How Not to be a “Data Nazi” (and Keep Your Team Motivated!)
Originally posted on LinkedIn.
The advantages of data-driven strategy, particularly for marketing, are real and substantial. To this day, however, not everyone is ready to drive strategy from data. This is both because individuals’ reasoning is often -and innocently- self-motivated and because, for various reasons, some teams and cultures still employ consensus-based decision-making for most everything. This includes determining what’s actually going on with part of a business or market.
That said, one can see where bluntly asking a team to defer their decisions to data could become quite infuriating to a number of teammates. Over time, some might even see it as “fascist.” And history has shown us just how happy people become with fascists…
Therefore, if you aspire to be a data-driven leader but are looking to prevent a revolt, here are a few tips on how to avoid being seen as a “Data Nazi,” which are drawn from my own experiences in having -previously- taxed relationships through promoting market research: