Who is The Focussed Farmers Project for?
First and foremost, Focussed Farmers is focussed on farmers, not farming - that's your job!
It's not about farming, it’s about farmers. It’s not about service provision – it’s about service providers. It doesn't matter what type of farming you do or what practices and methods you use, your life is your own, to lead your in own way and what you choose to do with it is your business to take charge of. What matters is that you want to take some action to move forward from where you are to get the most from your business, from the land you farm or work on and make the most of your family - whilst enjoying daily life and even having a laugh!
How did it come about the agricultural sector?
Holly Beckett undertook a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 2015 looking at what physical practices and tools could be introduced into farm businesses to develop more consistent leadership and improve the work-life of people within a business and in turn, the productivity of individuals and organisation as a whole. Holly looked at business practices and leadership predominantly outside of agriculture and was interested in how to increase the four pillars of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and social-management - the foundation of effective communication".After finding mindfulness training providing huge benefits to business performance, productivity and profitability as well as improving general overall well-being for people. The Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust funded the pilot study of introduce mindfulness to agriculture. Holly and Willie Horton, a psychologist she had met on her Nuffield travels, set about to measure what being more mindful for farmers would look, feel and sound like.
The 12-part free series is presented by Willie Horton, psychologist and consultant in the field of personal, team and leadership development since 1996 with a lot of interesting things to say.
“I see major benefits for farmers to try something new for themselves, I have been sharing these personal & leadership development techniques with business leaders for a long time and my work is built on 20 years of research into cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Alongside sharpening their overall game and achieving just what they want to achieve, when they want it, my clients reduce stress dramatically and learn to become, more focussed, more productive and a lot less 'hot-headed' in their workplace and within their family environment.”
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