Gartner came up with a list of their top 10 CIO resolutions for 2005:

1. Create alternative plans for the unpredictable year.
2. Decide whether they want to be technology managers or business managers with IT knowledge, and invest in the appropriate skills.
3. Use regulatory compliance demands to invest in related, strategic areas.
4. Get the IT staff media-ready and try to foster external public relations.
5. Drop "on time and on budget" as a key performance indicator for IT staff, noting that this a basic requirement. Set new performance indicators above and beyond that.
6. Get hands-on experience on some new key technologies.
7. Combat IT complexity by creating simplification policies.
8. Elevate business process thinking to the management level, by deciding the process first and applications second, for example.
9. Build a relationship and collaborate with the human resources director on strategy for IT staff changes.
10. Critically review the capability of your IT organization and it leaders.

This is from a story in InfoWorld out today. Most of this seems like the same old stuff, but a few of these did catch my eye.

Number 3, using regulatory requirements to enable investment in related areas, is a critical way for CIOs to get things done that usually get swept under the rug. An example is data architecture development--you can never find the money to do that. To make this work, however, you've got to have a strategy in place to begin with. This is great way to accomplish long term objectives from short term requirements.

Number 6 is also something most CIOs could stand more of. CIOs desperately need to understand new technologies, but have a tough time finding the time to do more than read a few magazines in the bathroom. A few suggestions: First, keep reading this blog. :-) More seriously, create an informal advisory board of a few people who are keeping up with the trends and take them to lunch once a month or so. Send them a nice Christmas present next December. Another approach is to do something more formal such as hiring a consultant or two and make them your private tutors. Meet with them once a month for a few hours and have them come prepared to teach you about something you need to know but haven't had the time to keep up with.

The last resolution is always important, but may be crucial this year. As the tech economy heats up (and I'm seeing plenty of signs that it is), good people are going to get harder to find and some of your good people are going to leave. Proactively managing staff issues and upgrading where necessary will save some headaches down the road.