I had the pleasure last week of being 1 of 26 superintendents selected from across the country to attend the Syngenta Business Institute on the campus of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, NC. The Syngenta Business Institute is a 4 day intensive business development program designed to meet the ever changing requirements of golf course superintendents. The program supplements and complements a superintendents existing knowledge base, allowing more productive and efficient golf course management.
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| Graylyn Conference Center at Wake |
Through a partnership with the Wake Forest University School of Business, the program provides graduate school-level instruction in areas such as financial management, human resource management, negotiating, impact hiring and other leadership- and professional-development skills, and managing across generations and cultural divides. To be considered for the program, superintendents had to submit a 250-word essay on why they believe they should be selected to attend. Approximately 25 superintendents were selected to attend and I was fortunate to be selected.
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| Financial Management |
While I found ALL the education useful and impactful, one topic stood out for me, Managing Across Generations and Cultural Divides. One of the great joys of my job is managing people and I have been relatively successful throughout the years. However, I have found it difficult to manage "generation y" or more specifically what motivates them. Through Managing Across Generations and Cultural Divides, I did learn some ideas that should no doubt make me more successful with this age group.
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| Negotiating |
On top of the graduate level coursework, getting to learn and gain perspective from some of the industry's best golf course superintendents was invaluable. Throughout the week we all shared ideas and thoughts about the many things that challenge our facilities.
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| Graduating Class of SBI 2015 |
I want to thank everyone at Syngenta for organizing what has become the premier and most sought after education event in our industry. It was certainly a pleasure and honor to be a part of SBI 2015 and I will be a better superintendent because of it.
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Reunion of fellow TurfNet Superintendents' of the Year
Chad Mark, Paul Carter, Anthony Williams, Fred Gehrisch |
