Leadership is essential to maintaining and growing a healthy business. Staying strong, focused and motivated – and being able to motivate those around you – are vital skills that can help you remain calm and positive regardless of the challenges that present themselves.

Macra na Feirme, the popular voluntary organisation with 8,000 members in 300 clubs countrywide, has long recognised the importance of leadership. Its Leadership Training Programme, supported by Bank of Ireland and the Department of Education, aims to provide opportunities for members to develop the knowledge and skills needed for a leadership position in Macra or in other organisations. Training takes place at club, county and national level.

Macra consists of a nationwide network of clubs, with six key areas of activity: agriculture, sports, travel, public speaking, community involvement and performing arts. The Macra na Feirme National Leadership Awards, sponsored by Bank of Ireland, are part of the Leadership Training Programme. The winners of this year's competition were Anne-Marie Kavanagh, Moynalty Club, Meath; Patricia McKenna, Moynalty Club, Meath; and Ronan Feighery, Ferbane Club, Offaly.

We caught up with Anne-Marie Kavanagh recently for a chat. Anne-Marie is a Teaching Principal at Nobber National School in Kells and the Macra Competitions Chair for Meath. Fellow award winner Patricia McKenna is Anne-Marie's sister.

What does winning mean to you?

Personally, it's a massive achievement to be one of the top three in the country. The competition starts off with 250 people. That's whittled down to 20, then that becomes a shortlist of 6, and from that 3 are chosen. It's very intense in the final stages. It's a prestigious award, it's a national award, so it's really great to get recognition. It's a huge honour for me.

What qualities define a good leader?

The main thing for a leader is to be able to empathise with everyone you work with, to see everybody's perspective. You need to be inclusive rather than exclusive. You have to be able to listen to the people around you and accept their input. At the same time you need to have a firm hand and strike the right balance. You have to be able to make decisions and stick to them, to take responsibility. And be able to learn from your mistakes. If we didn't have leaders we wouldn't have any direction, we wouldn't make any progress.

What's involved in Macra's Leadership Training Programme, and how have you benefited
from it?

Participation in Macra is hugely rewarding – it's really great for developing your skills. For example, if you're involved in capers [a 15-20 minute variety show that includes singing, dancing and comedy and involves months of preparation], you'll be working with 15 or 20 people – so you have to acquire team work skills. Macra is all about personal development, team work, and learning new skills.

For the Leadership Training Programme, I did the County Officer training, where the focus is on learning officer skills and strategic planning. You learn things like how to run competitions, promotions, and events - and all that's involved in that in terms of preparation and planning.

As part of the training programme, you set yourself certain targets for the year. A target could be learning a new skill or a personal achievement. I achieved all of my targets, one of which was to increase participation in the competitions Macra runs. That definitely helped me learn leadership skills.

Why do you think you were selected as one of the winners of the National Leadership Awards?

I've been so involved in Macra over the years. I got married last summer and my husband has hardly seen me! Macra takes a huge chunk of your life – you'll be there every weekend, week nights, helping out with the organisation. I've been the Competitions Chair, Competitions Secretary, County Secretary, and I'm on the National Competitions Sub-Committee. I'm also on the Blue Jean Country Queen organising committee and have held positions in my club, so I have had an input into the organisation.

To be chosen as a winner, you need to have a high profile, and your achievements need to be tangible. My personal goal was to increase participation in Macra competitions. Meath is one of the biggest counties [for Macra], with ten active clubs. Participation has dropped off a bit over the years, and not all of them would be taking part in various competitions- but now the clubs are starting to get involved again. I'm very proud that we've achieved that.