Having worked on and managed larger-herd dairies for the majority of my professional life, I have seen many types of leadership styles.

One trend I have noticed growing over the years is the owners or herdsmen not letting mid-level managers effectively lead their teams. Typically, parlor managers, lead feeders, hospital managers or maternity barn leads reach their position because they were good at the job they were doing. Once they were promoted to these positions, they went from managing things to leading people. Because this takes an entirely different set of management skills, there are often mistakes or misunderstandings that happen.

The reasons for these challenges vary widely in their impact on both the dairy operation and the dairy team, but an even greater impact is how the owner or herdsmen deal with them. The following ideas are some of the best ways I have seen used in helping people become leaders:

1 – Praise in public, be critical in private.
One of the biggest mistakes I see on dairies is when a herdsman criticizes a manager in front of his team or steps in and takes over doing something for the manager while he is standing there. Both of these actions immediately cast doubt on the manager’s ability to accomplish their tasks and they lose the faith and confidence of those they are supposed to be leading. This is especially true if the manager is younger or has less on-farm experience than those they are working with. If there are problems that need to be addressed, be sure to do it behind closed doors and always allow a dialog between the herdsman and manager to remain open and calm.

Along with criticizing in private, herdsmen need to be willing to praise in public. Any positive accomplishments by the manager or team needs to be shared openly so that people can see the positive impact they are having at the dairy. This builds the manager’s importance and value in the eyes of his team and adds to his ability to get the job done. It also provides them with a stepping-stone to accomplish more than they were doing before.

2 – Let team managers help set goals.
Improvement is critical to the continued success of a dairy. Goals are often set up as a way to help managers focus on improvement and gives herdsmen opportunities to evaluate the performance of various dairy teams. Goals, however, can quickly become areas of contention and frustration if they are set without the involvement or understanding of the managers they are given to. Involving managers in goal-setting does three things: it allows them to take ownership of the goals, it allows them to better understand how to obtain the goals and it shows the team that the herdsman trusts the manager’s understanding and judgment of the area they are in charge of. The more managers are involved in goal-setting and decision-making, the more they will strive for excellence and look for better ways to accomplish their tasks to the best of their team’s ability.

3 – Help, don’t hinder.
Herdsmen are regularly called into situations where assistance is needed. This is where helping managers is most critical and the way it is handled will very much make or break a team lead. These times are usually stressful and the immediate reaction of most herdsmen is to take control of the situation and do whatever they feel is necessary to bring it under control. While the problem might get solved in the short-term, the problem will almost always come back again because the manager never learns how to deal with problems. When helping with problems, I would suggest the following:

Remain calm and collected no matter what is happening. The people and animals involved will usually be at a high level of stress already and a calming influence will help more than a rush to judgment. Unless the barn is literally on fire, most situations are not as bad as they first appear.
Always ask the manager how you can help. It is imperative their authority over the situation be maintained so they are still the one who is in charge of the problem to be dealt with.

Listen first, then ask questions. Be sure to get as much information as possible before deciding how to react or respond. Many times, the answer will come from the manager or team members as the dialog flows.

Use the opportunity to teach new skills. Many times, managers have not been fully trained in the area they are having problems with. Be sure to involve them in the resolution process and follow up with any additional training that will help them resolve a similar situation in the future.

Show appreciation for their willingness to work through the problem and save any criticisms for after the situation has been resolved and do so in private.

Take time to review the situation later with the manager to make sure they understand what happened and they have a plan to resolve similar situations in the future. Again, herdsmen can evaluate if more training is needed or if there are deeper issues that need further investigation.
While it is easy to assign people to be a manager, it can be much more challenging to help them develop the skills needed to lead teams. Most successful dairy teams have all faced times when managers have missed a step or run across challenging situations, but they have come to realize these are opportunities to help managers become leaders and are now better for it.  EL

Raul Hurtado
Lead Herdsman