CEO of Dairygold co-op Jim Woulfe delivered an honest, frank and open account of what leadership means to him personally to a large audience at the Nuffield conference in Castleknock last Friday. Jim, ever humble, was at strains to point out that this isn’t his usual scene, nor does he want to start on “the circuit” as a public speaker at functions.

Jim broke leadership down into three main areas – passion, honesty and vision.

Passion

Jim loves what he is doing in his role in Dairygold, delivering a strong co-op for local suppliers, the local community and for the country as a whole.

However, the challenge for a leader is to pass on this enthusiasm to the rest of the team and instil the same passion in them.

He made the point that the best teachers are passionate about what they do and about what they are teaching. This motivates them to do a better job.

Jim stressed the importance of personal development here, enabling people to develop with training, education and mentoring. This gives them the ability to progress within the organisation and to help it grow into the future.

Honesty

Jim feels that honesty and integrity are essential traits for leaders in any organisation.

A certain selflessness is required where the needs of the company and other stakeholders, such as suppliers, customers, employees and even the local community, are put ahead of the leader’s personal goals.

These stakeholders depend on the leader to perform and to deliver what’s best for them.

You get the impression here that, as a member of the local agricultural community, Jim wants to be able to look his neighbours in the eye, confident in the knowledge that he is doing his best for them at all times.

Vision

Jim feels that vision is hugely important for leaders in any organisation. Vision is seeing where the company needs to go over the next five to 10 years.

But real clarity is about seeing how to get from point A to point B. He quotes successful American football coach Vince Lombardi’s vision for the Green Bay Packers when he took over as head coach in 1959.

He wanted his team to be the best, but to get there, his vision was “to be brilliant at the basics”.

A quote that connects equally well over 50 years later with almost any walk of life, but particularly the agri-sector and dairying through a period of expansion.

Jim has spent the last 35 years working in the Dairygold organisation. He spent most of the early days in the 1980s trying to develop himself. In his own words, “I went looking for knowledge”.

While trying not to look arrogant, he completed courses in executive development, HR, finance and leadership for growth. He was preparing himself for opportunities if they arose.

He describes the time of his appointment as CEO in 2009 as one of the toughest the company had ever experienced.

“It was a daunting experience,” he told the Nuffield gathering. “The morale of employees and suppliers was desperately low, as was milk price and financial performance. Most of the company’s energy was being used in a negative way in defending its position and on damage limitation.”

Jim’s vision was to turn this around and to start to work on positive issues, such as the growth opportunity provided by the abolition of quotas in 2015. Of course, it helps to be a lucky general and a milk price rise after only two months in the job helped to progress all plans from there on.

Jim spoke about building a team and about the importance of communication within that process. He tries to afford everyone in the organisation the opportunity to meet him and his senior management team at meetings in the spring.

With 8,800 suppliers and 1,150 employees, it’s a massive challenge to keep everyone informed at all times. The clear communication of business strategy and targets from management to employees lets everyone understand why they do what they do on a daily basis.

This, Jim felt, was crucial in driving a performance culture aligned to business strategy.

When trying to relate his experiences back to farm level, Jim spoke about building your own farm team.

He cited Prof Thomas Rafferty of UCC as someone that he used as a mentor and that his infectious enthusiasm influenced Jim’s progress through his life. Maybe farmers and young farmers in particular need to use mentors like this a bit more.

Jim emphasised the importance of right management team in place and used the Jim Collins bus analogy of getting the right people on the bus/team. Even more important was getting the wrong people off the bus, and even more crucial was making sure everyone on the bus is sitting in the right seat.

Maybe we can do this a bit more at farm level, with employees, family, advisers, accountants, contractors and bank managers.

When looking to the future, Jim spoke with enthusiasm about the potential to grow dairying by 60% in his region, post-quota. He spoke about talent emerging in the Dairygold organisation to take it to the next level.

He also discussed plans to develop the education of co-op members and farmer suppliers a lot more in the future, to ensure that the right people are given the appropriate skills to drive the organisation forward through the next chapter of its history.

Another Vince Lombardi quote probably sums Jim up very well: “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.”

* Kilkenny dairy farmer Bill O‘Keeffe is a Nuffield scholar.