I took a 24 hour trip to Kansas City to give a speech to the North American Limousin Junior Association (NALJA) Board of Directors. I spoke on utilizing online media resources to tell the agriculture story. Before my speech, we all took part in a leadership workshop. NALJA Director Cassiday Woodard explained the importance of leadership in agriculture, and she helped us to identify our strengths and weaknesses in that area.

We started the workshop by taking a short quiz that sorted and rated the responses into five categories. The quiz came from a book by Kouzes and Posner. After taking the quiz and tallying up our scores, she explained the five leadership traits and how we can improve on our weak traits in the future.

The five leadership traits include:
1) Model the way. Be the leader that you would want to follow.
2) Inspire a shared vision. Work in a group towards a common goal.
3) Challenge the process. Take risks and try something that has never been done before.
4) Enable others to act. Inspire those around you to follow your lead.
5) Encourage the heart. Help others help themselves. Be kind and show others you care.

This was a refreshing course that reminded me how important strong leaders are in agriculture. I don’t want to be lost in a flock of sheep; I want to be the lead horse guiding the cowherd. Does that metaphor make sense? Ha! Anyway, Cassidy left us with some great leadership quotes that really drove the point home. Here are a few of my favorites…

Every leader needs to look back once in awhile to make sure he has followers. -Kouzes and Posner

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. -John Quincy Adams

Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed. -Mia Hamm