\u00a0<\/h3>\nOrientation leaders face accountability but often lack authority<\/h3>\n
Orientation mode emerges when AI is high on the agenda but goals and outcomes poorly defined. Here, leaders are asked to show impact but are restrained by lack of mandate or conditions to deliver it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing more and more pressure for AI, but the pressure doesn\u2019t always come with the necessary investments and support. A lot of organisations are asking us to run before we can walk.<\/em>\u201d Guild 2025 Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n Leaders also return to Orientation mode when new goals need to be agreed, for instance due to new regulation, corporate strategy, or AI capabilities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Scaling mode, demand is strong and foundations partly in place, but progress is complicated by misaligned priorities, overlapping initiatives, and vendor strain. Leaders face the task of turning isolated successes into repeatable, enterprise-wide impact while ensuring the organisation has the skills, governance, and infrastructure to sustain growth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where mandate, momentum, and means are more closely aligned, leaders move into North Star mode. Here, the work extends beyond delivery to embedding data and AI into strategy, workforce planning, and operating model design, and to becoming a truly AI-first organisation.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The report underscores that AI projects cannot be considered as primarily technical initiatives. They are exercises in redesigning operating models, decision rights, and roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNearly all AI projects are really operating model projects with value unlocked through rethinking process, data, technology and people.<\/em>\u201d – Ian Hockney, Group Commercial Director and Office of the CIO, Specsavers.<\/strong><\/p>\n This shifts the emphasis of leadership by recognising that the most critical work is relational, and lies in culture, governance, and value outcomes, rather than technical deployment. \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While the pressures differ across contexts, the report shows they are systemic rather than individual. Leaders often assume their difficulties are unique, when in fact they reflect broader patterns of mandate, momentum, and means. The leadership modes provide a framework to make sense of these patterns and to offer direction in a constantly shifting landscape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A new report by DataIQ in collaboration with Databricks explores the real leadership work behind the AI-first organisation <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":704,"featured_media":37676,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[129,398,133],"tags":[217,1264,714,481,712,861],"pillar":[194],"class_list":["post-37474","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-public","category-reports","tag-ai","tag-ai-governance","tag-ai-strategy","tag-data-leadership","tag-leadership-and-vision","tag-scaling","pillar-leadership"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 22:54:20","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\/37474","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\/704"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/37474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37678,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/37474\/revisions\/37678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37474"},{"taxonomy":"pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pillar?post=37474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Scaling is where complexity intensifies<\/h3>\n
North Star leadership is about sustaining adaptability<\/h3>\n
![\"Data](\"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-content\/uploads\/UWUP-No-Arrows-Larger-For-blog-post-300x225.png\" "\\"\\"")
AI work is really organisational work<\/h3>\n
Data and AI Leadership modes reveal commonalities<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dataiq.global\/devstage\/wp-content\/uploads\/Data-and-AI-Leadership-Under-Way-and-Under-Pressure_cover-213x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nDownload the report for the full insights<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"