What investing in Ag leadership actually looks like.

Written By Amelia Unthank

Nine young industry leaders and their established mentors gathered in Brisbane last week for their first face-to-face engagement. It marks the start of Graeme Acton Beef Connections – a 12-month program in the lead up to Beef 2027.  

Running for the fifth time, the program is designed to grow future leaders in the Australian beef industry. It was an idea originally developed by the Beef 2015 NextGen Committee, and the Beef Australia board named the program in honour of Graeme Acton to recognise his contribution to the agricultural industry and its younger generations.

Young leaders were selected from a national pool after outlining their resumes and roles in beef, detailing where they see themselves in 5 years and pitching an industry-based project. Their mentors were purposefully matched and generously committed their time and perspectives to the program.  

They are as follows:

The program brings together ongoing online engagement, work on an industry project and three face-to-face workshops - culminating at Beef 2027 - all facilitated by Jo Eady from RuralScope. 

Jo captures it best: “I like to think that this program's evolved into not just being about developing leaders. It's actually about developing leadership. And leadership encompasses processes. It encompasses systems. It encompasses the whole of the industry. So, I think we are in that stage where, sure, the program has nine people in it. But we're not just working to develop them as leaders. We're working to develop, change, challenge and innovate the leadership of an industry.”

The two days in Brisbane saw plenty of opportunity for leadership development.  Introductions to personality styles, defining values, the power of leadership influence and the mentoring relationship model laid the blueprint. Guest presentations from Lachie Hart, Georgie Somerset and Andrea Crothers brought it to life. The enthusiasm the cohort arrived with did the rest.

When asked why the two days in Brisbane were important, Jo said: “They're important to take time out. They're important for young people to come together. It's important for them to understand and set in place goals for their own leadership. But to jointly set goals as a team as well. We don't have enough of this going on at the moment.” 

And what did this all mean to me? Let me say upfront that the Brisbane workshop changed my life. It sounds dramatic, because it is. 

There's something quietly remarkable about arriving with a loose idea and leaving two days later with the kind of clarity you didn't know you were missing. I came with a half-formed project and left knowing exactly what it was, why it mattered and where it was going.

I met eight people, brought together by one industry. We learnt about our differences, and somewhere in that difference, I found out things about myself I hadn't thought to look for. Confronting in the moment. Comforting in the company of people going through the same thing.

The age old saying  ‘you don’t know until you know’ feels like a great way to sum up my time in Brisbane and the start of Graeme Acton Beef Connections. For young people like me, you don’t understand the power of leadership and self-reflection until granted the opportunity to spend time and have space to do so, particularly in a work context. For people in support of programs like Graeme Acton Beef Connections, you don’t know the impact it has until you too have the opportunity to participate or until you get to read a piece like this.

So welcome, I look forward to writing in this space over the next 12 months and sharing the conversations and lessons that rarely get written down.

View this article on beef central: https://www.beefcentral.com/news/graeme-acton-beef-connections-members-journey-towards-beef-2027/

Amelia Unthank
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