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Farmers have a long history of knowing how to tough it out during tough times. They take necessary steps to protect their businesses and to fortify their financial foundations until better days arrive.

Jay Akridge, Purdue University ag economist, recently reviewed two articles in the Harvard Business Review that focused on leadership during uncertain times and why some companies find growth opportunities amid uncertainty. Akridge's takeaways provide valuable guidance and insight for farmers and ranchers, regardless of the scope of their operation and whether they are a team, one or many.

Let's start with volatility that piles up to the point of becoming potentially debilitating to the organization, in this case your farming operation, and the attributes you need to lean on to navigate unpredictability.

-- Create thick trust. Counter unpredictability with your own predictability. Deliver on commitments. Approach decisions in a consistent way. This will allow you to move ahead with confidence despite ongoing fears of the unknown.

-- Inoculate your vision. Lean on your business plan, mission statement or vision. While you may be whipsawed by external factors beyond your control, keep focused on where you are going. You will find a path through.

-- Increase honesty and transparency. False hope such as you won't be affected by the current challenges is damaging. You must be honest with yourself.

-- Frame uncertainty as opportunity. Focus your energy on making the most of chaotic times. A mindset concentrating on hunkering down, pulling back and waiting out challenging times is not a formula for success.

How can you find opportunity during uncertainty? Akridge gleaned this advice from the articles' authors.

-- Prioritize disruptive forces. Uncertainty brings multiple challenging headwinds. The most successful firms (individuals) make choices and prioritize the most important of those headwinds as they develop their plans.

-- Drive disruption/embrace change. Those who find growth in uncertain times tend to be the same ones who create disruption in their industry in "normal" times. They are not afraid of major changes in their business model.

-- Learn and develop people/use data. Superior performers promoted (and expected) learning at every level of the organization, focusing on the professional development of their people -- themselves included. These leaders' "appetite for advice was 20 percentage points higher" than leaders of less successful companies. Data infused their decisions at much higher levels.

-- Prioritize pace over perfection. You need the ability to take a punch during uncertain times (resilience), but you also need to be able to throw a punch. The most successful leaders focus on getting ahead of problems, not belaboring decisions, and on execution and follow-through rather than deep, strategic analysis to identify the "perfect path." "Let's wait this out" may seem like a more prudent response, but successful firms move forward even if the path is not smooth and straight.

-- Act, learn, act again. Firms capitalizing on uncertainty had a penchant for action, not analysis -- in part because the unknowable nature of uncertainty means no amount of analysis will get you to the right answer. Probe, test and respond; learn, try and determine what path may be best. Then, take action, learn from that action, refine/redirect/reload and act again.

Akridge stresses that making decisions in highly uncertain environments is different than navigating the normal ups and downs of a market. You need to dig deeply into the most fundamental factors affecting your business. Winning means embracing the inevitable change that uncertainty brings, putting data to work to better understand the uncertainty every day. Take action rather than sitting on your hands waiting for the proverbial storm to clear. Make decisions, learn quickly from those decisions and refine and refocus, as needed.

It's easy to lose heart during tough times. But, for the prepared, such times can strengthen your resolve and your resilience.

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-- Email Gregg Hillyer at gregg.hillyer@dtn.com, or follow Gregg on social platform X @GreggHillyer

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