FINDING YOUR NEXT DATA LEADER
Deciding on the next Data Leader for your company is a huge task, so it's important you make the right decision. But this is easier said than done. There are some undeniable challenges when it comes to this decision...
CHOICE
For every one leadership position, there are many candidates that are both interested and suitable. By the time you have looked through all your applications and narrowed down who might be right, there is a good chance the person you want may already be off the market.
There is the additional challenge that the right person for you, may be someone who isn't actively looking and therefore does not apply.
SOFT SKILLS
It takes much more to be a good leader than just hard skills. This makes it much more difficult and time-consuming to evaluate a list of candidates based off of an application form. The things you are looking for can only be found after getting to know the person, which takes a lot of time.
SKILL-SET
Your perfect candidate is different to another company's. You don't just need to choose someone with a good skill-set, but they also need the matching experience for the challenge you're facing. Do you need someone experienced with growing a team from scratch? Or do you need them to lead an already established team? Things like this require different skill-sets.
TIME
This is arguably the biggest challenge for any company. Finding the right person takes an incredible amount of time - You need to find the candidates, narrow them down, make sure they are suitable in terms of team fit, ensure your compensation package is suitable for them, etc.
If you don't act quickly then you risk having this position unfilled for a long enough time that it makes life more difficult for everybody in the company.