OK, five months of the year are complete, , , only seven months to go. Now is a great time to assess a few things:
1. Are you completing your IT strategy?
Hopefully you are making great progress in completing the big items planned for this year. If not, you need to step up the pace, , , five months has passed very quickly and the end of the year will be here before you know it.
2. How is your budget looking?
Better check where you stand with your budget and forecast out the trends of your major expense categories. If you are already behind in achieving your budget for the year, you need to make corrective action quickly, , , waiting until September or October will be too late. If you see certain expenses trending higher than what they need to be to make your plan, , , anticipate the result and make corrections as needed to achieve your plan.
3. Are you taking care of your people?
Have you done anything nice for your staff this year? The next few months is a good time to do something. Take care of your people and they will be motivated and encouraged to take care of you. It doesn’t require lots of money, , , just pay attention to them and do something fun from time to time and show them you appreciate their efforts. Telling them you appreciate them is also very helpful.
4. Does senior management know what you are doing?
Are you communicating with senior management and department managers so they know what your IT organization is getting accomplished, , , and are you translating these successes into business value components where they will “get it”. If you don’t know what I mean by “business value”, read the post titled, Business value is key.
5. How are your clients feeling about IT support?
Are your clients happy with what you are doing or do you know? If you aren’t sure, now is a good time to check with them to insure your team is on course for a successful year.
Mid-year inspections are valuable to help ensure you achieve what you want to achieve this year. The freshness of a new year has worn off by now and we are now into the drudgery of the work, , , it’s time to highlight some things and create renewed focus on what you and your team are trying to get accomplished this year.
Your staff and you may be getting a bit tired or a bit down so make it a point to do something that shows you appreciate them. Have some fun.
Staff will begin taking vacations, , , be sure they do so they can come back fresh and ready to go. Be certain you do this for yourself, , , and when you take vacation, try to actually take a true leave of absence and get completely away from the work. It will help you and make you more productive when you return.
Assess where you are, make adjustments as needed, and push forward to make the progress you need to make this year.
ITLever™ 