For New Zealand’s food and fibre leaders, championing change is rewarding and meaningful work. Though these are complex times, where driving a purpose across diverse stakeholders, motivations and attitudes can mean these rewards come at a price.
Increasingly leaders are feeling overwhelmed – with a lot coming at them. They run businesses, sometimes volunteering in their community as well. They wear multiple hats, face multiple responsibilities and all too often burnout lurks behind the next deadline.
To nurture New Zealand’s food and fibre leaders, the Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) is delivering a new programme with a leadership focus, offering the support they need for an uncertain and stressful environment.
‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’ is a short, online programme aimed at grass-roots leaders of change, behind and straddling the farm gate. It’s for both women and men driving change – helping them to manage multiple pressures, calmly and clearly.
Adapted from AWDT’s successful ‘Know your Mindset. Do what Matters’, it aims to understand leaders’ struggles and give them proven, usable tools and techniques to do the same with their teams.
The antidote to tricky times.
Leading is often a lonely place. This new programme connects farmers, growers, rural professionals, and funders across the sector to face common leadership wellbeing issues together.
It’s in this same spirit that AWDT and the New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust (Rural Leaders) have come together as well. Along with the programme’s other partners MPI and Farmstrong, both Trusts are sharing ideas to help grow resilience in leaders today – and tomorrow.
Lisa Sims, AWDT, and Chris Parsons, Rural Leaders, talked recently about the programme and the context it lives in.
What to expect from ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’.
In a time of mounting pressure for rural New Zealanders, participants will learn how stress affects their ability to plan and act effectively as a leader. They gain practical tools to listen for signs of stress in teams or rural communities. They learn how to respond to them and lead them through change.
Running across two evenings, ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’ is presented by a registered Clinical Psychologist and Chartered Organisational Psychologist, alongside AWDT facilitators who work in breakout spaces where participants share stories and support each other. It’s a heavy-hitting line-up of presenters and one with a deep rural knowledge.
Creating a strong base from which to lead.
The programme explores the impact that uncertainty, disruption, and change might have on thinking and behaviour. Participants build on this and develop a shared understanding of how to talk with and support others.
Time is also spent identifying traps for leaders along with learning to use tools to navigate working with people, stress, and emotions.
Participants round out the programme by gaining clarity about the positive changes they can make with their own leadership and building a realistic action plan to make those changes happen.
When, where, and how much does it cost?
The first ‘Know your Mindset. Lead what Matters’ programme is set for:
30 June, 7pm-8.30pm and 7 July, 7pm-9pm.
It is delivered online via Zoom and will cost $45 + GST per person.
To register for this timely programme head to https://www.awdt.org.nz/programmes/know-your-mindset-lead-what-matters/
