Get out of the way

Brian White, superintendent at Wichita Country Club in Wichita, Kan., might not have the time to manage each person on his 24-member summer crew. He’s got young workers from high school, seniors with free time and Hispanic workers, all requiring a different form of leadership on the course.

“We’ve got a wide range of people in our crew,” he says. “It can’t always be one blanket style of management. I need to adjust things for different groups.”

But at least one aspect of his management style reaches his entire crew. He already uses a lot of positive management - he makes certain to show each employee how he likes a particular job to be done, rather than always pointing out the wrong way.

“I’m a big fan of teaching guys exactly how you want to do things rather than just correcting them all the time,” he says.

But the exercises at the Syngenta Business Institute last year helped him realized there was another step to the process. If he was going to show a crewmember how to do the job, he had to let them get it right – and then trust them to do it correctly on their own.

“I’m learning that I don’t have to micromanage everything,” he says. “If I can effectively communicate and delegate, I don’t have to be chasing every little thing out there on the course. It makes everybody’s job easier when guys are able to think for themselves and I can trust them.”

Letting his crew do the job isn’t giving up control of his course as much as letting the employees he chose do what they do best, and saves White time while letting him put his mind at ease.

“It’s easy for us as superintendents to try to manage every little detail yourself,” he says. “It’s easier for me to do it like this and teach somebody than take it all on myself. I can’t be everywhere. It’s easy to just run yourself into the ground like that.

“Sometimes when you step back, you can get out of the way of your employees and you realize you have very capable people working for you. That’s how you get the most out of your management team and your staff.”

He looks at himself as the head coach of the team, with his management team working as his coordinators. He can explain the strategy, but he relies on them to pass those goals on to the team, then on the team themselves to make the plays. Given the chance, he sees his employees taking on the projects with lots of energy to show their own skills.

“I’m finding most of the time, these guys want some responsibility and to make decisions about their work,” he says. “We think we know all the things and how we want to do it, but work with your crew and it’s amazing what they come up with.”