In much of work and life, a good deal of our success is determined by our habits. Leading a farm operation is no different. The habits of the leader – good or bad – contribute to the level of success the operation experiences.

When we consider habits, we might first think about how to get rid of negative ones. But our energy might be best redirected into setting up or creating new, positive habits. That re-channeling may help us get the most out of our limited time and energy as we lead our operation.

Powerful habits

Most people already have at least several habits. Some might not necessarily be good or bad – merely neutral in terms of their impact. Others we might not even think of as a habit because it’s just ‘the way we do things.’

For example, think about following a particular safety procedure or checklist of items before operating a piece of equipment. We might be so used to doing that – and have trained our employees to always do it, too.

This carries out basically like a habit – we don’t have to tell ourselves each time to do the safety check, we just do it. That’s one way the power of habit can be put to work to advantage on the farm.

Building a behavior

If we’re going to have habits simply because it’s part of human nature, we need to be intentional about creating and cultivating the types of habits that will lead to the success we want.

Start by thinking about what will help your operation achieve success. You might think about this in two ways – for the operation as a whole, and then how you as the farm leader can work to facilitate building it.

Consider the types of behaviors that will make that success happen, and then figure out some specific habits you can implement for yourself around each behavior. Create a clear action plan for how you’re going to repeat the habit until it becomes natural for you to do without even having to think about it. You might set up some type of prompt, like a reminder on your phone or computer, to help initially strengthen the habit.

Take into account how you, personally, best develop a new habit. You might even consider whether you have unintentionally developed any badhabits in your farm business, and then assess how that came to be. You can harness that energy and put it to work in developing a new, more successful habit.

Give it time

Plan to give your new habits some time to strengthen, as most people agree it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to successfully develop a new habit. Over time, it will likely become easier and may seem more like second nature. And if you find that it hasn’t developed from your first attempt, go back to your plan and think of a different path to make it happen.

You can talk with a business advisor for the farm about areas where you’d like to set up new habits as you lead your operation.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.