Taylor Culver on LinkedIn: Data leaders, are you up for a promotion but not getting a CDO title?… (2025)

Ending the week strong with our first customer integrated with our newly launched API. 💪💪💪For data leaders looking to align their data projects to clear and measurable value, take a look perhaps we can help!Link below in comments.

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3 principles for your data strategy:1) deliver business benefits; secondarily while improving information quality as needed2) small compounding wins3) clear, not confusing If your data strategy is:1) oriented to data quality2) dependent on a single or few large investments3) confusing to executive and business stakeholdersYou will not get far…

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For any data analysts looking to join a great team!

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Does data leadership suffer from the Peter Principle? Quite likely. Why?Many data leaders start their careers in highly technical functions. Those who demonstrate leadership acumen are promoted to lead delivery teams and, with continued success, eventually to a data leader role. Where the role becomes more outward-facing, relationship-oriented, and outside the skills developed during their apprenticeship.Alternatively, some data leaders start in the business, show an affinity for data or business analytics, and get promoted to a data leader role because of their relationships within the organization, where their inexperience with the technical nuances of data can limit their ability to think through the complexity of delivering technical solutions.Both paths lead to a degree of promotion to a level of incompetence with specific skills, which is aligned with the Peter Principle. But in the data leader's defense, what is competence? Being able to masterly influence an organization with limited resources on an ambiguous and largely boring topic for the average person? That's a tall ask for anyone. Since the career path to becoming a CDO isn't clearly defined, nor is the role universally seen as an integral part of the C-suite, while at the same time, every company on the planet has data, we will continue to see the emergence of data leader roles. This problem isn't going away anytime soon.So, the problem we need to address is these career milestones, where data leaders will be faced with significant personal and professional growth.During this time of growth from incompetence to competence, others may suffer. Their teams may feel undue pressure, the organization may not see immediate results, and stakeholders may be confused and perhaps even frustrated about how to work with the data leader. Which has negative consequences for many people - including the data leader!How well data leaders manage this moment in their career will ultimately dictate their long-term success on their path to executive leadership because the reality is, if you can influence without power and deliver tangible solutions with intangible assets, in my mind, you're pretty impressive. So it suffering from the Peter Principle a bad thing? Probably not, but it is something I'd like to see more thought leadership on, because the path to CDO is most certainly unclear and precarious at best and even when there, many of these challenges will remain. If you are a data leader faced with some of these challenges and are feeling stuck, DM me, and I'd be happy to chat about some possible tactics to accelerate your efforts.

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Being a data leader is harder than being an entrepreneur.Why:1) expectations are ambiguous at best An entrepreneur will take a solution to market & sell it. A data leader defines and operates a data strategy successfully. Well, what is success?2) failure doesn't always come with tangible consequencesAs an entrepreneur, you grow or die. You brush yourself off and move on as quickly as you can. As a data leader, failure leads to disengagement and resistance, leaving them to operate at a lower capability than desired. A data leader will likely remain employed despite ineffectiveness, which is incredibly isolating and painful. 3) there is a ceiling on upside with significant career riskAs an entrepreneur, your upside is, in theory, unlimited. As a data leader, unless you're an F100 CDO, and rest assured there aren't 100 of them, you'll cap out around $175k-$250k + benefits. The reputational risks you must take to drive change with limited resources are significant as a data leader. If successful, maybe a tiny merit increase?Moral of the story?The data leader job is tough. That doesn't mean giving up because the work can be highly fulfilling despite these challenges. Instead, reframe; it's not just you; it's hard, but I enjoy the wins despite the challenges - which are very, very real.And if it becomes too hard, you'll have tempered enough resistance, tenacity, and grit to be a hell of an entrepreneur. :)Best of luck in your data journey!

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There is nothing more humbling than having a big title (or being in a senior reporting relationship) and having little influence. Data leaders you’ve got it wrong. The end goal isn’t to be CDO, it’s maximizing your influence.Being CDO with zero influence is not a place you want to be.And…If you’re hired into a company as a CDO vs promoted from within, you’re going to have to earn the influence while proving yourself quickly as to not lose stakeholder engagement. And…Even if the CEO supports you, that doesn’t guarantee influence. The secret is that CEOs need to earn/perserve influence too. And if data is losing influence, they will distance themselves from it if it’s not a strategic priority.Not trying to pop the bubble of many data leaders goals, but the only way to do the CDO job well is with influence.Otherwise it’s going to be 18 months here, 18 months there, and not getting the opportunity to drive significant value. If you want to be influential, earn trust & respect by solving problems.Also, delivering solutions isn’t the only way to deliver value. Sometimes it’s giving already quite capable people additional clarity.Solve problems…become influential.

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People -> Problems -> Use Cases -> Projects -> Solutions -> RepeatGateway to next steps:1) People must want to work with you2) Problems are of significant enough value to your organization to fix3) Use cases are sponsored by someone with authority 4) Projects are delivered on time to spec5) Solutions are widely adopted6) Close gaps, celebrate wins, next…

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As a data leader, even if "governance" is in your title, it's important not to act like the police. Otherwise, the business will throw you in jail - or worse.

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What are the metrics for the success of your data strategy? And please don't tell me about data monetization. Instead:1) how many people are actively working with you? Is this growing?2) of those people, how many have roles & responsibilities with straightforward tasks?; how are they performing these tasks over time?3) does your portfolio of use case $benefits > $cost of delivery + underlying solutions?4) are your identified $benefits committed to the business plan? (y/n)Probably not...Prioritize engagement, and the dollars will follow, as will the probability of delivering change.This may not be obvious, but business metrics are not data leader metrics.Success for data leaders is accelerating how business leadership transforms the business with data, not taking credit for their KPIs.Hold yourself accountable to metrics for your data strategy, and your outcomes will change drastically. Plus you will be able to communicate better where you are truly stuck.Hopefully helpful!

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