There's no such thing as a purposeless data team

May 7

“Nature abhors a vacuum” - The Philosopher (when you are as famous as him, you get titles like that)

If you leave the purpose or mission of your team undefined it won’t stay that way.

The empty space will be filled.

If, whether on purpose or accident, you fail to define for your team why they are here and why they matter, don’t worry. Your team is great at coming up with a purpose of their own.

They will likely adopt numerous purposes.

Jane’s purpose is to get a promotion and she will do whatever it takes to get it.
Bruce’s purpose is to relax and do as little work as possible.
Ravi’s purpose is to learn some technical skills before jumping to another company for a pay raise.
Annette’s purpose is to maintain her relevance in a rapidly changing technical landscape.

They’ve each adopted their own purposes, that best suit their needs and interests. Overall organizational objectives be damned. All of these people will place their individual purposes as top priority for the team - thereby filling the empty space.

There’s no such thing as a purposeless team. But without a singular purpose defined by the leader, you will end up with a multi-purpose team.

And multi-purpose teams face constant infighting, lethargy, and turnover.

Do you know what the purpose of your data team is? More importantly, is the vision of that purpose compelling and clear enough that the individuals on the team no longer jostle for control to have their purpose on top?

Know where you are, know where you are going, and take people with you.

That’s what leadership boils down to.

The Technical and Strategic Data Leader focuses on solving this problem for leaders. Why does the data team exist and how do we best execute on that purpose?

If you feel frustrated, lost, or exhausted on your Data Leadership journey this is the Gatorade at Mile 20 of the marathon.

Over 6 weeks (and 12 hours of live content and discussion), you will understand: