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Data Demystified: Leadership

I created my company with a vision to help organizations realize value from their data investments by dismantling entrenched technical elitism and the view of data as an administrative function owned by IT.

I've articulated 4 foundational principles that drive the consulting vision of Data Management Dimensions LLC (DMD):

  • Data is a business function distinct from the technology that manages it.
  • The leader of the data function's role is to generate revenue and increase profitability by leveraging data assets.
  • Product thinking should dominate the data function.
  • The phrase "data governance" should disappear from the organization's vocabulary.

What I've written since publishing these principles focused on data as a product, but I skipped over the data leader principle.

Early branding consultations revealed that I gravitate toward The Rebel archetype whose "goal is to challenge the status quo and liberate others from convention" which feels like a difficult sell to a risk-averse market of potential clients.

So how does a rabble rouser such as myself write about data leadership to business leaders?

Rather than focusing on commonly discussed personal attributes of effective leadership, I emphasize positioning for success.  I'd recommend providing any newly christened data leader with the following:

  • Executive authority.  Data leaders are sometimes positioned to fail because they aren't empowered to make decisions or given access to executive leadership to form strategic partnerships.
  • A dedicated budget and staff.  It's critical to provide your data leader with comparable resources and discretion given to the head of any other line of business.  Otherwise, your proclamation that data is a business function is little more than smoke and mirrors and unlikely to deliver on your objectives.
  • Clear, attainable, and measurable objectives.  Until the business has a clear idea how they want data to impact targeted outcomes, it's probably too early to appoint a data leader.  This is where consultants like myself are a better investment.
  • Time.  This will likely be a multi-year journey.  The first year should establish a solid foundation of cultural and operational change, with the data function's impact evident in Year Two financials.

To summarize, the type of data leader an organization chooses will vary based on culture, but positioning them to succeed requires a willingness to reject and replace a status quo that isn't working.