Do you consider yourself to be a detail-oriented person? Or do you tend to gravitate toward the “big picture” more often? Maybe you find that you’re somewhere in between those two tendencies, but you may be drawn more often toward one side or the other.

Some of our tendency to be drawn toward details or the overall view is simply part of our personality. Some of it can result from what we’ve needed to focus on in the past –what was required of us in our prior jobs or roles. People can direct themselves (to some extent) to place more focus and emphasis on details or big picture thinking when they need to, but most will still likely tend a bit more toward one or the other.

When you’re leading your farm operation, what would you naturally be drawn more to focus on – the details or the big picture? What feels more interesting to you? I know farm leaders who tend to move toward each one of those – it’s not a good or bad thing either way, but it can help you as a leader to try balancing things out a bit.

Try this

One way to do that is to spend some time intentionally on the side where you might be inclined to place less of your focus. That way, you can check for any blind spots in your thinking or see if there’s anything you’re missing while problem-solving in your operation.

This can seem like a difficult thought exercise if you heavily gravitate toward one side or the other most of the time. But it can be very helpful as you’re leading the people in your operation into the future you desire, especially if you have big goals and plans for that future. Doing this can even help make you a better leader of your farm.

Another way to accomplish this is to work closely with someone else who has the opposite focus as you in terms of details or big picture thinking. This might be another leader, your spouse, someone else in your operation, or an advisor. The end result is that your different perspectives come together to bring different insights and ideas when it comes to your farm operation.

Bring it together

Farm leaders, especially those who tend to move toward detail-oriented thinking, have found this helpful as they lead their businesses. Many farmers have excellent skills in troubleshooting production and operational issues on their farms, likely because that’s what they were required to focus on in the past. They honed those skills by paying attention to the details and became excellent at solving problems in their operations.

By partnering with someone else in their operation or a third-party advisor, they find they’re able to bring more balanced perspective to their business decision-making and help increase the overall success of their operation.

The farm leaders consistently bring in and use big picture, future-oriented thinking, as well as learn how to increase their own skills and abilities to do that themselves. Often this is a big win for the forward-thinking farm leaders who prioritize it.

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.