{"id":3483,"date":"2022-11-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/members.dataiq.global\/article\/do-i-have-the-right-professional-skills-to-thrive-at-the-top-level-in-my-organisation\/"},"modified":"2023-05-15T17:28:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T16:28:35","slug":"do-i-have-the-right-professional-skills-to-thrive-at-the-top-level-in-my-organisation","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/articles\/do-i-have-the-right-professional-skills-to-thrive-at-the-top-level-in-my-organisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I have the right professional skills to thrive at the top level in my organisation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do not downplay your skills<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first thing is that data professionals often seem to downplay their skillsets or focus on areas that they are weakest in. As one member from the retail industry pointed out, \u201cyou do not need to be an expert in everything to be a successful leader\u201d, in fact, it is often to the strength of a leader that they know where their weaknesses lie. The contributor added, \u201cI know that there are people in my team that have better coding skills than me, or can understand new technologies faster than me, but that does not mean my skills are not valuable. It just means I need to know what to ask from my team.\u201d It was highlighted that being able to ask the right questions \u2013 and being brave enough to ask for something to be explained \u2013 is key to being a thriving leader.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everyone can experience a crisis of confidence, especially when taking on new roles. I am sure we have all felt that pang of dread and the thought \u201cwill I be found out as a fraud?\u201d when moving into a more senior position with responsibility.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Letting go<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chances are, if you are in the position of being able to move into a leadership role, you have been working in the sector for multiple years, meaning you have a set routine and day-to-day tasks. When you change roles and go on to become a team leader, active at the top level of an organisation, you need to be able to step back from the day-to-day tasks and trust your team \u2013 and your management of the team \u2013 that these tasks will be completed. \u201cIt was difficult for me to step away,\u201d said one member from an electronics retailer. \u201cI know I am very good at these jobs and suddenly not being able to thrive at them meant I needed to find new ways of demonstrating my value and worth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One way data professionals can ensure that the tasks they have had to step away from continue being achieved is by focusing on a talent pipeline and succession management. If you know that stepping away from being a team member to a team leader will leave a talent gap, find new members that can be trained to fill that void. \u201cOne way in which I have achieved this is through mentoring,\u201d said a member from a government-funded organisation. \u201cI work with junior and senior members of the team, identifying areas where they thrive and need improvement to ensure the dynamics of the team cover all the bases for successful data.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is also important to provide training opportunities for your colleagues, particularly if your absence from the team will lead to a brain drain in a speciality. This is more of a concern for smaller teams that are still early in their data journey but losing an experienced member of a team can have lasting impacts which are exacerbated by the ongoing struggle to hire data staff and retain them.<\/p>\n

Just do it<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is not very data-driven, but when it comes to career progression a gut feeling for what it is you<\/strong> <\/strong>want to achieve can go a long way to dispelling uncertainty and ambiguity. The caveat is that this only works for you and your personal ambitions. \u201cA leader needs to have a certain amount of get-up-and-go about them, which can be partially put down to gut feelings,\u201d said one member from the maritime industry. \u201cIf you know your current position is not giving you the satisfaction you want from your job and there is an opportunity to take the reins and lead, then you owe it to yourself to try.\u201d It can be difficult to leave a position where you feel comfortable and confident, but progression and reaching for a role at the top of the organisation requires a certain amount of bravery and conviction that this move is what you want.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was acknowledged by the team that making the move to a top-level position is not easy or an overnight task, but it is necessary for the growth of the data team as well as personal satisfaction and development.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To nominate yourself or a colleague as a data leader for inclusion in the 2023 DataIQ 100 UK for free, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To nominate yourself or a colleague as a data leader for inclusion in the 2023 DataIQ 100 USA for free, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the recent DataIQ members meetup, discussions centred around whether people felt they had the right skills to thrive in the organisation. Members looked at how some simple changes can make a big difference to self-perception and confidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3485,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[129,131],"tags":[87,167,121],"pillar":[],"class_list":["post-3483","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-member-articles","tag-leadership","tag-organisation-and-culture","tag-skills"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 05:32:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3483"},{"taxonomy":"pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pillar?post=3483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}