Syngenta, in partnership with Wake Forest University, hosted its 16th annual Syngenta Business Institute for golf course superintendents from across the country last week in Winston-Salem, N.C., to rave reviews.
A favorite of former attendees — as evidenced by the still active communities you can find on X, formerly Twitter (try searching #SBI23) — a new batch of 23 superintendents took in three days of networking and learning at the scenic Graylyn Estate just minutes away from the Wake Forest campus.
Julie Wayne, Ph.D., professor, and David C. Darnell presidential chair in principled leadership, kicked off day one of SBI, leading superintendents through ways they can achieve a better work/life balance.
Throughout the four-hour class, supers shared how they struggle with being ‘workaholics’ and feeling guilty of wasting time when they’re not actively working.
Wayne stressed that there’s no such thing as balance. Instead, there is the constant act of balancing.
“Balance is not having everything at once,” she says.
In the second half of the day, Amy Wallis, Ph.D., professor of practice in organizational behavior, led superintendents through one of the most memorable sessions of the week on leading across cultures and generations.
Superintendents played the well-liked card game — read more about it in our 2023 recap of SBI — and shared stories about how they manage and lead teams with non-native English speakers.
Negotiation practice led off day two with superintendents split into pairs to role-play a pair of high-stakes negotiations. After the two sides agreed on a deal, the group came together to discuss the facts of who won and who lost — which, in some cases, drew plenty of laughs from the room.
Superintendents closed out the final night of SBI with roundtable discussions on topics including recruiting and retaining employees and successfully communicating with their teams. Wallis, who facilitated the recruiting roundtable, was pleasantly surprised to hear that participants have started having more luck hiring employees.
“COVID threw out the old playbook. We have to write the new one,” said Noah Tubbs, golf course superintendent at Glens Falls Country Club in Queensbury, N.Y.
Several superintendents shared success stories of hiring high school and college students, while others offered up strategies for finding and developing potential assistants.
Managing phone usage by employees on the course was a hot topic during the communication roundtable. Supers discussed the ups and downs of allowing their younger employees to have phones on their person throughout the day.
While some acknowledged that cell phones can be a distraction, others pointed out that it helps them stay in better contact during the day.
“They’re always going to answer a text,” one superintendent says.
At the end of her day two and day three sessions, Sherry Moss, Ph.D., professor of organizational studies; Benson Pruitt, professor in business and associate Dean of MBA programs, asked attendees to ask themselves three questions: What? So what? and Now what?
Superintendents had a wide variety of answers, including the ways they planned on implementing Moss’ suggestions into their day-to-day operations.
One thing that almost every attendee answered to the ‘Now what?’ question, whether it was to each other on their shuttle to the Greensboro airport or on X in the days after the event, was sharing how great their experience was and encouraging others to apply for next year.
“Reaffirming your beliefs, trying on a different lens, and/or meeting some great (superintendent) minds, it’s an experience you can’t afford to skip out on,” said Aaron Barnett, CGCS, director of agronomy at Indian Creek (Fla.) Country Club, on X.
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