After 20 years of life in rural New Zealand Loshni Manikam has a real insight of the Kiwi agricultural psyche.
“I believe there’s this huge gap,” Manikam says.
“I feel like farming people know how to care about land, stock, neighbours – everything except themselves and I want to help change this.”
Manikam and her husband Donald Kidd are equity partners and lower-order sharemilkers on a 600-cow farm near Winton.
In 2007 they won the Southland Sharemilker of the Year title before they became equity partners.
Earlier this year she was named Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year and received a $20,000 scholarship for approved professional and personal development training.
At the time of winning she said receiving the title was proof the success of an ordinary dairy farming woman can translate far and wide.
“It shows you can raise a family and still progress, reach the top and have a say at industry level.
“I’m passionate about creating change by working alongside industry leaders and farming communities.
“I think it’s important to first build relationships and understand each group’s drivers before collaborating for change and I hope winning this award will allow a few more doors to open to allow that to keep happening.”
Manikam credits her success to Kidd as the major influence in her professional life with people like Lindy Nelson from the Agri Women’s Development Trust being instrumental in facilitating her development.
“There have been people from the Dairy Women’s Network who have tapped me on the shoulder and encouraged me to step up,” she says.
“Organisations like the Dairy Industry Awards and Fonterra have created opportunities for my growth and I will be forever grateful.”
She now specialises in leadership development in the primary sector because of her conviction people are key to the sector’s continued success.
Her rationale is that unlocking potential has benefits for individuals, farming businesses, communities and the sector.
Through a philosophy of self-leadership she helps women develop a stronger sense of personal identity and what they need to be happier.
She finds self-leadership invaluable as a way for women to practise reflection and develop a clearer and more confident sense of self.
“I am focused on self-leadership and excited to be creating resources like online courses to reach more people and work with them to define what a successful life means to them and how to pursue that without guilt.
“Society’s definition of a successful life, which centres largely around financial success, is no longer giving us the satisfaction and happiness that we are all driven to pursue.
“We need more than money to thrive and I want to work with people to identify and pursue their needs beyond family and finances.”
Having benefited from training herself she is now ready to launch online self-leadership training for rural women.
Research shows the correlation between a focus on the wellbeing and happiness of people and the positive impact on all aspects of business.
She says training benefits everyone.
Coaching is a satisfying supplement to a busy life on the farm and a rewarding form of contact with like-minded people.
“I get to do something which challenges me and helps me to grow and hopefully helps others. The thing about training is that it does focus you on servant leadership because it means that it’s not about you it’s your audience.”
It’s a business risk she’s happy to take but admits the market might not be ready for it.
From a commercial perspective she figures it pays to already be active in that space as demand grows.
“I don’t know if farming people are going to embrace it straightaway but I’m quite happy to be at the front end of that because it will happen.
“I’m happy to try to find new ways to engage farmers because I passionately believe that if we can get them thriving, that if we get them engaged in the resources they need then that is really good not just for them but for the whole industry.”
Her aim with online training is to take people from uncertainty to clarity and action so they know what they need and how to get it.
Her attitude, sharpened by her own experience and coaching, is that things are always evolving and you can always grow and learn.
Her fascination with human behaviour has seen her career progress from law to dairy farming to leadership coaching and training. She obtained her coach certification from the NeuroLeadership Group in 2012. She has since gone on to become a consultant working with various primary sector organisations, including Farmstrong.
Born and raised in South Africa, she met Kidd in England in the 1990s when she was backpacking the world after graduating with a law degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
Kidd is a fourth generation dairy farmer from Northland. The couple returned to work on his family’s Northland farm.
“Everything changed for me,” Manikam says.
“I kind of lost contact with the idea of being a lawyer – that was going to be my life until I chose other options.”
They moved to Southland a few years later and are now in their 11th season on the farm at Winton.
The couple are at the stage in their lives when financial consolidation and spending time with their children Lukesh, 18, Suri, 15, and Karminee 11, matters more than growth.
She says it is important for their family to schedule time away together as often as possible.
As a couple, they are now more conscious than ever that it won’t be long before the children are out the door so every day together counts.
“I’m really fortunate that Donald and I have similar values around that,” she says.
In October she used part of her bursary to attend a five-day training event in San Francisco by one of the world’s most popular purveyors of the art of creating online training, Brendon Burchard.
She has been doing Burchard’s online training so seeing him live was a brilliant buzz as well as seeing the confidence of Americans more inclined to just do it rather than wasting time worrying about failing – an important distinction she would like to see transferred to the NZ primary sector.
Burchard, who works with Oprah Winfrey and has books on the New York Times bestseller list, is nothing short of inspirational.
“Everything he’s saying I’m writing it down because it’s not just theory, he’s lived it and he’s done it. He has had phenomenal success reaching millions of people with his online training so it was a privilege to learn from him.”
She returned home with a head swimming with thoughts including how to tailor training to NZ farming’s ingrained ethic of work, work and more work.
“That attitude has to be admired but it’s also potentially a problem,” she says.
“Rural New Zealanders’ core values are probably similar to what other parts of the community had 20-30 years go – they have a fantastic work ethic and an ability to care for their farms, animals, crops and people.
“That translates to an appetite for work in all weathers and all situations which hasn’t left time to work out what else is needed in order to lead happy, fulfilled lives.”
She’s driven by a vision of a more positive culture in the dairy industry that puts people at the front and centre of everything we do.
“When people are thriving there is a strong positive ripple impact on the individual, their families and all aspects of their business, their communities and our industry.”
While she prefers to show leadership through personal development there are many ways for people to express themselves and make a difference in a community.
As well as running her online courses, farming and caring for her family, Manikam is a trustee of the Southern Dairy Development Trust, the founding director of Iceberg Coaching and coach and facilitator of the Agri-Women’s Development Trust Escalator Programme. She has been involved in Southland Federated Farmers and worked for DairyNZ.
Big organisations have the size and institutional resources to help farmers in any number of ways but there’s also room for the nimble individual to make a mark.
In her case, being an immigrant and a newcomer to farming allows her to question accepted industry positions, like staff working for three weeks straight before having a weekend off.
In hindsight, she made the most of a fresh perspective.
“I think it makes it easier when you come in from the outside with fresh eyes and can have that role of being that naive inquirer.”
Farming generally has been very good to them, she says.
“What I love about it is the lifestyle, financial progress and the enjoyment that dairy farming has given our family.
“It’s been a great way to bring up our children and I love living in a rural community – rural people are a special breed of people.”
