Dairy women urged to step up leadership

She is urging other women to step up to the challenge of leadership and spoke on the issue at a three-day workshop for Dairy Womens Network (DWN) regional convenors in Wellington last week.

"Getting through these tough times is about that personal grip, about reaching deep within yourself for that resilience and realising that in tough times people need to look to leaders," she told Dairy News.

"So it is a great opportunity for women to stand up and show there is a way forward and show that things will turn and become positive. It is matter of 'gritting' through those tough times essentially, and taking the opportunity to be leaders and take others along that pathway."

At the workshop Finer spoke about her personal leadership journey, some of the highlights and challenges. She hoped to provide inspiration through the present tough dairy times.

Brought up on a Manawatu dairy farm and then involved in sharemilking, Finer has been in the value added side of the dairy industry for 24 years. Through challenges she says she has learnt "that need for a bit of patience, tenacity and staying true to yourself and your own values".

A barrier to stepping up to leadership is that women often doubt themselves.

"Sometimes it is often us who hold ourselves back, thinking we don't necessarily have the confidence or ability to do it.

Sometimes guilt as well, particularly if women are mothers and don't want to be taking on the leadership role for fear they are not dedicating enough time to family."

For Finer, the Global Women's Leadership Breakthrough Programme she completed in 2012 was a huge catalyst for change. The DWN also supports the leadership programme by awarding the Dairy Women of the Year and attending the awards event. Filer will be master of ceremony at the awards dinner for the DWN conference on in Hamilton on May 4.

"A real point of change was going through that programme, discovering my key drivers and personal values, and developing some really good leadership tools. I focussed on differentiating myself, exploring every opportunity that came along, and being open to new challenges," says the mother of three teenagers.

Finer has no doubt the skills she learned as a mother have also played a part in her career.

"You develop patience, tenacity and coaching skills when you are a parent. You bring that capability to your profession."

Finer became involved in adding value to New Zealand's dairy exports in 1992 when she joined the dairy industry on a graduate training programme.

She worked her way up through the business, spending time in operations, managing laboratories and leading Fonterra's global food safety and regulatory functions, to her current position where she leads relationships with industry organisations.

Finer admires DWN for helping the dairy industry build capacity by training industry leaders at the front end of the dairy value chain.

"They are leaders supporting leaders, and doing a great job of it," Finer says.