What it takes to lead from the ground up

When people think of leadership, they usually picture corner offices and boardrooms. But some of the most tested, resilient leaders don’t wear suits – they wear work boots.

If you farm potatoes, you already know that your job encompasses far more than agronomy. You are a CEO, a risk manager, a logistics expert, and a team builder. Potato farming is high-stakes and capital-intensive. Between seed costs, fertiliser, specialised equipment, and the constant threat of blight or a sudden freeze, the pressure is relentless.

How you handle that pressure dictates not only your yield’s success, but the strength of the team behind you.

In this article, we focus on what effective leadership looks like in the modern potato business.

1. Leading through instability

A good leader provides stability when circumstances are unstable. In agriculture, instability is the only guarantee. You can do everything right, prep the soil perfectly, time your planting flawlessly, and manage your irrigation. Yet a stretch of bad weather or a market crash can still threaten the season.

When a crisis hits, whether it is a broken harvester during a weather window or a sudden drop in market prices, human nature is to panic or point fingers. As a leader, you have to manage the narrative. Acknowledge the reality of the problem, but quickly pivot the story from ‘we are in trouble’ to ‘here is how we solve this’.

True leadership means distinguishing between what you can manage and what you can’t. You can’t control the weather, but you can control your storage conditions, equipment maintenance, and crew training.

2. Building trust

During harvest, the farm turns into a high-speed manufacturing plant. Long hours, heavy machinery, and the rush to beat the weather create a perfect storm for burnout and mistakes.

Psychological safety in the field may sound like a corporate buzzword, but in farming, it can save money and lives. If a tractor driver accidentally damages equipment, are they terrified to tell you? If they hide the mistake, it becomes a bigger, more expensive problem later.

You need a culture where your crew feels safe reporting issues immediately without fear of an explosive reaction.

In the noise and dust of the field, instructions need to be crystal clear. Make sure every operator and sorter knows exactly what their role is.

The people grading on the line and driving the tractors are the backbone of your operation. Small gestures of respect, such as ensuring they get adequate breaks, cold water, and fair compensation, build a loyal workforce.

A leader who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty alongside their crew earns respect that money can’t buy.

3. Managing farm managers

As operations grow, you transition from doing the work to managing the people who manage the work. This is one of the hardest transitions for a producer.

When a farm manager makes a bad call on an irrigation schedule or a fungicide application, your first instinct might be frustration. Instead of jumping to conclusions, get curious. Ask why they made the decision they did based on the information they had. Understanding their thought process lets you coach them effectively, rather than just criticise them.

To hold people accountable, they first need to know exactly what they are accountable for. A clear, skills-based outline of responsibilities prevents the classic ‘I thought you were handling that’ argument during crunch time.

4. Leading the charge on innovation

The potato industry is evolving rapidly. From precision irrigation and drone scouting to advanced storage technologies, the tools at our disposal are changing.

Leading a farm today means being a student of the industry. More importantly, it means leading others through change. It’s one thing to buy a new GPS-guided tractor; it’s another to get a veteran farmhand who has driven by feel for 30 years to trust the screen. True leaders foster a culture of innovation by explaining why the new technology matters, training their team patiently, and listening to feedback.

5. Keeping your partner in the loop

Potato farming is often a deeply personal, family-driven enterprise, yet it is common for one person to hold the entire operation solely in their head. Daily decisions, specific buyer relationships, and the nuances of the operating loan are siloed.

This creates a critical vulnerability. True leadership and solid business governance extend beyond the field and into the household, requiring absolute transparency with your spouse or life partner. You must treat your kitchen table with the same operational respect as a corporate boardroom.

To remove yourself as the ‘single point of failure’, your partner needs to know, or have immediate access to, the following:

• Financial realities: They need a clear picture of the operating loans, debt structures, lines of credit, and upcoming payment schedules. They must know how to access the business bank accounts and payroll systems.
• The who’s who of the farm: Create a physical or shared digital document listing your trusted advisors. This includes the names and contact numbers for your accountant, agronomist, crop insurance agent, legal counsel, and the primary buyers or processors you contract with.
• Digital keys and passwords: From farm management and financial software such as QuickBooks to precision agriculture platforms tracking your pivot irrigation, your partner must know the logins or know exactly where the master password list is kept.
• Standard operating procedures: If you were incapacitated during planting or harvest, who makes the call on when to spray or dig? Your partner needs to know which farm manager or foreman is designated to take the operational lead in an emergency.
• Insurance and succession documents: They need immediate access to life insurance policies, disability coverage, crop insurance details, and updated wills or trust documents.

Keeping your partner informed isn’t just about maintaining a healthy relationship; it is a fundamental governance strategy. Regularly reviewing these realities together ensures that if the worst happens, the farm and therefore your family’s livelihood has a roadmap to survive the transition.

6. Planting for the next generation

Ultimately, agricultural leadership is about stewardship. It is about leaving the land, the business, and the community better than you found it.

Who are you mentoring? Whether it is a son or daughter stepping into the family business, or a trusted farm manager taking on more responsibility, great leaders actively train their replacements. They share the hard-learned lessons about crop rotation, contract negotiation, and soil management. Succession isn’t just about handing over the farm deed; it’s about handing over the leadership mindset needed to keep it running.

Farming potatoes is a tough way to make a living, but it’s a noble way to make a life. By focussing on your leadership skills just as much as your agronomic skills, you ensure that your farm doesn’t just survive the tough seasons; it thrives for generations to come. – Dennis Coetzee, group executive of human capital, NWK

Send an email to dennis@nwk.co.za for more information.