Executive Women in Agriculture

Webinar will Help You Cope With Labor Pains

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:30:45 GMT

The Executive Women in Agriculture team will host a free webinar Sept. 13 at 12 p.m. (CDT) for farm owners and operators to help them better cope with labor management issues.
As farms have added employees to ease the work load, the challenge of managing these employees has only gotten more complicated.
Many a farmer has been heard to say, “Life was easier before I hired employees.”
Laura Cornille-Cannady, a specialist and consultant in human resources and family business coaching with an emphasis on farms, knows the labor pains are many.
This webinar will focus on ways to minimize the labor pains you might experience or have yet to experience. Participants will learn to reduce their risk from government fines and penalties by making sure they are legal when using workers and contractors and improve their culture through consistent use of policies and best practice hiring.
For more information and to register, visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/453946344 .

Inspiration to Lead and Succeed in 2017

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:29:12 GMT

As you prepare for what could be a financially challenging year, investing in your team will pay dividends.

“Your job is to build confidence in those around you and develop the people you have in the time you have,” advices Nicole Price, a leadership and team development coach with Lively Paradox .

The first step is to build confidence within yourself.

“Focus on your own personal confidence and less on competence—because you know how to do your work,” she says. “You are not perfect and that’s just perfect.”

Be ready for obstacles that interfere with your business and family goals. “People will place obstacles in your way—your job is to be good in spite of those obstacles,” Price says. “Remember, former obstacles don’t present obstacles today. Just because we tried something in 1986 and it didn’t work doesn’t mean it’s not something we can’t try now.”

Listen to an excerpt from Price’s presentation at Top Producer’s 2016 Executive Women in Agriculture conference :

New hire makes Les Serres Sagami a 100% female-led Quebec company

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:19:39 GMT

Mirabel, Quebec-based Les Serres Sagami Inc., which markets conventional and organic tomatoes under the Savoura brand to Canadian and U.S. markets, has hired a new president, making the company’s leadership 100% female-led.

Peggie Clermont has accepted the position of president of the board of directors, according to a news release. She was formerly of accounting firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton and has worked with Les Serres Sagami as a financial adviser to the management for several years.

Caroline Dalpé has been Les Serres Sagami’s general manager since 2014.

“Without a shadow of doubt, I know that we have all of the elements in place to overcome the major challenges that we’re facing. It’s with our team, and solely in a team, by which we will succeed in carrying out the major projects that we have on the table,” Clermont said in the release.

The company emphasizes sustainable and responsible agriculture.

“Environmental issues, greenhouse organic farming, packaging and the employability of different people, in addition to many others, are key issues for us,” Dalpé said in the release.

The company also has been marketing strawberries since 2017 and mini organic cucumbers since 2018, with operations on 79 acres at nine sites across Québec.

Related news:

Jan Berk: Find your own way, together

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:37:54 GMT

CHICAGO — Jan Berk’s path can be divided into two main careers: media and agriculture.

But before her first career began, she built a foundation of basic work skills as a waitress, bank clerk and office manager.

“For decades, women had support roles labeled as ‘women’s work.’ I know some companies who literally still see things this way today,” said Berk, chief operating officer of San Miguel Produce, Oxnard, Calif.

Berk was the honoree and featured speaker at the Women in Produce breakfast event at the United Fresh Produce Association’s Conference and Expo.

Standing before an audience of almost 600 people, Berk recalled being in a sales meeting a year ago with a wholesaler. There were 20 salesmen. The only other woman she saw that day was a receptionist.

“When I left the meeting, I thought to myself, ‘Did I just step back in time some 30 years?’” Berk said.

Regardless, those early jobs laid the foundation of basic work skills for her: teamwork, leadership, and creative and critical thinking.

There is still a need to recognize women in the industry, despite their success in the last century, said The Packer’s publisher, Shannon Shuman, who spoke before Berk. Women are awarded only 39% of manager jobs and 23% of C-suite jobs, he said.

“Until women are no longer making 80 cents to the dollar of what men earn, until women are free from harassment and micro-aggression at the workplace, we will continue to honor them,” Shuman said. “I know I’m a man up here speaking about what women already know. To the men: Most of us men are not oblivious ... Fellow men, we need to be accountable for developing, mentoring and sponsoring women.”

When Berk began her 25-year career in media and newspapers, she was grateful for a publisher who mentored her in sales, marketing, promotions and public affairs.

“Forty years ago, mentors were pretty hard to find,” she said.

Berk worked at several media companies, married and had a son, consulted for the City of Oxnard’s first strawberry festival and helped with the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. When running her own boutique marketing firm, she consulted with San Miguel Produce on a couple small projects.

Along the way, Berk became a single mom.

“It is always difficult to find a good balance between work and family. One side always gets shortchanged. Family has to come first, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” Berk said. “I know I struggled with this for many years.”

Two newspapers were sold, and another newspaper closed. Berk realized she had no good reason to be living so far from family.

She thought of a John Wayne quote: “Life is tough. But it’s even tougher if you’re stupid.”

So Berk began her second career, in the agriculture industry, consulting for San Miguel Produce and eventually joining the staff full-time. After a long journey of learning an entirely new industry for the last 20 years, she’s earned a chief-level role.

“I always say we never stop learning,” Berk said. Volunteering at organizations like United Fresh helps her continual education.

The company culture still needs to change, she said, and that includes placing more qualified women in leadership roles.

“I strongly believe that a good balance of men and women in leadership roles in any workplace will significantly enhance any operation,” Berk said.

Related news:

Hire to Fit the Farm

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:30:41 GMT

Make employee choices that fit your farm values

What is the biggest cost for a company? Most CEOs will answer “people,” but it’s not the people—it’s the wrong people who might not be aligned with your farm’s values and culture.

Best Hiring Practices:

• Don’t hire just to fill a spot. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. WAIT!
• Hire using a job description and needed skills.
• Interview for skills and values (fit to job and fit to farm).
• Use behavior-based interview questions to get specifics.
• Forget gut hiring.
• Use only legal questions.

According to a 2012 CareerBuilder poll, 41% of participating companies had experienced a cost of at least $25,000 per single bad hire, while 24% had incurred $50,000. The cost includes loss of productivity and time, cost to recruit and train a new employee, and employee morale being affected. No matter how established your organization, bad hires negatively affect it.

“You need to hire to fit your culture; not only to fit the job,” says Laura Cornille-Cannady, a farm business consultant who specializes in human resources. “Farmers get short-handed and need to fill jobs quickly, but remember, you are not just hiring hands—you are hiring a body, soul and mind. If you hire someone with the wrong values that doesn’t fit your culture, it can spoil the whole bunch of employees.”

Ask Behavioral Questions. One way to hire employees who fit your farm values is to ask behavior-based questions that help identify core values and competencies.

For example, if one of your core values is passion, you might ask candidates to describe a situation where they felt strongly about a project, what steps were taken to accomplish the objective and what was the end result.

The premise of behavior-based questions is that past behaviors are a good predictor of future ones.

“You can teach a skill, but it’s harder to teach core values, so make sure those match your business,” says Cornille-Cannady.

It is best to combine both the traditional job-fit interview questions with your culture-fit questions; you want people in your organization to live and represent your core values, but you also need these people to be able to deliver results that will help you and your organization achieve your goals.

Human Resource Tips at EWA

To hear more from Laura Cornille-Cannady and several other farm business experts, plan to attend our third annual Executive Women in Agriculture conference, which will be held Dec. 5-6, at the InterContinental, Downtown Chicago. To register and view a tentative agenda, visit www.execwomeninag.com .

Centerline CEO joins chef convention’s first female symposium

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:20:13 GMT

Tracy Smith, cofounder and CEO of St. Augustine, Fla.-based Centerline Brackets, a steel support brackets manufacturer, will speak at the American Culinary Federation’s inaugural women’s symposium.

The symposium, “United in Food: Women Leaders of Today and Tomorrow,” is Aug. 8 at the federation’s 2019 national convention in Orlando, Fla., according to a news release.

Smith, who worked for the federation for more than 14 years as senior events manager until she launched Centerline Brackets in 2012, will take part in the panel about being a multi-tiered leader in a changing kitchen culture.

About 1.2% of manufacturing businesses are women-owned, although the number of women-run businesses overall in the U.S. has increased 114% in the last 20 years, according to the 2017 State of Women-Owned Businesses report commissioned by American Express.

For more information, visit www.acfchefs.org .

Related news:

Define Your Operation’s Organizational Structure

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:31:29 GMT

Do your employees know their exact roles? Are they nailed down on paper? How happy are your employees with their day-to-day work?

All of these questions and many more can be defined and improved by tackling organizational development, which is an effort by all involved in a business or operation to increase effectiveness and viability.

Barbara Dartt is a senior business consultant with Lookout Ridge Consulting, a family business and management consulting firm that specializes in production agriculture. She says organizational development is an often untapped competitive advantage for agricultural businesses.

“Family businesses outperform all other types of businesses,” she says. But the dynamics within a family can cause challenges, making organizational development even more important.
Dartt suggests implementing organization development concepts in small steps. First you want to define what tasks or roles are needed for your operation, and then recruit the talent to meet those needs.

Make sure your employees have all of the needed resources to perform those responsibilities.

For new employees, you need to effectively orient them in their roles to improve performance, this training time is also known as onboarding. During this time, clearly lay out what each job entails and why it’s important.

She says you want to ensure employees know how to complete their work and how it’s linked to the organization’s success. Making employees feel needed and committed to their occupation is what will determine how long an employee stays with a job and his or her successful level.

“Show people how they make a difference,” she says. This outlining of responsibility and worth should be done by the highest level of employer and should not be delegated. This human connection element, she says, is more important than access to resources, a chance for promotion or safety on the job.

Employers and employees should have regular updates on duties and goals. “Two years and five years are key progression points in your career,” she says. “That’s when you will decide if this is a place for you or not.”

During these check-in points, Dartt says it’s also important to clarify who has what decision making authority. To clearly display this, she suggests creating an organizational chart and sharing it with all who are stakeholders in the operation.

For More Information
Dartt spoke at Top Producer’s Executive Women in Agriculture conference. Read more news and coverage .

View a PDF copy of Dartt’s presentation .

How to Reduce Time-Suckers on Your Farm

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:31:03 GMT

Reduce time-suckers on your farm to improve results

Which items on your to-do list do you dread? Do you delay a task because it’s harder than it needs to be? When tasks are too complex, you waste time and lose motivation, says Susan Hite of Hite Resources, a certified facilitator of complexity reduction for Bayer CropScience in the U.S.

In November, Hite spoke at the 2012 Executive Women in Agriculture conference in Chicago about the complexity reduction program that she developed for Bayer, based on the book From Complexity to Simplicity by Simon Collinson and Melvin Jay.

“Reducing complexity is a simple, yet profound way to reduce stress and increase profits on your farming operation,” Hite says. Below are nine behaviors that hinder progress. Once you identify which behaviors you or those within your farming operation exhibit, you can begin to eliminate unnecessary complexity.

Hite says the best way to start reducing complexity is to lead by example. “You have to model the way. Demonstrate your commitment to show you are always making things simpler yourself and improving your own behaviors.”

Also, realize that this is an ongoing process. “Continually challenging anything is not simple,” Hite says. “Keep asking: Is this the simplest way?”

TINKERING

This includes making minor changes that do not add up to something substantially better. Make sure you recognize when something is good enough, and stop trying to make it 100% perfect.

OVERANALYSIS

Do you make the decision-making process more intellectual than it needs to be? Determine which details are important, make a decision based on the facts and be ready to act.

REINVENTING

You can always improve a process or product. But creating a new way of doing something just for the sake of trying something new can be a waste of both time and energy. Determine what you do well enough and what needs improvement, and move on.

AVOIDANCE

When multiple people are involved in an operation, you might think you need to get everyone’s approval. Rather than confronting an issue directly, you focus on the politics. Don’t sweep big decisions under the rug.

MISTRUST

Trust is a huge motivator. Do you have processes in place to “manage” people rather than enable them to do the work? Remove these, then trust those around you to hold up their end of the task.

LACK OF FOCUS

The last time a meeting took twice as long as expected, what was the cause? Was it because the agenda was all over the place and you were focused on too many small projects or activities? Prioritize and focus your efforts on tasks that matter.

EMBELLISHING

In hopes of having the last word, we will often add more words, bigger words, more stages or more points to an already perfect plan. Or we might just repeat what the last person said. Cut the extra words and steps to equal more action. When you hear a good idea, go with it and don’t complicate it.

AIMLESSNESS

When you fail to set a clear direction from the start during a meeting or new project, discussion can quickly result in your wandering aimlessly in the wrong direction. Identify your objective and stick to it.

ADDING WITHOUT TAKING AWAY

How many irons do you have in the fire? Taking advantage of a new opportunity is great—just be sure to remove something less important from your responsibilities first.

Nominate the Nation's Best Female Farmers

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 15:48:48 GMT

The 2023 Executive Women in Agriculture Trailblazer Award will be given to a female producer who is a shining example for her peers. The winner will be an advocate for agriculture and represent an innovative farming or ranching operation.

Entrants are judged on agricultural advocacy (50%), farm business innovation (30%) and industry or community leadership (20%).

Learn more about the EWA Trailblazer Award Application .

To apply, complete the entry form below and attach your resume and two letters of reference from an industry peer, banker or agribusiness leader. Winners agree to be recognized in articles published in Top Producer magazine and online. Any financial information remains confidential unless entrants agree to its release.

The deadline to enter is Sept. 30, 2022.

PRIZES INCLUDE:

A trip for two to attend the Top Producer Summit in Nashville, Tenn. (Jan. 23-25)
Other prizes provided by award sponsors

Fill out the EWA Trailblazer Award Application.

Read about the 2021 winner, Jennie Schmidt of Sudlersville, Md.

Read about the 2020 winners, Shelly Boshart Davis and Macey Wessels of Tangent, Ore.

Read about the 2019 winner, April Hemmes of Hampton, Iowa

Questions? Contact Sara Schafer at 660-537-0587 or sschafer@farmjournal.com.

Farm Succession Planning Gets A Boost From An Ethical Will

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 03:05:51 GMT

This article is from the Top Producer 2019 Executive Women in Agriculture Conference. Learn more about the 2020 EWA Conference agenda and register here: https://bit.ly/30jjkwY

Thirteen years ago, Mitzi Perdue says an experience changed the trajectory of her life.

At a meeting of wealthy, high-profile people who belong to what she describes as the “Famous Last Names Club,” she heard nearly everyone share a story about how they weren’t getting along with their family. Perdue, who grew up as part of the Sheraton hotel family, the Hendersons, and later married Frank Perdue, the poultry giant, was puzzled.

“I couldn’t really relate,” she recalls. Both of her families had been what she describes as high functioning. Plus, their respective businesses had thrived through multiple generations, an unlikely feat given that 70% of family businesses don’t survive beyond the first generation.

“I started studying why some families are high-functioning and others are not,” she recalls. “Why do some families want to help each other be all they can be?”

That question sent her on a quest during the next decade to find the answer. She read books, she attended conferences, she watched programs on YouTube and talked with tens of experts.

Her conclusion, she notes, could be summed up in one word: culture.

“Culture is a road map that guides us in what’s right or wrong,” she says. “The families that don’t [succeed] left their culture to accident. The strong ones invest in and teach their children values.”

She shared three things with attendees at the 2019 Executive Women in Agriculture (EWA) Conference that she says saved both of her families and their thriving businesses through the years.

“We keep our quarrels in the family,” she says. “We know that being part of a family requires sacrifice. Relationships are more important than money—what good is it to succeed financially but fall apart as a family?”

Along with those three factors, she says the Perdue family made five additional decisions that it continues to use. She recommends these to help other families that are wanting to survive and thrive in the future. They are:
1. Create an ethical will
2. Encourage and cherish traditions
3. Have awards that reinforce your culture
4. Write newsletters just for children
5. Produce a “What It Means to Be Us” book

Upon his death in 2005, her husband, Frank Perdue, left the following “ethical will” for his children and grandchildren, which she says the family still uses today. It reads:
1. Be honest always.
2. Be a person whom others are justified in trusting.
3. If you say you will do something, do it.
4. You don’t have to be the best, but you should be the best you can be.
5. Treat all people with courtesy and respect, no exceptions.
6. Remember that the way to be happy is to think of what you can do for others.
7. Be part of something bigger than yourself.
8. Remember that hard work is satisfying and fulfilling.
9. Nurture the ability to laugh and have fun.
10. Have respect for those who have gone before; learn from their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

Executive Women in Agriculture Trailblazer Award

Differentiate Your Farm with A Marketing Calendar

Paul Neiffer: Help, I Have An Ugly Return!