How do I grow into senior data leadership roles?

How do I grow into senior data leadership roles?

A question I get asked often, from team leaders and people in managerial roles.

For starters, what got you here will not take you forward.

Early career growth happens due to your ability to do a few things well in one area. You are good at some technology, business function, or project management and you grow to manage a few people who do the same of what you are good at doing.

That is good for 1 or 2 levels of promotion. But what happens after that?

Stagnation happens – if you don’t focus your attention from what you know to what you need to know.

A mindset change from employee to owner needs to happen, i.e, you need to become an Intrapreneur.

Just like we have small-scale entrepreneurs and the mega-successful entrepreneurs, once you get into intrapreneurship mode, what you become and where you end up is not just in your control, but a lot of factors play in. The one thing that is common across is your approach to work itself and how good you are in building leaders around you.

Intrapreneurship is often discussed in the context of innovation. I view it in the context of the individual. Innovation is a byproduct of changing ourselves.