When it’s good, it’s very good, but when it’s bad, it’s awful.
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That’s what Lyn Sykes has seen in 30 years helping farming families to communicate and plan succession.
In order to be in business with your family, you need fairly sophisticated communication skills, says Ms Sykes.
At no time is this more important than during the emotionally heightened period of business transition, where expectations can clash dramatically.
And after visiting just about every backwater Australia has to offer, she can say one thing for certain.
“In every district, everyone has a handful of horror stories where communication has broken down,” Ms Sykes said.
It doesn’t need to be like this however. Ms Sykes has made a career helping families communicate well within their business.
“I try not to talk about the negative things… what I encourage people to do is watch for the signs that things might be starting to go pear shaped, and address them early,” she said.
“It’s a bit like marriage, everybody thinks that their family is the one that it won’t happen to.
“The difference is dealing with a mountain, or a molehill.”
It’s for these reasons that South East Local Land Services has chosen to run their second ‘Women in Grazing’ event on the topic of succession planning.
The events began after Senior Resource Advisor Annelies McGaw noticed that most of the attendees at most of the events held by LLS were men.
“Women are a big driver in a business, and so it’s important that we get those guys involved in the aspect of the business as well,” Ms McGaw said.
“But we also want to make it a good day out. It’s hard for women sometimes to feel they’re allowed to get a day off the farm.”
The aim of the events is not to cover a topic in its entirety, but to provide the basics, and an idea of where to go to explore further.
- The 2018 LLS Women in Grazing event will run in Gunning on Friday March 2, contact Annelies McGaw on 0447 536 096 to RSVP