ROSEMONT, Ill. — Synergy hosted 84 members for its 2023 Field Supervisors Forum on March 19-21 at the Loews Chicago O'Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. 

The Field Supervisors Forum started with Lisa Withers’ "Shift Happens" workshop. Withers shared how she defines leadership, how being a leader differs from being an individual contributor, the importance of EQ, how leading today differs from the past, and the importance of engagement.

"Leadership is the act of getting individuals aligned and moving in the same direction toward a desired outcome," said Withers. "It's not about the title. Not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers."

Jim Bartolotta, managing partner, Synergy Solution Group, kicked off day two talking about the field supervisor’s impact on culture and creating a place where people want to work. In small groups, attendees talked about how many people they're leading and their process for spending time with them.

"There were some new ideas and some great reminders of what we should be doing all the time," said Tyler Winfield, regional team leader, Gardiner.

The morning continued with a discussion of the cost of doing business. Attendees were asked to vote in a live poll to choose what percent of their billed labor rate goes to wages, what percent goes to field burden, and how much a motor is marked up to break even. 

After lunch, attendees talked about how they're growing their team, sharing how they divvy up the workload, how they're sharing knowledge within their team, and the internal and external training they are doing. The last session of the forum gave members an opportunity to role play different real-world challenges, including finding out that one of your techs is leaving for more money and getting a call because one of your team members cut someone off on the highway.