Leave the jersey in a better place
It goes without saying that every year the GenAngus Future Leaders program comes to its conclusion, that the faciliator, speakers and Angus Australia staff walk away (or fly in this case) wondering how that year can be topped, but what is clear is that each GenAngus cohort certainly ‘leaves the jersey in a better place’.
The ‘legacy’ that each cohort of GenAngus leaves behind continues to astound as we witnessed growth, mindset change, friendship and network development and increased confidence of the thirteen young leaders that made up the 2024 cohort, over four days in Christchurch New Zealand at the end of May.
Angus Australia Extension Officer, Nancy Crawshaw and facilitator Milly Nolan welcomed everyone to the 2024 GenAngus Future Leaders program with a proper Māori welcome and encouraged the leaders to immerse themselves in the mantra of ‘Kaitiakitanaga: Guardians of the land for future generations.’
Lessons in Leadership
Prior to GenAngus each attendee was sent a copy of James Kerr’s book, Legacy – What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life. Throughout the book, James Kerr goes deep into the heart of the world’s most successful team, the New Zealand All Blacks, to help understand what it takes to bounce back from adversity and still reach the top.
It is a book about leading a team or an organisation – but, more importantly, about leading a life.
From the book the 15 lessons of leadership to focus on include:
- Character
- Adapt
- Purpose – Why?
- Responsibility
- Learn
- Whanau
- Expectations
- Preparation
- Pressure
- Authenticity
- Sacrifice
- Language
- Ritual
- Whakpapa
- WRITE YOUR LEGACY
The central themes that came to the fore over the week always came back to ‘Whakapapa’ and ‘Whānau’.
Whakapapa: Be a good ancestor. Plant trees you’ll never see. Whakapapa is a Maori expression that signifies the interdependence of everything. One of the overarching responsibilities of being an All Black is to “leave the jersey in a better place.” This means to work incrementally toward a better collective outcome and to be a custodian of the future. For the All Blacks as well as other great organizations, the legacy is more intimidating than the opposition. Seeing this bigger picture really keeps things in perspective. All of a sudden, it’s not about you at all. The All Blacks have an expression, “You don’t own the jersey, you are just the body in the jersey.” This creates reverence and a deep commitment to a much larger purpose that for the All Blacks dates back over a century.
Our whānau is defined by our whakapapa and the connections we hold. For others, your whānau is the people and the place that you feel that you belong to, a part of your life that is deeply connected to your identity. Whānau relationships are different for everyone because they’re made up of unique individuals with different needs, personalities, opinions and ways of doing things.
To put this into perspective for GenAngus, their whanau is their Angus Family and the GenAngus Family they have joined and their whakapapa is ultimately their legacy, they are custodians of their land, the Angus breed and the GenAngus Future Leaders Program.
A program designed to challenge
With these lessons in mind, GenAngus kicked off with an ‘alumni takeover’ which saw Lori Fogarty, Pete McNamara and Zeke Bennet form the 2023 cohort take charge and lead the attendees through team building and ice breaker sessions which included asking complete strangers to have a conversation about beef and working out brain teasers.
The group then moved off site to for a bit of friendly competition at Velocity Karts and despite the wind not playing the game, everyone (or most) managed to find a way to get the Blokarts moving, as well as enjoying the Driftkarts and bit of human foosball.
Day 1 finished with the formal dinner and insights from Rhys Roberts CEO Align Farms, Lynda Coppersmith CEO New Zealand Young Farmers, Angus Australia CEO Scott Wright and President Sinclair Munro and concluded up with a panel of 2023 GenAngus Alumni including Lori Fogarty, Zeke Bennett and Pete McNamara.
The Program
With an aim to equip participants with the necessary business skills and knowledge to kickstart their own beef cattle enterprise or elevate their existing ventures, GenAngus delivered a four-day intensive workshop, that saw participants will connect with a wide range of industry professionals on current and emerging themes impacting the future of beef production and the agricultural industry, including:
Sir Graham Henry, former All Blacks Coach, gave an insight into legacy and culture about his time as head coach of the All Blacks during the building of the team becoming one the most successful sporting groups in the world.
Grant Sidnam, Alistair King, Phil Creagh and Hayden Dillon, Hamilton Locke gave an all-important presentation on succession planning.
Richard Officer, Achmea Australia, shared insights into farm insurance and important on-farm risk mitigation strategies.
James Knight, The Sisters Pastoral shared the insights, learnings and outcomes within his commercial Angus operation, including the wins and losses.
Marie FitzPatrick, Timperlea Angus shared about her experience being part of and then leading youth related events in the New Zealand agricultural industry, along with her experience in family succession.
Milly Nolan, DISC profiling for each of the participants and how this can assist in understanding themselves and others in their leadership journeys.
Sarah Horrocks, Horrocks Media provided a breakdown of social media and digital marketing strategies.
Simon Quilty, Global Agritrends, with a deep into the latest markets and his predictions for the future.
Rounding out the program was the highly anticipated Great debate where the topics: Being good looking is better than being smart’;
‘Angus cattle in Australia are better than New Zealand’ and ‘Generational turnover is more important than legacy,’ were enthusiastically argued.
To conclude the program, the group were invited to ‘leave their mark’ and develop ideas for the future through a SWOT Analysis, that will see both GenAngus and the Angus breed succeed in to the future and ultimately ‘leave the jersey in a better place.
An investment in the future
The success of the 2024 GenAngus Program would not have been possible without the support of the partners that ensure that this cornerstone of youth leadership in agriculture can continue.
Since 2019, Angus Australia’s alliance with specialist agricultural insurer Achmea Australia has supported more than 60 future leaders through the GenAngus Future Leaders Program. With the completion of the sixth program, Angus Australia would like to acknowledge Achmea Australia for their unwavering support to help nurture the next generation of agricultural leaders.
Emma Thomas, CEO of Achmea Australia addressed this year’s GenAngus participants, and congratulated the successful young beef industry leaders and acknowledged their commitment to advancing the beef industry.
Angus New Zealand sponsored two of their members, Emma Hussey and Jim Burrows to attend and Rabobank New Zealand sponsored the appearance of Lawrence Field to ensure the young leaders are armed with the financial knowledge they need to succeed in business.
– Diana Wood, Marketing & Communications Manager
