This fall and harvest season, it will be well worth it to spend some time considering your farm’s future and successor leader.

Farms could be in any number of scenarios when it comes to the idea of planning for the farm’s next leader. Maybe the farm’s current leader has been planning for retirement for several years and has already decided who the successor leader will be.

Maybe it will be many years before the current leader will want to step away from the operation and there hasn’t been any discussion about who the next leader might be. Or maybe a handoff of leadership and management to the next generation is already in process.

Getting started

You might be the farm’s next leader and you’re just not quite sure what you can be working on to improve your skills. You might have questions about the timeframes for when certain responsibilities might transfer over to you – but it’s tough to start those types of discussions when there’s so much that needs to be done on the farm each day.

This fall and winter is a good opportunity to give your farm’s future plans some thought and direction, regardless of whether you’re close to retirement.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to consider who will be the farm’s next leader. Maybe there’s a very obvious choice for the next leader – a member of the next generation who has been on the farm for some time and is very knowledgeable about what’s required.

Related:How much are we leaving in the field?

Or it might take a bit more creativity to think about who the next leader might be or should be. There might not be a family member coming back to the farm, so more attention needs to be given to finding out if there’s a young person from the area who is interested in running the operation.

Planning it

Any scenario for a potential future leader requires both desire on the part of the future leader, their willingness to learn the management and leadership skills necessary to run the operation, and strong plans between the current and future leader regarding the timeframes for the transfer of leadership responsibilities and ownership.

Plans can be created that allow the transfer to happen gradually. There’s no need – and it’s likely not best – for a transfer to occur very quickly or abruptly. The goal of good planning would be to get the future leader up to speed so that they’re ready to lead long before the actual transfer happens. That way, the transfer can happen as quickly or as slowly as the current leader would like.

The current leader might stay involved in the operation however they choose, even after leadership responsibilities have been transferred to the future leader. Leaders can get training plans in place for the next leader – one-on-one training with the current leader, books to read, seminars to attend, advisors or coaches to work with. There are many options to create learning plans for the future leader.

Related:Market looks to the Southern Hemisphere

Get the conversation started with your future leader this fall and winter – or if you’re the younger generation on the farm, you could get things started by sharing an article like this one.

How are you navigating this market?

Farmers have found that getting some third-party perspective from our market advisors has helped ease their minds. The advisors help farmer clients with planning and execution around marketing decisions and help keep them up to speed on the rapidly-changing grain market situation – and how it impacts their operation.

Get a free two-week trial of our marketing information service (MarketView Basic). Your free trial includes regular audio and video updates, technical analysis, recommendations and more. Learn more about our market advisor programs and offerings at www.waterstreetag.com.