If knowledge is power, then the Syngenta Business Institute has been helping superintendents become stronger leaders for more than a decade.
Applications are being accepted for the 13th edition of SBI, the four-day event held along with the Wake Forest University Executive Education program. Scheduled for Dec. 3-6, SBI provides superintendents with graduate-level business instruction in the following areas:
- financial management
- human resource management
- negotiating
- managing across generations and cultural divides
- impact hiring and other leadership- and professional-development skills.
Held on the Wake Forest campus at the Graylyn Conference Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, SBI is tailored to provide superintendents with the leadership skills they might not get in turf school, says Sherry Moss, Ph.D., professor of organizational studies at the Wake Forest University School of Business and a longtime SBI instructor.
"How do we get employees to do what we need them to do?" Moss said during a past event.
"Everybody who is promoted into a management position needs this kind of training that we are going to talk about. But unfortunately a lot of people don't get it, and a lot of people learn it through the school of hard knocks."
The curriculum teaches attendees how to look more closely at their own management style and at how previously held beliefs might not always be the best way to get the most from employees.
John Ballard, CGCS at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, site of this year's PGA Championship, came to that conclusion when he attended SBI while at the University of Louisville Golf Club.
"I think I learned more about my own leadership style," Ballard said. "I'm one of those people who it's my way or the highway. I learned that it's ok for people to be different, and there are different ways to manage."
Class size for SBI is limited to maximize participation. Attendees must be a current GreenTrust 365 participant and employed in the United States as a superintendent, director of agronomy or similar position to be eligible.
Application deadline is Aug. 19. Click here to apply.