Four Meta Skills Every Data Leader Needs To Master For Sustained Career Growth
Career growth is tricky.
Especially when you have mastered the technical aspects of your field. What should you focus on?
The answer? Meta skills.
Meta skills are the base of our knowledge. The skills that constitute the system in which we operate. Like the proverbial rising tide, they lift all boats.
Here are four of the most important meta skills for Data Leaders:
Design Thinking — The process that applies design principles to solve problems. It gives you a framework you can apply to any situation to determine whether you are working on the right thing and how to approach it.
Decision Making — In the world of data, paralysis by analysis is dreadfully common. Data is great, but you can spend all your life looking at it. Learn to make decisions with the information you have, to deal with uncertainty and to judge decisions independently from their outcomes.
Communication — Perhaps the most important of the four and a world in itself. Learn to communicate better and it will improve everything you do. You will ask better questions, tell better stories, negotiate more effectively. From hiring people, to dealing with stakeholders and your boss, everything improves when you sharpen your communication skills.
How To Learn — In this rapid-evolving field, you have to stay on your toes. Learning how to learn more effectively will help you do just that.
Work on those four meta skills and watch your career improve as you go.
