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Managing a data team is tough.

It’s made even tougher when you fail to ‘manage’ the really important stakeholders in your orbit. Those above you, and those to either side of you in the org chart.

When we’re first promoted to leading a data team, our focus is usually fixed on ensuring our team members feel supported, motivated and inspired to do great work.

But data work has a wider, internal audience. And one that is typically not all that data savvy, sadly.

Just like your data team, these stakeholders need managing. But it is not a one size fits all. Those above you, those beside you and those below you, each need support and guidance relevant to their needs. If you are to succeed as a data leader, learning how to manage these groups is essential.

Unfortunately, failing to learn this lesson has career limiting impacts.

Career limiting impacts

Failing to effectively manage each of these groups appropriately is a killer. But what are the impacts on you as a data leader? While there are many, for the purpose of brevity, here are a few core impacts:

• 1️⃣ Data projects fail to gain traction or support at the executive level because you fail to make a great case for them through effective upwards management. This leads to underfunded and undervalued initiatives that don’t deliver ROI and reflect very poorly on you as a leader.

• 2️⃣ Misalignment with peers results in fragmented data efforts, the establishment of shadow data teams (ugh), mistrust in data and a reduction in overall effectiveness, creating siloed environments.

• 3️⃣ Data teams that are not managed well will fail. They will feel disconnected or undervalued, will have little exposure to impactful work and business challenges, which will lead to low morale and high turnover rates.

• 4️⃣ Your own career progression will stall as data leaders that fail to manage effectively will continue to be seen as technical experts rather than high value strategic contributors.

But there is good news: by adopting a strategic approach to managing up, down and sideways, you can overcome these challenges and become the strategic data leader your organisation needs you to be.

Let’s take a look at how, shall we? ⬇️

How to manage up, down and sideways ⬆️ ⬇️ ➡️

A client of mine recently told me that their C-Suite manager made decisions with their gut, and didn’t need to see the data because they trusted their gut.

As a data leader, this revelation is extremely troublesome, particularly if your leader doesn’t feel they need data to make decisions.

While there might be many ways to address this, and personalities and relationships will play a massive role here, one thing is for sure, this is an opportunity to manage up!

⬆️ Managing Up: Start by building strong relationships with senior stakeholders as early as you can once in role by understanding their strategic goals and demonstrating how data can contribute towards those towards objectives.

As with the example above, a large part of managing up is about persuasion and transformation. Identifying risks and attitudes that will limit the effectiveness of data initiatives will be the first step. Often with this group, it’s not easy to simply tell them that they are wrong (no matter how good it might feel).

In order to elicit the responses we need from senior stakeholders we need a more nuanced and effective approach than simply via direct confrontation.

Focus on what they care about (it’s usually the bottom line). Share data wins and do what you can to demonstrate data’s ability to contribute to desired outcomes. It may feel more like selling than managing at first, but this will shift with every great story told and win chalked up!

⬇️ Managing Down: This is the type of management most of us are used to and should hopefully be clearer and more straight forward.

The essence of effectively managing your team is empowerment.

Empower them by making sure they have the resources, direction, clarity and clear expectations to work towards. It is essential that they feel connected to wider business so that they can see how their contribution is brining about valuable outcomes for the business.

You represent them across the business and must therefore be their biggest advocate and supporter. When they do a great job don’t only tell them that, share their win around the organisation.

⬅️ ➡️ Managing Sideways: Foster collaboration with your peers by aligning on data priorities and creating a shared vision.

How other teams throughout the business interpret and use data is largely up to you. If you neglect to manage this relationship effectively, these teams will very likely misinterpret, misuse and potentially ignore data. Do so at your own peril.

Instead, partner with these individuals and work together with them to solve business challenges they are experiencing. Start by asking the leaders of these functions, “what keeps you up at night?”

If you can figure out that, and provide solutions or even just more clarity around those challenges, you’ll have successfully managed this sideways relationship.

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By managing relationships at all levels, you can not only deliver successful data projects but also establish yourself as a key player in driving the organisation’s success. What more could a data leader ask for?

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