While many Leading Sheep activities have focused on conventional information gathering opportunities, about 30 producers recently invested in their personal and professional development by undertaking the Building Rural People (BRP) program in Charleville/Cunnamulla and Blackall.

Rural development officer Rob Nielsen, from the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, said the BRP program was developed to help producers think differently, make good business decisions and build family and business relationships in these challenging times.

The program workshop involved an introduction to action learning, leadership temperaments, understanding personality, Myers-Briggs Type indicator, communication, irrational beliefs, time management, visions and goals, affirmations, plans for the future, conflict management, presentation skills and getting positive outcomes through dialogue.

Mark Murphy, from “Karbullah” at Goondiwindi, recognised the worth of investing time in developing these additional skills that are not always valued in the same way that sheep nutrition and genetics knowledge might be.

“Building Rural People is a brilliant concept and I thoroughly enjoyed learning about how groups can work more positively and achieve an energizing high-performance level when everyone pulls in the same direction,” Mr Murphy said.

“My vision is to live and work in the bush, and enjoy what I’m doing. The more I understand about personalities, paradigms and time management, the better I am able to harness the resources and knowledge I need to continually improve my family farm business.”

Stuart Barkla, “Rosscoe Downs” via Cunnamulla said: “Interacting with the group of people in the BRP course was, in itself, an enlightening experience. We’ve all been able to speak about things from different perspectives and that gives us confidence in knowing that we all take something different to a group situation.”

“I also learned that to reach a balance in life is the most important thing we can do. We need to take time out to enjoy life, and that is something we don’t do enough. I encourage more producers to do this type of course because until they experience it, they can’t know the benefit,” Mr Barkla said.

Charleville producer Julia Leeds from “Narran” said: “If we understand ourselves, what makes us tick, why we react in certain ways, the aspects of our personality that need exaggerating or dampening down – we can then learn about others’ strengths and weaknesses.”

“If leadership is defined as the art and process of influencing people so that they strive willingly towards the achievement of shared goals, we must learn about planning, teams and goals,” Ms Leeds said. “For a group of people to become a team, and then a highly functioning team, all roles need to be filled and working effectively to achieve synergy.”

Quilpie producer and Leading Sheep South West coordinator Kyle Rutledge of “Moble” said: “Learning how differently personalities manage change was interesting and is something I’ve never analysed before. It was fascinating to learn about the steps of chosen and unchosen change, and this information clarifies people’s different approaches to change, which helps define and understand their different reactions.”

“Action learning was a new concept for me, and while we may all use many of the aspects at various times, it was very beneficial to deliberately go through the full cycle of Act, Reflect, Ideas and Learnings, Plan, Act to ensure we aren’t inadvertently skipping a vital part of the cycle,” Ms Rutledge said.

The overarching theme of the BRP program was leadership: “Leadership is about influence. It is the art and process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of shared goals,” Mr Nielsen said.

The program was run in three sessions, each of two days, in the Leading Sheep South West and the Central West regions of Queensland during the past three months.