How are you handling these challenging times? If you are in charge of IT/Telecom for your organization, you have a unique set of challenges. They involve not only keeping yourself and your family safe but serving the remote working needs of your end users. Some of you may be hustling to securely connect users to new applications, such as conference calling, webinar platforms and communications work arounds. Others may find yourselves in more of a hunker down and wait it out mode.
Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum, there are things you can and should be doing to prepare your department and your organization for better (and probably more hectic) times ahead. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Are you on track with your goals?
- Where should you be by now? What obstacles have kept you from meeting some of those goals? What actions could you take to get around them?
- How have your vendors been performing during these times?
- Are they partnering with you to think outside the box when necessary to keep your organization connected and secure? What changes should you recommend to senior management when business returns to normal?
- Where can you save money?
- Chances are your organization has suffered financially as so many have. Are you using a technology expense management (TEM) solution to identify areas where you can tighten up expenses? When was the last time you had a full audit?
- Where are your technology gaps?
- What new technologies might be worth pursuing that could come in handy should we hit another challenging period, whether a resurgence of the virus or other debilitating event?
- Should you be outsourcing more?
- What processes and applications could you be outsourcing to enable you and your team to play a more strategic role in helping set the direction of new technologies within your organization?
- Finally, how have you led your team so far?
- How can you be more communicative and encouraging to those who are fearful of their futures? Are you taking a lead position? Are you communicating regularly?
These are truly unprecedented times we are living through. Nobody will come through completely unscathed. But many will come out wiser and smarter, having learned a great deal about the importance of keeping communications alive and what it takes to lead a team through a crisis. Use this time wisely to reflect on your own performance and how you can improve your department and you can be one of them.