A Year End List of 9 Things to Ponder

During the holiday season, I like to make lists.  All of us can benefit from writing down things to do, areas to improve and goals to strive for.  Here is a list of things for health system CIOs to think about as we move forward to 2011.

1. Join/update healthcare IT group memberships and participate.

We all join organizations and then hang back and don’t participate.  Join or update your memberships for only the groups that are important to you, and then participate more actively in 2011.

2. Speak or present at a national healthcare IT conference or user group.

Now is the time to share your expertise in all the knowledge you have accumulated.  Submit your proposal to speak at a conference or user group.  If you don’t want speak alone, find a partner or panel to discuss a timely healthcare IT topic, successful implementation or IT problem solved.  You have a unique story that needs to be heard.

3. Write an article, a book, be quoted.

Another avenue for your expertise is writing.  There are various media looking for health system CIO opinions and articles.  Seek out the ones that allow you to be creative and learn to enjoy writing and sharing your successes or failures.

4. Mentor a rising star.

In every organization, there are certain individual staff members who can benefit from your mentoring to help them in their careers.  Seek out those individuals who have potential to grow and guide them to greater heights.  This is a small, close knit industry, and your mentoring will be remembered.

5. Participate more in social media: Internet forums, blogs, wikis, Podcasts, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, ooVoo, etc.

These various social media outlets have their ups and downs, but they are not going away.  The younger generation is further along, but everyone needs to be acquainted with the various user-generated technologies, social networking sites and outlets.

6. Get an advanced degree.

It might be time to add an advanced degree to your resume.  Consider a Masters of Science in Health Informatics degree.

7. Clean out the e-mails in your inbox.

Consider cleaning out your inbox every Friday, for both personal and business e-mails.  Save important e-mails in folders, delete the others, then delete your deletes.  It is a great way to start your weekend.

8. Strive for perfection, but be realistic.

Setting high expectations and goals for you, your department and staff are needed, but being perfect is too hard.  Be sensitive to the limits of what you and your staff can do, and understand the time and energy needed to get the work done.  Keep your expectations high, but adjust to more realistic timelines and goals.  Keep working at that work/life balance.

9. Quit worrying.

Why waste time worrying, there are much better things to do with your time and energy.  Take time to enjoy the holidays, relax, get out of your normal routine and test some new skills.  Work, issues and problems will always be there, but try to get away from them and you will come back refreshed.