Managerial focus and balance

Managing and growing an advanced analytics and AI team is rewarding, challenging, and one of the most gratifying and frustrating endeavors I have ever been involved in. I would not trade my experiences and history in hiring and managing these brilliant minds for any other professional experience.

I have had the experience of being directed to manage groups of people who have been involved in executing highly routine work. I am not sure how people maintain interest in managing these groups and the work those team members execute. Also, I am unsure how people who do this work find it engaging and interesting past the first or second cycle of the repetitive process that is required of them, but we, as a society, are fortunate enough to have people among us who will do this work, but these are not the people you want on your analytics team nor would they want to be involved in, or qualified for, the highly variable, intensely challenging work of an advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) team.

Managing an analytics team, like any organizational unit, requires the analytics leader to have a simultaneous focus on the internal management of the collective and an external focus on managing the analytics group within the overall organization or company. As the analytics leader, you need to be adept at the management of multiple parties and partners, including junior and senior analytics staff, your peers, stakeholders, senior managers, and executives. Managing upward in the organization, inside and outside of your group in the broader organization is a critical responsibility and you must make time to ensure that senior managers and executives support your plans and mission. If you have never had to manage this wide range of stakeholders and sponsors, you may be saying to yourself, yes, of course, that is required; all management roles require this level of engagement and direct connection, but that is not the case. At least it is not the case at the level of active and sustained involvement that will be required for success in this role.