End of Week Update: September 30, 2022

Greetings from the Ames Chamber of Commerce!

For those in attendance, I hope you enjoyed listening to Brian Dieter, President & CEO of Mary Greeley Medical Center, speak at our State of Healthcare event that took place on Friday, September 23. I know I did! He discussed a wide range of topics on the healthcare industry with a specific lens on how it impacts us locally.

One of the things that I have always appreciated about Brian is his leadership style. At the event, he talked about how he challenges his team to cut unnecessary things from their plate. Within each of our organizations, we do things because we have always done them. Some of those legacy practices made sense at the time of implementation, but do they now?

​Often times, we move so fast that we do not take time to challenge ourselves or our organization to do less. Honestly, I’m not sure how we can do that at the Ames Chamber of Commerce, but we have to be open to the concept first. As a leader, I have to allow space for that thinking and conversation to take place in order for our organization to grow and improve.

I had a moment just this week where my leadership was challenged. Simply stated, I was moving too fast. After apologizing and acknowledging my error in judgement, the next thing I did was inform my team. Mistakes will happen, but this was a mistake of pace, and I was reminded of that listening to the leadership of Brian. Do your business or organization a favor and slow down, remain thoughtful, and have the conversation about how you grow and improve.

Last week, we celebrated a milestone at the Ames Chamber of Commerce: 700 members! I am incredibly proud of our team for always putting our members first. I also want to thank our 700+ members for believing in the work that we do and investing in our community.

​As we move into the weekend, I encourage all of you to consider attending some of our upcoming events. Next Friday, October 7, we will be hosting our Manufacturing Breakfast featuring Steve Sukup, President and CEO of Sukup Manufacturing, as the keynote speaker. Our Symposium on Building Inclusive Organizations follows on November 1, and we will round out the calendar year with our Annual Event luncheon on December 14 that will take place in the Sukup Endzone Club at Jack Trice Stadium.

I hope to see each of you soon. Have a wonderful weekend and Go Cyclones!

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