By Zach Lubeck, Purchasing Director, Quality Pork International, Inc.
Pork Leadership Program participants and leaders held the opening meeting of the 2019 series of seminars March 27 in Kearney at Angus Burgers and Shakes to informally introduce ourselves over a meal.
Then, our team meet with Josh Erickson and Hannah Zundel (Pork Leadership Program alumna) at Team Concepts in Kearney. The training session focused on classroom work centered on theoretical leadership and group dynamics principles. Josh led the sessions with a combination of lectures, icebreaking activities, and interactive demonstrations on how to identify a variety of personality types and how to best work with those personality types in a multitude of settings. The information was simple, yet heavily applicable in all personal and professional situations.
The team then concluded the day by dining at Sozo as a group and reviewing the program from the day.
On March 28, the team returned to Team Concepts and started the day with NPPA Education Director Kyla Habrock running through the goals and expectations of the 2019 Pork Leadership Program. Included in this session were future date planning, personal and professional goal discussion, and general information about the NPPA.
Josh from Team Concepts then finished his program by helping us to identify our own leadership qualities and how we can use those to positively interact with others on both a group and individual level.
The team then traveled to the Nebraska Pork Producers Association main office in Lincoln to listen to presentations by NPPA Executive Director Al Juhnke, and Jennifer Osterholt, publisher of PlowingThroughLife.com. Al Juhnke gave a general presentation about NPPA including the organization’s history, current event topics related to pork, and his opinion on why NPPA and its Leadership Program are important to the pork industry. Jennifer Osterholt then gave a presentation on the opportunities and weaknesses on various social media platforms. This was a unique way to focus on helping our industry in a simple, yet effective, way that is visible to the entire country.
