We are excited to have our Youth Voices Leadership team chair Emma Ayliffe, co-founder of Summit Agriculture sits down with our wonderful journalist Mandy McKeesick to chat about the new conversation starting app Yacker, and why it is important to understand your audience.
Key Messages
- Leadership is about understanding your client or customer
- Being empathetic to the other person’s views
- Never underestimating who is watching or listening to you
- Avoiding speaking in frustration or anger
Pull Quote
“It’s particularly important to be sympathetic and empathetic in difficult conversations. It’s important to do the work before you go into those conversations, so that you can see things through their eyes and prepare yourself for what the potential reactions could be, and think about the best way to craft the conversation.”
About Emma
Emma Ayliffe is an award-winning agronomist and successful businesswoman. She is co-founder of agricultural consultancy Summit Ag, co-owner of a 1700-acre cropping property and an in-demand public speaker. In 2018 she was runner-up in the Adama Young Agronomist of the Year awards and has taken the stage at PIEFA Conference, the Australia Cotton Conference and the Australian Summer Grains Conference
Emma believes in the importance of agricultural sustainability and the role that young people play in the industry. She has been a Young Farming Champion since 2015, is the current chair for the Youth Voices Leadership Team and established Tulli Young Farmers to better support young people in her region.
Connect with Emma: LinkedIn and Twitter
About Mandy
Mandy is an Australian writer and photographer who shares stories for, and about, the bush. She has worked with the Picture You in Agriculture team for five years, sharing stories of Young Farming Champions far and wide, and regularly contributes to R.M Williams Outback magazine.
Connect with Mandy: LinkedIn
About Summit Ag & Yacker
Summit Ag delivers interdependent agronomic and farming systems advice for irrigated cropping with a strong focus on cotton agronomy and research. It covers all areas in the Southern Valleys working with established and dryland growers with the aim of increasing productivity, profitability and overcoming challenges and soil constraints. www.summitag.com.au
Yacker was initially developed to assist Summit Ag clients connect and share information, and has now expanded to service the entire agricultural industry.
Want to know more?
Visit the Yacker website (www.yacker.com.au) and download the app for free on any iPhone or android device.