In this episode of “The Business of Blueberries,” host Kasey Cronquist, president of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council (USHBC) and the North American Blueberry Council (NABC), is joined by Ashlee Sikorski, team development coach at Sway Leadership, to discuss leadership development in the blueberry industry. 

“If you have 10 people at your company putting in an extra 10%, then you have a whole, full employee that isn’t even coming out of your budget. I think people who show up and are satisfied with their work and they’re happy to be there, they’re doing a job that suits who they are.” - Ashlee Sikorski

“Old leadership styles are top down … there’s no collaboration happening with the staff … if you want [culture to be more long lasting], you’re going to be bringing your staff into it and then having higher retention.”  - Ashlee Sikorski 

Topics covered include:

• Sikorski’s experience in professional development and how she ended up at Sway Leadership.
• The importance of empowering employees and developing self-leadership.
• Developing a culture and getting buy-in from staff. 
• What an “enneagram” is and how it can help identify archetypes in the workplace. 

Crop Report

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout North and South America. In this episode, you’ll hear from Andres Armstrong in Chile, Luis Vegas in Peru, and Mario Ramírez in Mexico. This was recorded on January 12, 2022.

Marketing Boost

This March, USHBC will kick off its first power period of 2022 by leveraging National Nutrition Month®, an annual nutrition education campaign created and developed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. In this week’s Marketing Boost, USHBC/NABC Vice President of Marketing and Communications Jennifer Sparks discusses the upcoming month and the USHBC’s Nutrition Month Toolkit.