Earlier this week, Jill Dyché (@JillDyche), successful author, blogger, BI, MDM and Data Governance consultant and all around information guru, created a flurry of creactivity (I just made that word up – it’s a combination of the words creative and activity), when she tweeted a simple response that suggested a couple of data rock star types, in response to an excellent on-line article Are You a Data Rock Star? by Elizabeth Glagowski.
Elizabeth’s article has some excellent descriptions and examples of the attributes of what makes a great data rock star and Jill’s vigorous (and often humorous) take on business and IT alignment always identifies the rock star behaviors of being able to communicate the linkage between a company's information and its business value.
The results of the flurried creactivity, was Jean-Michel Franco (@jmichel_franco) coming up with a name that was quickly adopted; “The Rolling Forecasts”, and Jim Harris (@ocdqblog), in his latest Obsessive Compulsive Data Quality blog post, coined the brilliantly perfect and perfectly brilliant lyrics to the band’s first song: “You can’t always get the data you want”.
So what I decided to do here was attempt to compile all these rock start attributes and behaviors in a simple format, so that they can be easily re-used and referred to. I plan on adding these to our internal wiki and identifying them as behaviors of successful data stewards. I a) hope they get read and b) hope that they get people thinking, behaving, changing…
· Excellent communicator of business and IT concepts using common language
· Ability to link information to business value
· Effective at communicating concepts and new ideas at early stages in order to reduce change management efforts
· Has excellent self awareness and understands the link between trust and partnership
· Is able to express thoughts and opinions in various ways in order to be able to provide feedback when others may not be interested in hearing it
· And seeks out and is receptive to feedback and continuously provides the opportunity for others to provide it
· Actually listens to the feedback and changes behavior/process/approach for continuous improvement (don’t get me started on people who ask for feedback but couldn’t give a rat’s a**..)
· Understands the link between clarifying expectations and how that will lead to success
· Ability to know how to engage and enthuse others – must understand the body language, communication preferences, motivations and needs of others
· Must be able to spot opportunities and take advantage of them – and especially do it in a way that others are unaware of it
· Must be comfortable pushing the boundaries in order to change things and do so in a way that others are unaware the boundary is being pushed
· Must be comfortable exerting authority and using it appropriately – all the while smiling and engaging others
· Is able to identify key success measures from both business and IT perspective and communicate effectively – at the beginning to confirm what is expected and throughout to continue to re-iterate value
· Is well liked and respected – this will ensure access to resources, tools, other stakeholders, hidden information (you KNOW that happens), and will help pave the way through political and cultural roadblocks
· Be able to articulate solutions as practical and logical and tie them directly to group/organizational goals
What do you think?
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