Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL)

by Eric Kaufman -- A few months ago, The Leadership Quarterly published an article on “Zombie leadership: Dead ideas that still walk among us” (Haslam et al., 2024) .  The article focuses on the “strong residual commitment to an older set of ideas which have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die” (p. 1).  For example, one of the axioms of zombie leadership is that “leadership is a special skill limited to special people.”  This belief persists, despite “mountains of research” that highlight the detrimental effects of leadership approaches based on elitism (e.g., focusing on “high potentials”).  These zombie ideas are problematic because they limit the potential of leadership development.  As noted in the article: “By only looking for leadership amongst leaders we only find it there and bury all signs of leadership from below. By only recognizing, training, selecting and nurturing a few in positions of leadership we ensure tha...

by Curt Friedel -- You may have heard something that we have a leadership gap, with several books and articles more recently being written about this phenomenon. What is the leadership gap? In the simplest way, it can be described as the perception of current leaders being inadequate for the challenges of the future. The leadership gap is supported by research. Consider the following: §   Rosenthal, in the National Study in Confidence in Leadership (2012) – Discovered that 69% agree America is in a leadership crisis. §   Bailey 2017 – Fount that 13% of employees said their boss was dangerously incompetent. §   RandstatUSA (2018) – Indicates that 60% of employees left their jobs or are considering leaving because they don’t like their supervisor. A few key points are indicated in these citations. The leadership gap is global, it is across industries and beyond politics and started before the Covid-19 international pandemic. This is a small selection of research o...

by Curt Friedel -- One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is to find the websites offering the year in pictures. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and tells a story of significant events of the past year. Sometimes, the pictures are associated with a newsworthy event; sometimes, the picture is a colorful and beautiful moment. It seems like each picture offers a glimpse of our humanity, and sometimes our inhumanity. Pictures offer a great opportunity to reflect on what we can be proud of, and what we could do better or different. Some great websites for seeing the year-in-pictures include: CNN - https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/specials/year-in-pictures/ The Associated Press - https://apnews.com/article/photos-2023-yearend-photography-ap-0a62ee84672da7a03685c5f5f64f2c47 Time - https://time.com/6337364/top-100-photos-2023/ Reuters - https://www.reuters.com/pictures/pictures-year-2023-2023-11-28/ What does your year of pictures look like? Maybe you ta...

By Megan Seibel  --  Did you know that the full proverb is actually " Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back? "  I didn't.  Of course, I had heard and been told the front portion many a time over my decades of life. To say I am a "curious" person is an understatement. Learner and Input are part of my  Clifton StrengthsFinder  profile. My college roommate and I decided that by the time we were parents our goal was to know at least a little bit about everything (yes, we thought that was normal as 19 year-olds)! As I became an adult, however, I remember others aligning negative connotations to this old proverb. As far as I was concerned, it didn't matter to me if curiosity killed the cat; cats have nine lives, after all.  It is my nature to ask questions. Lots of questions . And I did. In certain settings, though, I started to notice that the practice of asking questions didn't always seem the "popular" thing to ...

By Jama Coartney --  As the demand for leadership skills increases, instructors and administrators are faced with some tough decisions about how to proceed and meet both the technical as well as leadership skills. With an education pathway already jam-packed, how do you add more leadership development into the curriculum? Segmented Approach Integrated Approach  One approach involves increasing the availability of courses dedicated to leadership skills.  Another option involves integrating aspects of leadership into already existing courses. Both approaches have their advantages.  In addition to opportunities for leadership development through coursework, students in agriculture programs also an additional option—internships.  Internships provide students a unique opportunity to gain experience and leadership development as they work toward completing their degree program.