What Can Farmers Learn From Football?

Jun 15, 2020

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Is your farm ready to be ran like a college sports team?

Introduction
Answer questions
- Listener Question: Sometimes I feel like my employees have no passion, attention to detail, or motivation to do the job right. I then have to do it myself for fix it. Have you heard from your guests’ ways that they are dealing with this?
Reminder that you can submit your questions to farm4profitllc@gmail.com or on all social media channels. Please like, rate, review, and leave your comments on this episode as well!
Jamie Pollard Interview
- Jamie Pollard is in his 15th year as the Director of Athletics at Iowa State and his vision for success and energy to execute that plan continues to have major impacts on campus, in the Big 12 and nationally.
- The 2018-19 Cyclones recorded the Big 12’s second-best student-athlete graduation rate (88%), won three Big 12 championships and registered its best-ever finish in the league all-sports rankings (third), and saw 13 programs reach post-season play.
- Pollard was recognized as 2019 Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA
- Jamie and his wife, Ellen, have four children: Thomas, Annie, Maggie and James. Thomas was 2017 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in cross country at Iowa State and Maggie competes collegiately in track for at Nebraska.
A question for you as the listener to be thinking about…..Is it time to create roles, empower others, and win a championship?
- How much more fun could your “job” be if you thought of it this way?!
Iowa State University is having success is many sports. To start off - What do you feel have been the key decisions made that have led to the success of the programs at to University?
- Co-Host: Follow up with comparing the answers to how a farmer could incorporate those.
Nothing against other sports but for the conversation today let’s focus on a well-run football team. Could you explain the different roles within a college football program that help it to function as whole? (Co-Hosts will help relate roles to farming)
- Head Coach
  - Boss, Motivator, Lead Strategy, Director, Goal Creator, Burden-carrier
    - Farm/Business Owner
- Director of Football Operations
  - Day to day direction, interpreter, communicator, HR, priorities
    - Owner, Farm/Business Manager, 2nd Generation
- Positions Coaches
  - Specialized, drivers, give & take
    - Livestock, Row Crop, Custom Work, Divisions
- Scouting/Recruiting
  - Research, testing, trials, metrics, sales
    - Employees with agronomy, IT, Prescriptions, Mechanical skills
- Strength & Conditioning/Nutrition
  - Health, wellness, energy, plans
    - Spousal support, team member with a passion, stay healthy
- Public Relations/Marketing
  - Communication, sales, branding, specialists, visual direction
    - Who is in charge of sales on your farm? Who recruits more acres or more business? How about person in charge of donations? Funeral Flowers? Etc…
- Administrative/Graduate Assistance
  - Glue, organization, details, catching mistakes, sacrificing
    - Delegation, book work, accountant, advisory team
- Players – Listener Question is about keeping good help around and motivated.
  - Buy in, hard work, respect, motivated
    - How do you keep the good ones around?
    - How can we create culture and buy in so staff never leaves?
Listening to your descriptions of the staff you have, shows in order to achieve the end goal it takes the whole team. The AD or Head Coach can’t do it all on their own, so how did you become effective with delegation?
- One of the ways to gain trust is by giving it through responsibility
One way to make a business more profitable or to run a productive team is to not waste time and resources. What are somethings you have discovered that are important to gaining efficiency or becoming the most efficient?
The listener question we started with had concerns about employees not caring or not giving it their all. How do we motivate our team to give their all and put in their best efforts?
Unemployment has been at historical lows prior to the COVID19 outbreak. With potential talent available in the market place now, what does it take recruit high caliber talent? What are some tips that might help farmers land and keep quality help?
Here at Farm4Profit we try to help our listeners and attendees strive to be the best operations they can be. What are the most common difference between winning programs and those that aren’t?
We have shared a few leadership tips in past episodes but would like to learn from your experience a well. What are somethings you’ve learned throughout your time in a leadership role? Experiences that you have gained the most value from…..
What would you say to the listener that has doubts in the ability to run and/or grow their farm to be successful?
Any last comments or words of advice you’d like to share with our listeners?
End Pollard Interview: Thank Jamie for his time and conversation – hit the biggest point that he shared for our listeners and dismiss him.
Summarize
Challenge
- Next time we get to watch football try to watch it differently, not in the “normal” way.
  Most people watch their favorite players or follow the ball as it moves across the field. But try to be more interested in the sidelines...
  Specifically, on the Coach.
  THAT’s who is really determining the success of the players, the team, and the match.
  Think about it…
  You’ve got your players on the field who are doing the labor-intensive work: running, passing, kicking, pushing their bodies to the absolute limits. And that’s all very important because the team couldn’t win without that physical work.
  But is it the most important work?
  What a good team needs more than anything is a Coach guiding everyone to success.
  They need someone looking down from a higher vantage point and making a plan that’s bigger than one play, one match, one season.
  And it’s impossible to do that job as a player on the field.
  It’s easy to understand this logic when it applies to football, right?
- Who’s setting goals for the farm and making action plans to achieve them?
- Who’s finding new ways to save money?
- Who’s looking at future income and expenses and managing cash flow?
- Who’s coaching your farmhand or workers and making sure everyone’s working towards the same goal?
  - Just imagine everything your farm could achieve in the next year if you had someone thinking about those questions…
    - How much more money you would make (and save)…
    - How much faster you would reach your goals…
    - How much stronger your farm would be...
- If you’re starting to understand how important it is for your farm to have someone looking at the big picture, I’ve got good news. It’s easier than you think for YOU to step into the role of Coach, of Business Owner. You don’t have to do it alone, rely on your network and advisory team to get you to that championship!
Closing
- Thank them for listening.

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