How important is a data-driven corporate culture?
I am going to bring together some articles, perhaps a series, that helps explain “Data-Driven”. It is a buzzword, of sorts, that may not be clear for everyone. If you want to be successful, you need to be data-driven! This piece should help you understand why.
What is Data-Driven Leadership? Let’s start with What is Leadership? Leadership is an attribute that should be sought in all professionals. You can lead people. But you can also lead a process, lead a project, and lead by example — without a single person ever reporting to you. Leadership is a state of mind and a course of action.
Let’s start with accountability. Leaders are accountable. They make decisions. They take ownership. They own consequences. If your organization has no accountability, it also lacks leadership. That will sit hard with some folks, but it is the brutal truth.
How important is a data-driven corporate culture?
Leaders are connected. Not every leader is an extroverted people-person, but all great leaders know their market, their company, their people, their place in the universe. This may come from conversation or observation, but feedback is not optional. Further, that feedback must flow both ways! In our increasingly digital world, this requires… DATA.
A Data-Driven Leader recognizes that data connects, data drives accountability, and data can be quantified. It allows us to measure our focus. In this digital world, it may be the only way to truly know your customer, your product, and your market.
They recognize that an organization must invest in, provide incentive for, and evangelize data. Measured failure is almost as good as measured success and better for the company than unmeasured success.
In God we trust, all others must bring data.never said by W. Edwards Deming, though he would have appreciated it
