Did you know that tomorrow is National Boss’ Day in America? It was started in 1958 by Patricia Bays Haroski, an administrative assistant at State Farm Insurance Company to honor her father who she considered an exemplary boss. In fact, October 16 is her father’s birthday. The day was designed to appreciate kind and fair leaders and build relationships between employees and their supervisors.
I’ll admit that the idea of a day honoring bosses is a bit odd and a little old school, but I bring this up for two reasons.
First, it is appropriate to recognize good leadership — whether it comes from your direct boss or another individual. We recognize supervisors who empower their employees, who truly see their team members and what they do for a company, and who are servant leaders and mentors. We pay tribute to those bosses who roll up their sleeves and help to create cultures and solutions that benefit those who answer to them while also encouraging their teams to create their own solutions. And we even honor those without authority or a formal title who lead by taking ownership of a process to make the enterprise better.
Second, I bring up Boss’ Day because I want to thank you for being part of the AME community. At the end of the day, AME members are my bosses. Since becoming AME’s president and CEO in January 2020, I continually strive to help AME serve you better. We’ve pivoted to virtual formats for conferences and events to ensure you get the support you need at a time when new learning is so important to your enterprise. We’ve offered military veterans a free AME membership. We’ve begun examining our total membership offering to ensure that we’re serving you not just at the AME International Conference but throughout the year. And we’re updating and reimaging the AME Lean Sensei tool so you can better identify your needs and make continuous improvements.
I am honored to have you as my “boss,” and I commit to working tirelessly to support your efforts to share, learn, and grow through AME. If there is ever anything I can do to personally support you, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Before I sign off, I want to share a quick word about next week’s AME Everywhere 2021 conference. We are excited to have more than 1,700 registered participants. I know that not all of you will be participating “live” because we offer most of the programming on-demand for six months after the conference, but I do encourage you to join practitioner and special sessions, tours, and keynotes live if you can. Our volunteer conference committee — led by Lynne Johnson — has lined up a program that features many speakers who will engage with the audience as they present. Of course, you’ll be able to access these sessions after the conference, but the live program will deliver the best experience. In particular, plan to join us Monday, October 18 for the conference’s opening celebration from 6:30-8 p.m. EDT. We’ll have prizes, games, entertainment, and the NuBee Newscast to get you excited and informed about what to expect during the rest of the conference.
And if you haven’t yet registered, what are you waiting for? You’re running out of time, but can still signup now at ame.org/conference.
As always, please stay safe and keep looking out for one another.
