HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to this edition of the Practical IT Manager Tips Newsletter.

This week's article
Are you "Kicking Off" the New Year?

The beginning of a new year is time to reflect on last year's accomplishments and to target your goals for the new year. Here are a couple of things I do to help "kick start" my organization for a fast start and successful new year.


Read the article below.

MDE News

IT Manager Institute held in Johannesburg, South Africa
We started 2005 with an objective of taking the IT Manager Institute to countries outside the US. We achieved this objective in great form by finishing the year with a class in Johannesburg, South Africa in early December. Earlier Institutes included Aruba, Curacao, and Canada.

What a great group the African class was to work with. I named this group "the fun group" because they bonded quickly and really had fun at the session. In fact, at the class dinner, many of us were crying because we were laughing so hard at some of the comments.

Dan Tankersley, a business associate and close family friend of many years, went with me and helped make the class even better. With camera in hand, he helped document the trip and provide us memories for years to come. 

Plans have already been made to return to South Africa in November of 2006.

2005 Summary
The past year was significant in many ways as our company continued to grow. Here are a few key events that made the year interesting:
  -  Conducted 10 IT Manager Institute classes including 4 new countries
  -  Announced the IT Business Manager Certification (ITBMC)
  -  Presentations to HDI (Help Desk Institute) and other User Groups
  -  Presentation to IT organizations of the Government of Canada
  -  Wrote several articles for Cutter Consortium and Guest Editor on a project
  -  Expanded my Practical IT Manager Series with VP Magazine.
  -  Created alliances to support MDE's mission of providing practical insight &
      tools to help IT managers of the world achieve more success:
          -  TenStep, Inc - project management consulting services
          -  HigherHill, Inc. - leadership and personal development
          -  Insync, Inc. - customized software applications at a fixed price
  -  We even had time to do a few consulting projects

2005 was a great year, but we have so much more to do. We look forward to the new year with even more optimism than we had for 2005, and last year was simply a great year for our company.  More important, our work allows me to meet some of the best people in the IT industry from all parts of the world. It's hard to call it "work" when you enjoy doing what you do so much.
Best of success in 2006 !!

Are you "Kicking Off" the New Year ?

Ending one year and starting a new year is always a time of transition, of hope for better things to come, and optimism of great things that will happen in the New Year. Because it is a transition of sorts, we need to stop and reflect a bit on some things and think about how we plan to make a positive impact for our company in the coming year.

In 1986 I'll never forget something that actually surprised me at the end of the year. I sat down to develop a list of my organization's accomplishments for the year because I wanted to host a small "Kickoff Meeting" in January of 1987 for my team. After going through the year thinking of what we had accomplished, I was amazed at how much got done. It was literally a surprise to me and you might say a revelation that has helped me ever since.

Why was I surprised by how much was accomplished by my team ?
That's a very good question because you would think that I would know since I was the manager the entire year. There is a fundamental issue that exists with most of us - managers, users, clients, even our own employees. The issue is that there is usually so much to do that we focus on what needs to be done. Once something gets completed, it's past history. Most people tend to focus on "what's not getting done" versus what has been accomplished or "is getting done".

This is not a problem, just what normally takes place with most people. The challenge is that if we as managers do not quantify what our organization is accomplishing and the benefits being derived from these achievements, then no one is really going to know. Just as in my case in 1986, it made me keenly aware that everyone around me probably was blind to what my IT organization was getting done for our clients and company.

Well, that actually is a problem, and it's our job to take care of it.

Quantifying your team's accomplishments is not about bragging. It's about giving your people credit for the hard work they do. It's also about communicating and keeping people informed. Most people in IT are hard workers and very conscientious, but many feel under appreciated. Our job as a manager is to see that our people are recognized for positive achievement and that they feel appreciated for the work they do. If we don't do this, morale will be low and we will lose some good people over time.

Purpose of an annual Kickoff Meeting
The reason I want to "kick off" the new year is to do two things primarily:
      1.  Motivate the employees to "take the hill"
      2.  Focus the employees to add value to our company

A Kickoff Meeting scheduled early in the year can accomplish both objectives. One of the key things I use to help motivate the employees is to quantify their accomplishments for the past year. People respond positively to successes, but far too often IT people don't hear about these successes. It's the same old grind every day of working on "what's broken" or "what needs to be done". When was the last time a client raved about how stable your systems environment operates? Stability isn't "easy as falling off a log" is it?

First, let's talk about what you want to do in a Kickoff Meeting to achieve the two objectives: motivate and focus. Here is a sample agenda of what I use to make the meeting effective and memorable.
      1.  Share past year accomplishments - Make your staff aware of the positives and what is being achieved. Try to
           list something positive that touches every person on your team. Mention each person by name if you can -  recognition
           has a powerful effect on IT employees.
      2. Update the staff on what you accomplished last year per your IT organization goals for the year.
      3. Share key measurements, especially areas of improvement and progress with your staff:
              a. Client satisfaction
              b. Productivity
              c. Support focus (responsiveness, problem prevention, etc.)
              d. Quality
              e. Project effectiveness (on time, within budget, benefits derived)
       4. Discuss improvements needed.
       5. Share company achievements for last year and describe the company objectives for the new year. When you do this
           part, tie a discussion into it that helps your people see how IT and they fit into the company's overall objectives.
       6. Deliver your IT organization objectives for the new year and what will be required to achieve them.
       7. Give some awards that acknowledge behavior and successes you want from individuals and the team.

As you go through such a meeting, you want to find ways that reinforce teamwork and client service. Things like over communicating, following up on commitments, helping one another, going the extra mile to see an issue through, showing concern for your customer (end users), etc.

I usually start a Kickoff Meeting with a slide show and some upbeat music to get people pumped up. It helps generate positive energy and may even be a production most of your people have never seen before. Remember, it's quite all right to feel good about yourself and what you are doing. IT people don't get enough appreciation and they are starving for it. You might also be surprised at how much they like seeing candid shots of themselves at work and play. Believe me, this can be powerful.

A great product to generate professional slide shows with music is ProShow Gold by Photodex Corporation. I use it myself and it makes a lasting impression plus it has quite a lot of functionality for a very low price.

One other thing, give your employees something to remember the 2006 Kickoff Meeting. In 1991, I gave my entire team a 3-foot boat paddle with our company logo and our IT organization symbol on it. The theme of the Kickoff Meeting was teamwork and we all needed to "get in the boat and row together". We even had the three main groups of my IT organization come up with a skit (including the managers) based on the theme of teamwork. I'll never forget the memory of the one group in a canoe all rowing in different directions and not making any progress; it made my primary point of the meeting very clear.

I'm getting ready to host a 2006 Strategy Session with my "Inner Circle". I'm calling it a Kickoff Meeting and guess what - I plan to give everyone something to remember this significant event.

One of the things I mentioned was that you need to review past year accomplishments with your staff in a Kickoff Meeting. It's also important to review these achievements with senior management and with your clients whether they be end users or external clients of the company. The reason again is that we all tend to forget what was accomplished in the past because we are so busy working and focusing on what needs to be done. Have you ever heard the term, "What have you done for me lately?" Sales people hear it all the time. They celebrate the new sale but beginning next month the slate starts to zero again. It pretty much works that way for our IT organizations as well.

Quantify last year's accomplishments
Here is a simple way to go about identifying what you accomplished last year. As you start the process, create a list or you may download a form like I use to help me do this quickly.

Download the Microsoft Word tool at www.mde.net/tools/completed.doc .

My paddle from the '91 Kickoff Meeting

Let's start listing what was completed last year:

1. Start by thinking about what you achieved in your organization last year. When you think of something, put it on the list and try to organize it by month so it will be easier to avoid duplication and to lookup later as you use other means to quantify what you've accomplished in the past year.
   
2. Pull out last year's calendar and walk through each month. Take note of meetings, etc. listed in your schedule and you will see things that trigger certain accomplishments. Put them on the list
   
3. Pull out last year's objectives list and identify what was accomplished against your plan for the year. Put them on the list.
   
4. Write down each of your client's names (Example - Accounting Department, Los Angeles Operation, etc.) and think through each client to identify things that were done for that client in the past year. When you identify something tangible or meaningful, put it on the list.
   
5. Review last year's Help Desk information and look for key issues that were addressed to improve the use of technology or that eliminated/reduced support calls. Add them to the list.
   
6. List all of your employees by name. Think through each person and what they worked on in the past year. List key events or contributions they made during the course of the year. In this task, you should be able to list several items for each individual. This effort will also help you prepare for upcoming Performance Reviews.
   

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Best of success.

Mike Sisco, ITBMC Founder
MDE Enterprises, Inc.
3300 Stillcorn Ridge Road
Columbia, TN 38401
mike@mde.net
931-490-6932
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