Improving Ranch Leadership

When deciding how to make ranches more profitable, there is often one overlooked area of improvement – leadership. Strong leadership on ranches impacts profitability through improved employee retention, continued learning and more confident decision making. Tom and Terryn Drieling are true examples of how investing in leadership builds a more profitable ranch and enjoyable lifestyle.  

 “I think it's our role as ranch managers to provide an opportunity for the next generation. It’s our responsibility for everybody to have an opportunity regardless of what their background is,” explains Tom.  

Tom has managed a unit of a ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills for over 10 years and Terryn works as seasonal help in addition to operating her own business which helps people in rural communities improve their own lifestyles and leadership skills.  

“I think that having good leadership is so important because it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the crew,” says Terryn. “If you have somebody in the leadership role that can create a good work environment and everybody together, you're going to have a more enjoyable workplace and improved production and efficiency.” 

Tom has been very intentional about improving his own leadership skills and the results are clear to both his crew and general manager.  

He shares, “The work I was doing for myself was extravagant enough that my boss saw it. We saw that in profitability, the motivation of our guys, the production of our herds and the way we interacted with the other units.” 

He is a big believer in utilizing continuing education opportunities to improve leadership but making the decision to do introspective leadership work is what has made the biggest difference.  

“When we first started here and Tom took over the unit manager position was definitely some communication hangups,” shares Terryn. “But over the years, Tom has really done a great job of being introspective and doing some inner work and learning different ways to communicate with people.” 

He spent time learning not only which communication styles work best for him but also those he works with on the ranch.  

She says, “Watching that transformation has been really cool…the culture has shifted and now everyone else is starting to do the work too. It’s fun when we crew up.” 

While impactful, this wasn’t an overnight shift. It took time and lots of effort.  

Tom says, “Now I'm kind of working on my tone and my delivery when I communicate and I'm not going to lie to you, it's taken time, it's taken a ton of work.” 

Improving leadership on operations starts with yourself and doing a self-audit of sorts. 

“In stockmanship, the first thing that we need to have to handle our cattle in a low stress manner is self-awareness. We need to be aware of our energy and what that is conveying to our animals,” explains Terryn. “The second thing is social awareness. We need to be aware of what our animals are telling us. And animals are really good at reflecting things back to us…start there.” 

Animals can tell you if you came into a situation with big energy, angry, anxious or calm.  

Terryn says, “And then you can take it back to your human-to-human interactions and you can see how people respond to you and reflect back and see what's going on inside of you and use that as information to improve your own leadership.” 

During this process, it’s important to remember that nobody gets it right all the time. We are humans.  

“You're not going to have perfect communication all the time. What's important is repair,” says Terryn. “If you come into a situation and it doesn't go well, you can always go back and say, hey, I am really sorry. I came in really hot and I'm sure that did not feel good.” 

In situations where leadership from employers feels lacking, remember to lead up! 

She shares, “You can kind of foster some of that leadership within yourself by asking the right questions, opening lines of communication and providing positivity in a slew of negativity. Because I really do believe in the stockmanship phrase, good movement draws good movement, and good movement starts with us.” 

As Tom reflects on the benefits he’s seen from improving his own leadership skills, he encourages others to invest in their employees and genuinely care about their well-being.  

He says, “Always be continuing education. Invest in yourself, invest in your employees. I don't think enough credit is given to the guys that are operational. I think they get taken for granted. Invest in those people.” 

Employees have lives outside of work and that can’t be forgotten.  

He says, “I want my guys to come home at the end of the day, 100 % healthy. They have their own life… I want to do everything I can to leave those guys to do their job, but supply them with the ability and the tools to know I have their back. If you need something, call me. If you need a direction, call me. If you need a tool, call me.” 

Transparency in communication also can’t be overlooked.  

“Try to be transparent in as many things as you can, but attitude is everything and the tone that you come to work with and the tone that you interact with your employees sets the entire tone for your company as a culture,” shares Tom.  

Remember, good ranch leadership doesn’t just impact today’s generation, it impacts the ones to come too.  

Tom says, “I think it's our duty as leaders and ranch managers or production agricultural people to help the next generation be more qualified for our roles than what we are. They're going to have to provide more with less.” 

Listen to the full conversation on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast.