A retired Canadian Major General told farmers at the South West Ag Conference in Ridgetown that anyone can be a leader when times are good, but it is during troubling times that the best leaders are needed.
Lewis MacKenzie was keynote speaker on the final day of the conference, speaking about leadership.
He says a good leader will try to encourage an atmosphere in which people will express ideas even if that means disagreeing.
"You really have to read the atmosphere were you are working as to whether you are going to get away with disagreeing," he says. "There are many ways to disagree the best one is to come up with a better solution because then any good intelligent leader will take that on and use it."
MacKenzie added the worst leaders he encountered in his years in trouble spots around the world were those who were not willing to accept ideas from anyone else.
