It’s important to be selective about what advice you take when achieving your own goals, whether those are personal or business.
That was the message from Nathan Burke, ex-AFL player and now AFL women’s coach, at the South Gippsland Dairy Expo in September.
The South Gippsland Dairy Expo is an annual field days event aimed principally at the dairy farmer.
After two years’ hiatus because of pandemic lockdowns, this year’s event attracted a bigger field of exhibitors, according to organiser Deanne Kennedy.
The event also had more sponsors this year. There were 15 gold sponsors, with Reid Stockfeeds the sole platinum level sponsor. Reid Stockfeeds has been a sponsor of the expo since it began in 2000.
A new sponsor this year was Westpac, and the bank combined with Reid Stockfeeds to pay for Nathan Burke to attend and present a workshop on setting and achieving goals.
His presentation was broad and focused on more than connecting with the audience through a few football-themed analogies.
In fact, he only referred to his AFL career when he mentioned that his AFLW team had a banner on the wall stating ‘2 by 25’ — setting the goal of two premierships won by 2025.
Nathan said achieving this goal meant ensuring that everyone understands what success looks like, on a daily and long-term basis. It included hiring team members who complemented the team but who also contributed different skills that benefited the team overall.
Success was also dependent on good communication.
“Does everyone know what your business goals are?,” Nathan said.
“Does every decision you make as a farmer build on your goals, or detract from them?
“If the decision takes us away from our goal, how do we rethink it?”
He said the culture of the workplace should be an active decision-making process, rather than allowed to evolve or be shaped by the loudest or most dominant personality.
Cultural levers that help design success in the workplace included leadership, structure, behaviours, communication and mindset.
“Is leadership shared and are you training people in leadership in your workplace? Leadership is a shared practice that helps spread the load in your workplace,” Nathan said.
“How are you rewarding people for their work and commitment to your workplace? Recognise who is doing the extra work in your workplace. Give people a pat on the back.
“Give people the opportunity through pathways and structure to feel a valued part of your workplace.
“Tell them what success for the business looks like and the goals and timelines you have in mind to achieve that success.
“Notice people’s behaviour in your workplace. Be aware you can learn how to design good behaviour in your workplace. Teamwork is about every team member supporting each other.
“Communicate well, both in written form and verbally. Be clear. Be honest. Be supportive. Tool box conversations enable everyone to be part of conversations and decision making.
“Mindset is a hard thing to change. If you, the boss, don’t want to grow your business, why would you expect employees to bother working hard in your workplace?
“Successful people choose how they want to think, feel and act. Reflecting your attitude into your workplace affects how productive your team is.
“People react or respond to the attitude that others bring into your workplace.
“They may fear making mistakes, which causes them to continue making mistakes. Or they build confidence in themselves and each other, based on your response as their boss.”
In summary, Nathan said positive behaviours included taking personal responsibility, ownership and accountability for behaviour in the workplace.
“If there’s a problem in the workplace, don’t dwell on who’s to blame,” he said.
“Identify what system failure led to the problem, and work together to resolve that.”