Strategies For Effective Data Leadership

Unlock the full potential of your organization’s data with our in-depth presentation, "Strategies for Effective Data Leadership." This comprehensive guide is designed to empower data leaders with the knowledge and strategies they need to transition from traditional data management roles to becoming influential drivers of business success. This SlideShare offers a deep dive into the common challenges faced by data leaders, such as legacy business practices, low data literacy, and the pervasive service desk mentality, where data teams are seen merely as request fulfillers rather than strategic partners.

The presentation emphasizes the crucial shift from viewing data as a technical discipline to recognizing it as a fundamental business discipline that can drive innovation, improve decision-making, and align closely with organizational goals. You’ll learn how to reposition your data function to focus on value-added work, fostering a culture of proactive insights and strategic partnership rather than being bogged down by ad hoc requests.

Key topics covered include how to reverse the service desk dynamic by establishing early partnerships with business stakeholders, aligning data initiatives with the organization's strategic objectives, and ensuring that data investments deliver tangible business outcomes. The presentation also explores the importance of educating data teams and broader organizational staff about the business value of data, creating a data-centric culture that is well-integrated with overall business strategies.

Presented by Tristan Burns, a seasoned data leadership expert and former Global Head of Data at Pizza Hut Digital, this SlideShare is packed with actionable insights and practical advice drawn from real-world experiences. Whether you're struggling to gain recognition for your data team’s contributions or looking to enhance your organization’s strategic alignment with data initiatives, this presentation provides the tools and knowledge you need to succeed.

Tristan shares his personal journey and the lessons learned from leading global data teams, offering a roadmap for other data leaders to follow. From breaking out of the reactive service desk role to becoming a proactive partner in business strategy, this guide will help you navigate the complex landscape of data leadership with confidence and clarity.

By the end of this presentation, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to lead with data effectively, ensuring that your team’s work is not only recognized but also instrumental in driving your organization’s success. This SlideShare is an essential resource for any data leader looking to transform their team’s role within their organization and to cultivate a robust, data-driven culture that supports long-term strategic goals.

1. Strategies For
Effective Data
Leadership

2. My Own Leadership Challenges
Legacy business
No established data function
Always done it this way”
No experimentation mindset
Low data & tech literacy
Gut instinct decision making

3. Today’s topics:
What do we mean by data leadership?
Common challenges experiences by data leaders
Reversing the service desk dynamic - shifting the dynamic from help desk to value add work.
Data is a business discipline - not a technical one.
Data means strategy - how to align data work with organisational strategic objectives.
What is on the menu today?

4. Who is this guy?
Tristan Burns (Tris)
Originally from Australia
Former Global Head of Data at Pizza Hut Digital
Currently a coach and advisor focused on helping
people become powerful and influential data leaders

5. Data Leadership?
Individual Contributors
People Managers
Pathways in
Data
Leadership

6. Data Leadership?
Pathways in
Data
Leadership
People Managers
Data Leaders Responsibilities
Strategic vision and leadership
Team Management & Development
Stakeholder collaboration and
communication
Technology and infrastructure
management
Data quality and governance

7. Common data challenges
Excluded from strategic
decision making
Under-resourced
teams
Support function,
not a business partner
Lack of recognition
for contribution
Data seen as
technical discipline
Player - coach
mode

8. Data is a business discipline
“Data is a business discipline...
with technical components”

9. Data is a business discipline
Sales
User
Experience
Product
Marketing
HR
Customer
Manufacturing
Finance
Operations
Sciences
Data is at the core of every business domain

10. Data is a business discipline
Organisational strategies are increasingly informed by data
DATA
STRATEGY
TARGETS/
KPIs
INITIATIVES

11. Data is a business discipline
No Strategic Alignment
Technology Led
What’s Possible?
Customer/Business Outcomes
Business Led
Invest in Aligned Technologies
Data investments require a strategic focus

12. Data is a business discipline
Performance measurement requires familiarity with levers that drive business outcomes

13. Data is a business discipline
Most senior data
person reports to
CTO/CIO
What does it look like when data is seen as a technical discipline?
Data teams is treated
as a service desk for
reporting
Company invests in
data projects
without an aligned
data strategy
1000's of dashboards
and no one is looking
at them
Data is excluded from
the formulation of
business strategies

14. Data is a business discipline
Limited ROI on tech investments
Limited business literacy and integration with business problems for data teams
Reactive rather than proactive problem solving approaches
Investment in tech for tech’s sake (I’m looking at you AI)
The problems caused when data is seen as a technical discipline are:

15. Data is a business discipline
Strategies for rebranding Data as a business discipline
Better collaboration
with business teams
Showcasing results and
better internal selling
Education across the business
around data and business literacy

16. The service desk mentality
Data teams are seen
as places to send
requests for
information/data
Many organisations
see this as being the
raison d'etre / reason
for being.
Data teams are
expected to provide
data quickly and
move on to the next
task
They are told what is
needed by whom and
how urgently it is
needed
What do I mean by service desk mentality?

17. The service desk mentality
Prescriptive solutions - no opportunity for peripheral investigation
What problems does the service desk dynamic cause?
Data teams miss out on key business context - compounding their isolation/siloed nature
Largely unfulfilling and undesirable work
Bogs data team down in ad hoc requests leaving them unable to tackle more strategic challenges.
Established as help-desk mindset that data has a hard time breaking out from
Results in data work having little to no strategic contribution
No end to end visibility of how data work is applied and what outcomes (if any) are achieved

18. The service desk mentality
How they should work:
90% value add work
70% ad hoc requests
How many data leaders work:
What is meant by value add work?
Data literacy and culture
Continuous improvement
Proactive analysis and insights
Driving innovation and experimentation
Strategic & cross functional partnerships
Advanced analytics and machine learning/AI
Ad hoc data requests for stakeholders Collaborative, value add data work
Data leaders are not immune from the service desk dynamic

19. The service desk mentality
Breaking out of the service desk dynamic and reversing the mentality
Partner early on with business stakeholders - What keeps you up at night?
Understanding the problems they are trying to solve - NO prescriptive solutions
Proactive, not reactive insights
Communicate data team wins. Attached value estimates to all insights: I-A-BI method (look it up)
Attain business literacy for the data team - start with STRATEGY.
Develop strict intake processes

20. Data means strategy
data
data data
data data data data
data data data
data data
data data
data
datadata
data data
data data
data data
data data
data
data data
data data data
data data data
data data
data
data
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data
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data data data data
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data data
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data data data data
data data data data
data
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data data
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data
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data
data
data
data
data
data
data
datadata
datadatadata
datadatadata
data
data data
data data
data data
data data
data data
data data
data data
data data datadata
data
data data data
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data
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data
data
data
data
data
data
data
data
STRATEGY
No strategy without data, no data without strategy

21. Data means strategy
What do I mean by strategy?
“Where to play and how to win”
Playing to win - Lafley Martin
Data plays a clear role here as it helps the organisations
determine the above 2 areas.

22. Data means strategy
What do data leaders need to be strategic?
To ensure organisations
are implementing data
informed strategies
To ensure their data
strategies directly align
with overall
organisational goals
Ensure accurate
comprehension,
measurement and
reporting of KPIs that
underpin organisational
strategy

23. Data means strategy
Org Strategy Data Strategy
Data Products/
Initiatives
How does an organisation strategy translate into a data strategy?
An Organisational Strategy sets
the direction for the whole
company. It determines where the
company plans to play, and how it
plans to win. Activities that don’t
align with this vision are
distractions from it.
People. Process. Technology.
A high-level plan or roadmap that
outlines how an organisation will
collect, store, manage, analyse,
and use data to achieve its
Organisational Strategy. The
correlation MUST be clear.
Any and all data activities
undertaken by data teams must
align to the organisation’s Data
Strategy and by extension, it’s
Organisational Strategy. Any task
that doesn’t clearly align to these
is a distraction.

24. Data means strategy
How you can become more strategically minded
Personal education - buddy up with strategy team if you have one - COO/CFOs
Ask to be included in strategy setting conversations
Use of OKRs to align own and team activity with overarching org goals
Ensure clear alignment with org strategy on any initiatives - if not there don’t do them.
Be intimately familiar with your organisation’s strategy

25. Rewind
What do we mean by data leadership?
Common challenges experiences by data leaders
Reversing the service desk dynamic - shifting the dynamic from help desk to value add work.
Data is a business discipline - not a technical one.
Data means strategy - how to align data work with organisational strategic objectives.
What have we covered today?

26. Top data leader challenges
I asked my potential data leadership coaching clients what the biggest
areas for their leadership growth were.
This is what they told me.

27. Data leadership coaching
How I might help you
I help data leaders develop strategies to become more influential so
that they can transform the data culture within their organisations
whilst growing in their careers.
I combine my extensive career experience as a Global Head of Data
within a Fortune 500 alongside my experience as a consultant, coach
and mentor to work with leaders to maximise their growth potential.
www.trisjburs.com

28. Come Say Hi!
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn.com/in/trisjburns
Free Gift:
Playbook:
Strategies for creating a
data-centric culture in your organisation