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🤵🏼The James Bond Audition

Before he was 007, Daniel Craig appeared in the film Layer Cake as a suave but nameless dr*g dealer.

Late in the film, his character receives some very sage advice from a London underworld Kingpin, who tells him:

While I’m not suggesting any data leaders get involved with anything shady - I think there is much we can learn from this particular Kingpin’s wise counsel.

Data leaders often struggle to have the influence they need to drive real business impacts.

The problem?

They aren’t acting as an effective bridge between data teams and the business.

The best data leaders don’t just manage a team, they ensure data is being used effectively across the entire organisation.

That means translating between technical and business teams, helping the business ask the right data questions, and ensuring data teams communicate insights in a way that makes sense to stakeholders - by speaking their language.

If you can master this, you become an indispensable strategic asset (kinda like JB). Your work leads to smarter decision-making, more impactful initiatives, and a business that truly leverages data to drive growth.

Unfortunately, many data leaders fall into the trap of being too technical or too business-focused, without striking the right balance. If you don’t fix this, you risk being ignored, sidelined, or seen as an operational function rather than a strategic leader.

Trust me, you don’t want that - particularly in the current climate where data leaders are being help responsible for demonstrating value.

(remember to check out the results from last weeks poll below)

😬 What this problem will cost you

Here’s what happens when data leaders fail to act as effective liaisons:

1. The business asks the wrong data questions 

   When stakeholders don’t know what’s possible, they waste time on low-value requests and miss opportunities for real impact. This is your opportunity to guide and influence them to ask better questions of the data - and to network your butt off!

2. Data teams produce outputs with no strategic alignment 

   Insights get lost in translation, and data work becomes a reporting exercise instead of a business driver. The result of this is serious damage to your team and your efficacy as a leader. Data budgets and headcount are cut, and you’re locked out of strategic conversations.

3. Decisions are made without data 

   If leaders don’t understand or trust the data, they’ll default to gut instinct instead, reducing the organisation’s competitive edge. Not speaking the language of the business harms data’s ability to drive impact.

4. You lose credibility as a leader 

   If you can’t connect data work to business impact, senior leadership will simply stop seeing you as a key strategic player. No bueno.

🤝 Becoming a good middle man person

The key is to act as the translator, connector and liaison between your data team and the business.

Here’s how:

1. Become fluent in both languages 

   You need to speak data fluently, but you also need to understand the business’s strategy, financials, and operational challenges. If you can’t explain data’s impact in a way that resonates with leadership, they will simply not listen.

2. Guide the business to ask better questions 

   Instead of just answering requests, challenge them. “What decision will this help you make?” or “What problem are you actually trying to solve?” This ensures data is being used for maximum impact and that data teams are closely involved with solving relevant business challenges.

3. Ensure clear communication from your data team 

   Analysts should present findings in a way the business understands. Swap out technical jargon for simple, compelling narratives that focus on action and outcomes. This may require business literacy training for your team as well as proactively exposing them to front line business operations.

4. Align data work with business strategy 

   Every project should connect back to a strategic goal. If it doesn’t, question why it’s being done. When data initiatives clearly ladder up to business objectives, they get buy-in and drive real results. If everyone in the business works on initiatives that are strategically aligned, then the greater the chance that the business will succeed.

Want my wise counsel?

Work on these challenges and become the data leader your business desperately needs.

When you do this well, you don’t just lead a data team – you shape how the entire business thinks about and uses data.

That’s when you become truly influential.

⚡️ Previous poll results

Last week I asked you if you had to run your data team like a startup, what would you focus on first?

Looks like most of you went for the money play. Niiiiiiceeeee!

Tristan Burns

Find me on LinkedIn or Book a 1:1 call