Publicly listed company, Tas Foods, is a relatively new player in the food industry, but its brands and products are tried and tested with some being decades old.  A common thread they all share is their innovation and commitment to quality. We recently visited Tas Foods in Launceston and spent time with Managing Director / CEO, Jane Bennett.  Jane shared with us the vision, future pathway, access to capital, criteria for business / brand acquisitions as well as her insights into leadership.  And great insights they are from this established leader, here are the best of the best for you.....

Leadership is a large topic.  It is essential to those looking to influence positive change.  It is easy to see both effective and ineffective examples of leadership in action.  A great question to ask is "What makes the difference?" We think the difference comes down to understanding the practices and commitments of effective leadership. We have developed 6 practices and 12 commitments of Inspired Leadership based on the work of Kouzes and Posner.  We find that shining a light on these helps in being able to develop and implement effective leadership on a day to day basis.  You can see them below and then download your very own poster copy for free.  We suggest you display the practices and commitments poster where you will see it each day. We'd love to hear your feedback.  Does the Inspired Leadership poster demystify leadership for you?  Email us here.                                

I want to share a key activity we do here at RuralScope each and every January.  It's a simple one and is great for team building as all staff can participate.  But the best part of all is that it cleans the slate ready to bring in new things for the year ahead. We call it CLEANSWEEP.  We grab our diaries and go through each month identifying key things we did / achieved / mucked up etc etc for each month.  And through this process we jot down the highlights as we go.  And we also acknowledge things that didn't go to plan and let them go.  It is a fabulous time for each of us to reflect, review, acknowledge, let go and celebrate.  One thing I know for sure is that it creates pride and allows each of us the time to re-calibrate for the year ahead.  We have just completed our CLEANSWEEP, here's what we found.....                         

Tough conversations like succession planning, which house to live in on farm when married, changes to crop rotations and sheep versus cropping etc are a necessary part of life.  And especially so in many farming businesses where everyone works and lives together. Yet it is common for us to not have these tough conversations, in fact many of us will go out of our way to avoid them.  Having the conversation is uncomfortable, risky and unpredictable.  In the short term it is easy to turn  blind eye and do nothing.  But, in the long run, short term pain is worth the long term gain.  It is important to speak up and speak your truth!