll be a part of inspiring the next generation’s love of agriculture – apparent in full force as mom and daughter were jumping up and down in in excitement together this morning.
• Friendship: I am blessed with a vast and varied circle of friends, near and far. Those I hold closest seem to get the remnants of me, which I hope to change in2012. Sometimes a cup of coffee with a girlfriend is the greatest gift. Other times, it’s the inspiration from seeing what friends across agriculture are doing, yet I probably don’t do enough to express that to people. Do you? If you’re fortunate enough to have people who make a difference in your life, let them know!
• Technology: Think this about how Apples are the greatest devices? Nope, though I could make a case for that. Consider where our world would be without technology. It can drive us nutso, leave us frenzied and put our thumbs in casts. Yet technology can also save a sweet baby’s life (as I’ve watched it do for more than one friend), help us survive natural disasters and yes, provide more people with nutrients to survive.
• Faith: I’m a Christian; I believe in that baby born in a manger so long ago was the ultimate gift. But I also believe my friends in Egypt should celebrate their faith without our judgement, just as I believe Jewish friends deserve to hear Happy Hanukkah. And if I know you’re of a different faith, I’ll make a point of greeting you accordingly. However, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Merry Christmas meant with all the spirit of the season. And that’s all I’m going to say about that before we get into a religious debate.

Merry Christmas. Thanks for sharing the journey.  May you find time to reflect on the greatest gifts in your life as you look under your tree.