By Alfie Comber, Assistant Business Manager, Kingdom Farming LLP
In my role as Assistant Business Manager at Kingdom Farming, I'm involved in everything from crop walking and grain storage to planning, people management and helping oversee different parts of the business.
As my responsibilities have grown, so has the need to keep learning.
I think there's always something to be learned. It might be investing time in formal learning opportunities like I did with Growing Tomorrow's Leaders. Other times, it's something smaller that makes life a bit easier:
- Something you notice on a farm walk - a minor detail that changes the way you do something
- A conversation with a colleague - picking up a new way of approaching a job or solving a problem
- An idea shared through a benchmarking group - learning what is working well for others or what isn't
- A podcast when you're out in a tractor - alternating between something light-hearted and something more educational
- Seeing how someone else approaches a challenge - often there is more than one way to get the right result
The more I learn, the more confidence it gives me to make decisions, put ideas forward and understand the reasoning behind them.
That's why I invested time in Growing Tomorrow's Leaders. And my advice to anyone new to a leadership role, whatever stage you're at, is to do it - sign up and commit to it.
Switch your phone off, put an out of office on and give yourself permission to be unreachable for the day. Tell people to text if it's urgent and, if not, you'll pick it up tomorrow.
Give yourself the time to focus on what you're learning and to reflect on it. It's important to think about what you've been doing that day rather than what everyone else has been doing.
The work will still be there tomorrow, but the opportunity to step back, learn and reflect doesn't come along every day.
For me, it's been time well spent.
Applications to join the next cohort of Growing Tomorrow's Leaders are now being accepted, and the programme qualifies for funding from both the Women in Agriculture and the Small Producer Practical Training Funds. Find more information on the button below.
