The below resolutions for 2012 have been adapted from an article originally appearing in CSE Magazine.
1. Get introspective. Think about your career and determine your needs for self- and corporate improvement. What have you been wanting to learn but haven’t taken the time to act on?
2. Invest in training for yourself. Whether it’s technical/tactical/operational or soft-skills training such as time management, public speaking, or English as a second language, set up a training program that will benefit your career.
3. Establish or evaluate the corporate mentoring program. If you have a mentoring program, take its pulse and see if it needs sprucing up.
4. Establish or evaluate a brown-bag internal training program. Whether you have internal or external speakers once a month or more, brown-bag or lunch-and-learn seminars are great ways to enhance skills and help earn continuing education units (CEUs).
5. Join and be active in essential professional associations/societies, such as FFMIA, NFPA, IFMA, ISFTI, and others. Having staff update the company on codes/standards, conference sessions, awards programs, etc., is grist for the brown-bags mentioned in number 4 above.
6. Research new technologies/tools/strategies and share with the staff.
7. Research research. That’s not a typo. Spend some time looking for new or recent research reports you might have missed on topics important to your job. Use informal seminars to share knowledge.
8. Get into the field. Shadow commissioning providers, operators, suppliers, and construction contractors. Learn how systems perform and age in the field. Share the knowledge.
9. Get visible. Many of the above resolutions will lead to publishable technical articles in trade publications. Also, become a Webinar and/or conference speaker. Develop a reward program for staff members whose articles are published or who participate in a conference or webinar event.
10. Focus on economics. Learn the ins and outs of your clients’ businesses and citizens needs. Share the knowledge in brown-bag sessions.
11. Check on past projects. Overtly or subliminally check to see how past projects are doing in the “real world.” Try to learn strengths and weaknesses of past work to improve future work.
12. Reassess guide specifications, SOG's, and internal processes. Take everything learned in 2011 and apply it for 2012 and beyond.
