Dreaming a Vision into a High Performing Team

Profile Picture of Post's Author Jim Barmore | Posted September 2, 2024

Through good fortune paired with some wise choices, I’ve had the opportunity to be part of three high performing teams in my dairy career, and most recently was a co-founder with two partners building from scratch GPS Dairy Consulting which has become a highly respected team of consultants. My partners and I were recently honored by being named the 2024 World Dairy Expo Business Persons of the Year. This honor, although bestowed upon us as founders, really comes as the result of the hard work of our entire team at GPS Dairy Consulting. It’s been said that it first takes a far-reaching dream to develop a compelling vision, and in turn a vision with purpose to attract and build a high performing team. So, just how did a “good” team become the high performing team that built the GPS Dairy Consulting business? Here are a few things I’ve learned on the journey.

There are many aspects to starting and building a business, including naming. It was decided that “GPS” represented the core tenants of Growth, Profit, and Success. Check, we had a business name. Then came the reality of what exactly would set GPS Dairy Consulting apart from the many other good nutritionists in 2009. Certainly, having stronger management skills and knowledge was part of the business plan, yet the real driver was a relentless focus on the “power of the people” and helping dairies grow their people and their team. Rather than only focusing on being better nutritionists, the success of GPS Dairy Consulting has been built on “A Coaching Mindset”. This coaching mindset was a significant shift in how a consultant or dairy owner approached challenges, individuals and teams of people on a dairy.

A coaching mindset creates a framework for collaboration and empowering members of the team. By empowering and investing in the growth of the people, it inspires teammates to contribute to developing solutions and actions. Ultimately, the team owns the solutions, direction, and strategies to move forward and grow the business. This in turn also builds accountability across the team. With team members being involved in not only the hard work, but as importantly in setting the direction, accountability and planning the future which then become the pillars of what will become a high-performing team.

Working together as founding partners, while deeply respecting the skills of our teammates, we were dedicated to creating a mentoring culture to augment learning, life balance and to better leverage a multitude of relationships and resources. Through a coaching mindset and mentoring, we inspired and grew leaders within GPS Dairy Consulting and on our client’s dairies, including owners, herd managers, feeders and beyond. Building a high performing team is really all about helping the individuals or “eagles” become a flock of eagles that soar together. Staying committed to continuous learning while strongly promoting and leading the participation in growing leaders on the dairies has been a helluva journey and a hard-working career well worth living. I hope everyone is as blessed in your journey to be part of a high-performing team as I was in my journey with GPS Dairy Consulting and the wonderful dairy industry.

You too can Bmore…inspire change, grow leaders!

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