The Skills and Role of a Chief Data Officer

This chapter explores the essential skills and characteristics that make a successful Chief Data Officer (CDO), including communication, business, and technology skills. It discusses the role of a CDO as a diplomatic officer, bridging stakeholders, and negotiating for data access. It also delves into the three pillars of data governance and the increasing strategic importance of data within organizations.

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Episode notes

Over the last two seasons of Data Radicals, we’ve seen that data experts have been promoted to leadership roles. It’s proof that organizations are seeing the value of data and the significance of establishing a data culture.

In this episode, you’ll hear from past guests like Stan McChrystal, Tricia Wang, and Paul Leonardi as they discuss traits of a successful data leader, adapting your data strategies, and the importance of soft skills.

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“I found that if I told somebody to do a task, they might try to do that task. But if I say, ‘Create this effect,’ they owned it because they felt a level of responsibility for what approach that they chose, and it made it much stickier.” – Stan McChrystal, Retired US Army General

“I think having gone through the valley of suffering myself, I have a massive amount of respect for founders because they carry a weight that most people will never realize. So it's hard for me not to like them.” – Jepson Taylor, Chief AI Strategist at Dataiku

“Those CDOs that are most successful quickly establish trust within business, with business sponsors. They work with the business sponsors to identify what are the one or two or three most important things to them and see if they can solve those questions, even if it’s with a very small subset of data, to begin to develop that relationship, that trust.” – Randy Bean, Author of Fail Fast, Learn Faster

“You have to be able to have a learner’s mindset. You have to understand what different teams and functions do and how they play into a bigger picture so that you can get into cause and effect. And then when you start to do that, you have a lot more ability to actually have impact.” – Wendy Turner-Williams, CDO at Tableau

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Time Stamps:

*(00:48): Randy Bean: Alignment with expectations

*(02:39): Jennifer Belissent: The diplomatic CDO

*(05:01): Taylor Brown: Lead by example

*(05:44): Ashish Thusoo: The DNA of a CDO

*(07:48): Stan McChrystal: The strength of humility

*(15:40): Paul Leonardi: Collaboration, computation, and change

*(17:50): Mike Capone: Tapping your network

*(18:39): Tricia Wang: The other vital “C’s”

*(19:41): Bernard Liautaud: Setting your North

*(21:03): Jepson Taylor: Heroism and the human touch