21 August 1992 Lincoln Offers Chance to Sharpen Rural Leadership Skills

Leadership styles must keep pace with the times, but must also obey certain evergreen principles, says the Director of Lincoln University's Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, Dr Alastair McArthur.

Calling for applications for the 1993 Kellogg course, which starts in February, Dr McArthur identifies some key principles of leadership as the wisdom to pick correct policies, the confidence and courage to convince others that certain courses of action are right, and the ability to communicate so that people are carried along in support of a vision of the future.

"Different circumstances demand different leadership styles," he says. "The Seddons, Savages, Hollands, Holyoakes and Muldoons all had characteristics appropriate to their times. To be successful leaders today they would need to modify their styles appropriately.

"In the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme we introduce participants to these evergreen elements of leadership together with opportunities to improve initiative, develop self-assurance and practice the 'helicopter factor' – the ability to rise above a situation and see problems in relation to the wider environment."

Lincoln's Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme is aimed specifically at fostering and encouraging leadership skills among those working in the rural sector. The courses began in 1979 with the belief that leadership would be a critical factor in the future performance of New Zealand agriculture.

"We haven't been swayed from that belief," says Dr McArthur, who was one of the founding figures behind the courses, "indeed in these divisive times leadership was probably never more vital."

Places on the course are open to men and women from throughout New Zealand between the ages of 25 and 45. Successful applicants are chosen on the basis of leadership contributions to date and potential to benefit from the course.

Over 300 scholars have been through the programme and the list of past scholars reads like a who's who of people in top community positions. It includes current Cabinet Ministers such as Denis Marshall, John Luxton and Jenny Shipley, farming leaders such as Federated Farmers president Owen Jennings, rural media people such as Te Puke Times editor Ruth Douglas, and successful farmers such as 1992's Hawkes Bay Farmer of the Year Mark Warren of Waipawa.

Conservation Minister Denis Marshall was a member of the 1982 Kellogg course and endorses the value of the programme.

"Lincoln's Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme is an ideal training ground for rural people to develop their leadership skills," he says.

"It gave me the confidence and ability to express my vision for the future as well as the capacity to think laterally and to question thoroughly the ideology of the day."

Anyone with a leadership role or potential leadership role in the rural sector can apply, says Dr McArthur. The field is fairly wide – an applicant may be an office holder in a farming organisation or community group, a local authority representative, someone who works for an agribusiness organisation, or is employed on the service side of agriculture or horticulture.

There are three phases to the course – a campus based 10-day period at Lincoln University in February 1993; a period at home in which the scholars carry out a personal research project; a return to Lincoln in November for the presentation of the research combined with a visit to Wellington to meet politicians, heads of Government departments and SOEs and the chief executive officers of major companies to talk about styles of leadership.

The scholars pay no tuition fees. The costs of running the course are met by sponsorship from the joint statutory producer boards and others. Participants pay only for accommodation, meals, plus transport to and from the course at Lincoln and Wellington.

Application forms and information material are available now by writing to: The Director, Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, Economics & Marketing Department, P O Box 84, Lincoln University, Canterbury.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand