AgriLeader Forum 2022: Shaping the balance

The 2022 AgriLeader Forum took place on 8–9 February, thank you to everyone who attended and made it such a success. We hope it sparked lots of ideas and that you feel motivated and inspired to take your business to the next level.

Shaping the balance

The AgriLeader Forum: Shaping the balance was a two-day event aimed at forward-thinking farmers and growers.

It provided a perfect opportunity to meet like-minded people who want to take their businesses to the next level and enabled delegates to tap into a wealth of insight and advice from our expert panel of speakers.

We challenged you to reflect on your own business and leadership style, and provided examples of leadership and management from other industries that you might be able to apply to your business.

Useful resources

Declutter your thoughts and free your mind

Watch Rebecca Roberts' tips about how to take control of your life and slow things down

The AgriLeader Forum depicted in cartoons

View the cartoons from the event

Talk Club

Talk club

How are you? Out of 10? Let’s Talk Club about it.

Extraordinary leadership framework

Download the extraordinary leadership framework to use with your team

What was the line-up?

The AgriLeader Forum focused on getting the balance right across the three pillars essential for running a successful business: leading yourself, leading your team and leading your business.

Day 1: Tuesday 8 February

Consciously create your legacy: small actions for powerful impact – Rebecca Roberts, mindset coach

Stay ahead of the curve while growing a business in a storm – Panel Q&A

The panel included: Tom Crotty, Director at INEOS Group; Sophie Devonshire, Author of ‘Superfast: Lead at Speed’ and CEO of The Marketing Society; and Joe Stanley, Head of training at Allerton Project.

How are you out of 10? – Ben Akers, founder of Talk Club

7:00pm Drinks reception and dinner, sponsored by Barclays plc

Our after-dinner speaker was Chemmy Alcott, an English former World Cup alpine ski racer and a fiercely determined and courageous sportswoman.

As the only British female skier to ever win a run in a World Cup, she is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest ever skiers. Chemmy talked about her life story and her journey through elite sport and beyond.

Day 2: Wednesday 9 February

Balancing your leadership to build a better business – Brad Waldron, Intelligent Inspiration

Handout: Five drivers that move employees into desired states of being

Don’t get comfortable in the home-straight – Brad Waldron, Intelligent Inspiration

Handout: Extraordinary leadership – where do you invest your time?

The challenge of innovative leadership – doing things differently – Rebecca Roberts and Brad Waldron

Meet the speakers

Rebecca Roberts

Consciously create your legacy: small actions for powerful impact

Rebecca Roberts is a mindset coach and founder of Inner Architecture. She focused on bringing more ease to the mind and more calmness and trust to one’s next steps. She tasked delegates to think about the next chapter of their lives and helped them realise that each of us can create and choose our next chapter. But to do this you need to set aside space and have a clear direction.

Implement little changes to start the momentum and take control of your next chapter.

Sophie Devonshire

Stay ahead of the curve while growing a business in a storm

Sophie Devonshire is CEO of The Marketing Society and Author of ‘Superfast: Lead at Speed’.

Sophie shared tips, tools, techniques, stories and insights to help delegates think about how they can grow their businesses during a storm.

She focused on the importance of prioritisation and making space to learn. She also talked about managing your energy, rather than your time, as being a priority for any leader, because your energy allows you to make things happen and keeps you (and your team) positive.

Sophie’s key message: Manage your energy, be ruthless with your prioritisation and work on your empathy.

Joe Stanley

Stay ahead of the curve while growing a business in a storm

Joe Stanley is an experienced farmer and regular columnist for Farmers Weekly and NFU Countryside. He is also the author of Farm to Fork: The challenge of sustainable farming in 21^st century Britain.

At the AgriLeader Forum 2022, Joe joined a panel of guests to discuss growing a business during difficult times and looking at challenges with a fresh perspective. He stressed the importance of marginal gains to build resilience into businesses and the value of trying new things.

Ben Akers

How are you feeling out of 10?

"I’m not a mental health expert. I’m a film maker, a problem solver, a talker. And in 2014, I lost my mate Steve, to suicide. I wanted to stop the next Steve taking his own life. So I made a film (and toured the country with it)."

Ben Akers is a co-founder of Talk Club. He spoke about his journey, his experiences and the need for mental fitness.

Talk Club is a talking and listening club for men, helping to keep you mentally fit by giving you a secure and private space to share and support others.

Find out more about Talk Club: wetalkclub.com/

Brad Waldron

Balancing your leadership to build a better business

Brad Waldron is the founder of Intelligent Inspiration and has a proven record of helping others to succeed.

He shared experiences, insights and takeaways to help delegates grow their businesses and shape their balance. Brad challenged delegates to go away and think about the small things they could do daily to have a compound impact on their businesses.

What do you want your business to do for you and what’s important about that? The answer will help you focus on the things that matter, not just the job at hand.