Your IT employees need encouragement and reinforcement in the good they are doing and what they are accomplishing. If their IT manager doesn’t make a point to do this, no one will know how much they are doing for your company.
Let me tell you a story from my early years of managing IT.
It was January and I was preparing to hold an Annual Kickoff Meeting for my IT organization. When I worked for IBM several years prior we always held an annual Kickoff Meeting to “energize the troops”, discuss the coming year’s strategies, and to give out a few awards. Our Jackson, Mississippi office combined with the Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee offices to do this. It was great for building teamwork, getting everyone on the same page for the new year, , , and having some fun. At IBM in those days, we “worked hard and played hard”.
I knew from experience holding an Annual Kickoff Meeting for my IT staff would be a positive motivator. I also knew I would need some things to help me make it a success.
One of the key parts of a successful Kickoff Meeting is recognizing past year accomplishments. So, I began listing the accomplishments our IT organization achieved in the previous year.
I went through monthly reports, looked at my calendar for the prior year, and even reviewed my Notes Log that I maintain in a journal/notebook.
When I completed this exercise, I was shocked!
We had achieved so much more than I realized we had, , , significantly more. I remembered most of the recent projects and accomplishments but had forgotten about many that had taken place six or more months ago.
This made me think, “If I (the manager) don’t fully realize or remember how much we accomplished, it is fairly certain the staff doesn’t either, , , and guess what, our clients definitely won’t realize it.”
It is the manager’s job to help insure clients and staff know how much your team is getting accomplished. If you don’t make this a priority I can guarantee they won’t know and your IT organization will be “under-appreciated”.
It was at this point I decided to track our accomplishments every year so I could keep our clients and staff “in the loop” about how much we get done and the value IT contributes to our company.
A tool I developed tracks our IT achievements for the year.
CLICK HERE to download the template.
This report will help you remember key contributors to the success of your organization and which clients you help by project. The Key Benefits column is great to track the value your IT organization contributes.
Update this report at the end of each month with that month’s achievements and at year-end you will have what you need with zero effort to collect it.
Your employees need recognition, and this simple template will help you collect some of the best recognition material available to you – their achievements.
One last thing, , , the report will help you track IT achievements, but it won’t do you any good unless you make a commitment to communicate the content with clients and IT employees, , , and don’t forget your senior management team. Managers and employees of your company need to know what IT is accomplishing.
Share the information and watch the appreciation level for your IT organization go up.
ITLever™ 