Three types of leaders predominate among today’s data and analytics executives. Companies that understand the interplay between a candidate’s leadership style and the organization’s level of data maturity will have an edge.

Choosing the right chief data officer

B I G D ATA & A N A LY T I C S P R AC T I C E

Few roles are evolving more rapidly than that of today’s data and analytics leader. Across most industries, data and analytics are becoming central to operations, strategy, and competition. Increasingly, the role is located in the C-suite—45% of the 3,000 global companies studied by Forrester in 2015 had appointed chief data officers (CDOs), and 16% were planning to do so in the ensuing 12 months.¹ (The study also found a high correlation between high-performing companies and those with CDOs.)

Research recently conducted by Heidrick & Struggles

to examine the leadership profiles of senior data and

analytics leaders, based primarily in North America

and the United Kingdom, provides additional evidence

of change. Of the 82 data and analytics executives we

surveyed, 9 in 10 report that their role has changed

more than once in scope or complexity over the past

five years.

Broadly speaking, data and analytics evolve in

organizations through three stages of maturity that

we call Enable, Support, and Transform (Figure 1).

Each stage calls for a distinct set of technical

competencies, organizational capabilities, and

leaders with relevant experience. As one CDO

recently told us, “It’s the difference between creating

analytics, delivering analytics, and leading analytics.”

Evolution through these three stages is neither

inevitable nor always desirable. In some cases, the

Enable or Support stage may be appropriate and

sufficient for an organization for the foreseeable

future; for other companies, advancing to the

Transform stage could be the difference between

winning in their industry or falling far behind.

What is less well understood is what leadership

style—distinct from competencies and experience—

is likely to be more appropriate at each of these

stages. In assessing hundreds of data and analytics

leaders, we have often observed a distinct career

pattern emerge as their companies developed

these capabilities. In the initial stages of investment,

companies seek the brightest technical minds. These

executives are subsequently recognized, rewarded,

and promoted in large part based on their expertise.

While this approach has served many organizations

well in the Enable stage, these executives may be

less well positioned for success as their organizations

evolve to the Support and Transform stages. As

a result, a gap opens up between the incredibly

competent technical managers that companies have

and the type of progressive, commercially oriented

leaders that companies increasingly need.

While the mastery of specialized skills is an important

credential, the disproportionate focus on technical

expertise has crowded out some critical questions

about leadership: What are the advantages and

drawbacks of specific leadership styles for data and

analytics executives? What leadership styles are

most common among those executives today and

most likely to be in demand tomorrow? And how

can understanding differing leadership styles help

improve the recruitment, retention, and development

of leaders for the company’s current and anticipated

stages of data and analytics maturity?

1 Jennifer Belissent and Gene Leganza, Top Performers Appoint Chief Data Officers, Forrester, August 20, 2015, forrester.com.

2 Choosing the right chief data officer

Leadership SignaturesTo begin answering these questions, we applied a

proprietary assessment tool to determine how eight

distinct styles of leadership are distributed among

current senior data and analytics leaders in a variety

of industries, including financial services, consumer

goods, technology, and healthcare/life sciences. (Those

eight styles emerged from prior research conducted

with more than 1,000 executives at the director level

or above. See sidebar, “Leadership Signature.”)

The results offer insights into the “fit” of different

types of leaders with the evolutionary stages of

the analytics role. Among the 82 data and analytics

leaders we assessed, three-fourths fall primarily into

one of three leadership styles. Some 34% gravitate

toward a style that is arguably best suited for the

analytics role in the Enable and Support stages of

an organization’s data maturity—a style we identify

as “Forecaster.” Another 22% of respondents fall into

a style we find increasingly in demand as data and

analytics continue to grow in strategic importance—

a style we call “Pilot.” Another 20% fall into a category

we call “Collaborator.” The remaining 24% of

respondents were unevenly distributed among the

other five leadership styles (Figure 2).

It’s important to note that while every style has

strengths and weaknesses, no particular leadership

style is “right” or “wrong,” and all styles can be

equally effective. Indeed, individuals tend to have

some degree of access to all the styles, and self-

aware or well-coached executives can learn to flex to

additional styles when appropriate. Nonetheless, our

experience and research suggest that leaders tend to

gravitate to a much smaller set of default styles they

find comfortable or familiar.

Figure 1: Three stages of data maturity

Build or optimize the infrastructure to facilitate a data-driven organization.

Empower business and functional leaders to better use information to support decision making.

Use data and analytics as competitive di�erentiators, enablers of innovative business models, and generators of revenue.

IT organizations Business and functional leaders Board and C-suite executives

Manage data and its collection, normalization, maintenance, classi�cation, quality, and production.

The organization invests in data infrastructure that enables information interaction among systems and their components, as well as the de�ning of data relationships across systems.

Use data for operational and performance management, customer support, and �nancial and regulatory reporting, among other areas.

The leader serves as a “translator” between the commercial and technical teams to ensure that analytics, business intelligence, visualization, and “dashboard” solutions are optimized to deliver value.

Focus on identifying and creating the future state of applications of data and analytics that will transform the business model, engagement with customers, and the competitive landscape.

In some cases, data assets may themselves be wielded as a commercial engine.

These organizations may harness diverse skills across predictive analytics, cognitive computing, machine learning, deep learning, and arti�cial intelligence.

Priorities

Typical applications and technical capabilities

Enable Support Transform

The CDO’s key stakeholders

Heidrick & Struggles 3

Leadership Signature® is a proprietary self-assessment tool developed from research with more than

1,000 executives at the director level or above that has identified eight principal leadership patterns. It is designed

to assess an individual’s primary leadership styles and the degree to which the individual might use the other

leadership patterns. While individuals are capable of embodying the attributes of each of these eight leadership

patterns, they have a tendency to act in a way consistent with the leadership styles with which they are most

comfortable and to flex to the other styles with less frequency.

Leadership Signature

The eight archetypes of leadership

CollaboratorEmpathetic, team-building, talent-spotting, coaching-oriented

EnergizerCharismatic, inspiring, connects emotionally, provides meaning

PilotStrategic, visionary, adroit at managing complexity, open to

input, team-oriented

ProviderAction-oriented, confident in own path or methodology, loyal to colleagues, driven to provide for others

HarmonizerReliable, quality-driven, execution-focused, creates positive

and stable environments, inspires loyalty

ForecasterLearning-oriented, deeply knowledgeable, visionary, cautious

in decision making

ProducerTask-focused, results-oriented, linear thinker,

loyal to tradition

ComposerIndependent, creative, problem solver, decisive,

self-reliant

1 Karen West, Elliott Stixrud, and Brian Reger, “Assessment: What’s your leadership style?” Harvard Business Review, June 25, 2015, hbr.org.

The challenge arises when leaders continue to resort

to a style less suitable under changed conditions. For

example, data and analytics leaders who have made

their way to the top during the most detail-oriented

stages of maturity (Enable and Support) may have

leadership strengths less well suited to the Transform

stage, when boldness and innovation are called

for. Conversely, another mismatch may arise when a

leader whose style is better suited for the Transform

stage is brought in to lead a data function that has

just begun to enable a data-driven organization or

when supporting the business is paramount. Even

when no apparent mismatch exists, CDOs and their

CEOs alike should be aware that no style is without

weaknesses that need to be addressed and strengths

that need to be put fully to work.

To learn more about the leadership styles and to take a brief assessment, see our article in Harvard Business Review.1

4 Choosing the right chief data officer

Figure 2: Leadership styles of CDOs

Forecaster

34%

Harmonizer

1%

Composer

4%

Pilot

22%

Collaborator

20%

Energizer

7%

Producer

7%

Provider

5%

n = 82

The Forecaster: Delivering data and ideasIt’s not surprising that Forecasters represent the most

prevalent leadership style, at 34% of our sample.

Their deep subject-matter expertise is especially

well suited to the Enable and Support stages of data

maturity, and, as we have noted, they have often

been promoted based on that expertise, even when it

has become less relevant to their roles.

Forecasters relish the chance to expand their

knowledge and enhance their subject-matter

expertise. They like to have time to think deeply,

gather data, reflect on what they’ve observed, and

only then make a decision or propose a course of

action. In principle, this information-driven style

should serve them well as they go about meeting

the daily demands of the function. And they tend

to thrive in situations where people like to be led by

leaders with substantial intellectual capital.

Consider how a major retailer approached its

transition from the Enable stage to the Support

stage. The organization’s existing IT capabilities

met rudimentary data needs, but the company

wanted to do more with its in-store and online

consumer data. The eventual choice was to hire a

Forecaster type who had experience creating new,

scalable data-architecture capabilities that could

deliver more sophisticated insights. His strong

technical capabilities resonated with the company’s

Heidrick & Struggles 5

IT organization, which enthusiastically got behind

him. At the same time, the new leader has been able

to cultivate relationships with key leaders on the

commercial side of the organization to help ensure

that the technology delivers actionable analytics

solutions to the business.

Of course, Forecasters face challenges too. For

example, they are often adept at harnessing their

formidable skills to identify trends and formulate

insights about the future and forecast their impact

on the business. Yet Forecasters often tend to be

overcautious in moving forward—there is always

more data to be gathered and additional analysis

to be undertaken—so they may fail to capitalize in

a timely manner on their strategic foresight. That

caution can be crippling in the Transform stage,

when speed to market and first-mover advantage

are critical. Forecasters may also expect the sheer

force of their ideas to carry the day, underestimating

the need for influencing skills to win buy-in from the

C-suite and boardroom and to inspire action among

their people.

This isn’t to say that executives with a Forecaster

style cannot thrive in these environments, but their

success will be influenced by their ability to flex

out of their comfort zones. Several steps can help

Forecasters overcome these weaknesses and unleash

the full value of their intellectual depth and strategic

foresight. When seeking buy-in from key stakeholders,

for example, they can consciously focus on

emotional, as well as analytic, persuasion—though

it might be a struggle for them at first. When they

feel inadequately informed but a timely decision is

critical, they can be challenged, or they can challenge

themselves, to act more decisively and stretch their

tolerance for risk—for example, by asking whether

more information would really improve the quality

of the decision. And when they become overly

wedded to their own thinking, preventing them

from accepting a new direction, they can put their

intellectual firepower to work understanding why the

alternative was chosen. And even if they still don’t

understand the choice, they can be challenged to

bring that intellect to bear on the new direction.

Forecaster

Work environments where Forecasters may thrive

• Where people want to be led by leaders with new ideas and intellectual capital, rather than by leaders who connect on a more emotional level

• Innovative organizations seeking thoughtful strategic insights into future trends

• Organizations that need deep subject-matter experts in a particular field

• Circumstances where there’s opportunity to create and evolve products and processes

Forecasters tend to be “learning leaders” who relish the chance to continually gather data, expand their knowledge base, and enhance their subject-matter expertise.

Work environments where Forecasters may struggle

• Where executing on short-term results trumps idea generation and developing intellectual capital

• Static organizations with limited appetite for strategic change

• Situations where they’re often asked to provide immediate input in new or unfamiliar topics without what they regard as adequate data

6 Choosing the right chief data officer

Pilot

Work environments where Pilots may thrive

• Complex or ambiguous environments requiring clear strategy and visionary leadership

• Turnaround situations, start-ups, or other business environments where decisive leadership and fast growth are paramount

• Situations where they have projects or initiatives to clearly own and drive

Pilots are adept at generating compelling strategies and translating them into action.

Work environments where Pilots may struggle

• Working for a micromanager or in overly controlled work environments

• Organizations with conservative managers (or boards) who are hesitant to challenge the status quo

• Places where less mature or experienced individuals require a good deal of support and hand-holding

• Roles where tasks must adhere to firmly established processes and protocols (such as in some industrial and manufacturing environments), or situations that call for consistent, steady performance

• Teams with multiple Pilots, or situations where roles and responsibilities aren’t clarified up front to determine “who owns what”

The Pilot: Delivering commercial valueThe second-most prevalent leadership style in our

sample, at 22%, is the Pilot, reflecting a reality we

increasingly see in the talent market as data and

analytics grow more central to commercial success.

Whereas Forecasters are more comfortable leading

with technical content, Pilots are proficient at trans-

forming large-scale concepts into action and results.

Pilots particularly enjoy environments that are

ambiguous, complex, and characterized by significant

change—such as fast-moving, intensely competitive

markets or start-ups, where the ability to commercialize

ideas and grow rapidly is essential for survival.

One of the world’s leading real estate and

development companies, for example, realized that

its operations generated a continuous stream of

potentially valuable data about real estate, retailers,

and retail customers. But with only a rudimentary

data and analytics capability, the CEO and CFO knew

they needed a leader who could simultaneously

transform the function and develop a business model

for monetizing the company’s data. Working from

a profile that included leadership attributes of the

Pilot type, they recruited a new CDO. In a little over

a year in the company’s newly created CDO role, this

executive has helped develop and implement a

valuable business model built around the company’s

retail partners and their customers, and the

company is well on its way to generating substantial

new insights.

Pilots have clear opinions—they don’t suffer from

“analysis paralysis”—and they relish new challenges.

But they are also open to input from other people,

particularly those who have established credibility.

All of this tends to make Pilots comfortable—and

effective—in creating and working in teams. For

example, the real estate company’s new CDO,

charged with building out the company’s data and

analytics function, applied the Leadership Signature

framework in quickly hiring three direct reports with

capabilities to complement his. They included a head

of data management, a data scientist to spearhead

advanced analytics, and a director of B2B and B2C

Heidrick & Struggles 7

insights. These roles covered, respectively, the Enable,

Support, and Transform stages of data maturity

the CDO had to orchestrate in order to ensure the

function was built on a strong foundation and

designed to commercialize valuable data.

At times, however, Pilots’ combination of strong drive,

dynamic orientation, and a “here and now” mentality

can spur them to push for changes faster and harder

than their colleagues are ready for. As a result, they

may be perceived as unreflective, hard to satisfy, and

constantly disappointed in the performance of others.

Or they may find that their dynamism and bias for

action are ill-suited to an organization still in the early

stages of data maturity.

Consider, for example, the experience of a

leading bank that brought in a CDO from a highly

sophisticated Internet company. A classic Pilot

type, he was put in charge of an organization firmly

entrenched in the Support stage of data maturity,

heavily focused on financial and regulatory reporting

and performance tracking. Instead of putting him to

work bringing the organization to the next stage, the

bank wanted him, in effect, to maintain and refine

the current operation. He had little interest in making

incremental improvements or in carrying out the

unglamorous work of painstakingly bringing along

the 3,000 employees in the function. Frustrated and

bored, he left after just three years in the job.

Even in organizations in the Transform stage of data

maturity, Pilots may need to be coached to temper

some of their natural tendencies. They may push

forward on their big ideas before they have fully

addressed—or even identified—the ramifications

of those ideas. Pilots should also be aware that

their propensity to seek out new challenges can

sometimes come at the expense of not learning

from the past (unlike the Forecaster). They can guard

against this danger by conducting structured “after-

action reviews” at the completion of projects. Pilots’

strongly held viewpoints can also leave little space

for others to share their thoughts freely. Pilots should

therefore be mindful that they may be unintentionally

encouraging people to defer to their perspectives.

Similarly, their natural inclination to boldly lead

projects and initiatives they have created offers

little opportunity for others to develop leadership

capabilities. To compensate, Pilots can carve out

meaningful leadership roles for others to help spur

their growth and development—and consciously

work to make space for others’ ideas to flourish.

Collaborators, “hyphenates,” and “arranged marriages” Though Forecasters and Pilots are the most prevalent

types of data and analytics leaders, a number of

other leadership possibilities exist for moving the

organization to another stage of data maturity.

Consider Collaborators, almost as numerous (20%)

in our sample as Pilots. Humble and perceptive

about others’ needs, Collaborators take a team-first

approach to leadership. In building teams, they

focus on supporting and developing colleagues by

placing them in positions where they can excel, and

Collaborators share credit for team success with all

members. As a result, they’re good at attracting talent

and encouraging collaboration.

In an organization in the Support stage of data

maturity with aspirations of moving to the Transform

stage, a Collaborator could assemble a high-performing

team consisting of Forecaster and Pilot types who

together harness the power of information-driven

insights and market-focused actions.

Nonetheless, the Collaborator style, like all leadership

styles, can suffer from the “defects of its virtues.” For

example, Collaborators’ team-first orientation may

be so strong that it prevents them from developing

their own convincing identities as leaders. The focus

on people and relationships may at times come at

the expense of strategic vision and planning, which

are essential for moving an organization to the

Transform stage and making sure it thrives there.

8 Choosing the right chief data officer

Collaborators may also struggle with bold direction

and the engaging personal presence required to

influence key stakeholders, such as board members

leery of big, rapid shifts in strategy. But in settings

where the primary leader is a Pilot with an aggressive,

impersonal, or demanding style, a Collaborator

might make a good “number two,” providing a more

collaborative, relational, and supportive approach—

the glue that holds the organization together

through the turbulence a Pilot tends to naturally seek.

“Hyphenates” are leaders whose default style is

complemented by a dominant secondary style in the

context of data maturity. Indeed, our 8 Leadership

Signatures yield 56 possible primary–secondary

combinations. In our global research, now

encompassing more than 10,000 executives, the

top 4 most frequently found combinations are

Forecaster–Collaborator, Pilot–Forecaster, Forecaster–

Pilot, and Collaborator–Forecaster. (Interestingly,

the combinations Collaborator–Pilot and Pilot–

Collaborator rank only 9th and 12th, respectively,

in frequency.)

Because 94% of our CDO survey respondents

report that their role has changed more than once

in scope or complexity over the past five years,

we might infer that the technical demands and

increasingly commercial demands these leaders face

are producing a fully hybrid leadership style—one

that incorporates both the technical mastery of a

Forecaster and the high-level, strategic mind-set

of a Pilot, instances of which we have seen in our

work placing senior data and analytics leaders. The

fact that these two vastly different styles are the

most dominant and one of the most often found in

combination reinforces what we see in the market:

the rapid transformation of the CDO role as the

demand for a more comprehensive skill set increases.

The prevalence of this hybrid style is good news for

organizations that want to make an orderly but

decisive strategic transition from the Support to

Collaborator

Work environments where Collaborators may thrive

• Where employees are relatively new or inexperienced, or in environments that are still recovering from a prior leader who was toxic or volatile

• Where individuals are expected to learn the “tricks of the trade” by working closely with more experienced mentors

• As a “number two” in settings where the primary leader’s style is aggressive, impersonal, or demanding

Collaborators take a team-first approach to leadership, support and develop colleagues, and share credit for team success.

Work environments where Collaborators may struggle

• Positions that require unilateral decision making and direction setting

• Environments where bold direction and engaging personal presence are required to influence key stakeholders

• Organizations where strong personal brands are important to personal or group success

Heidrick & Struggles 9

the Transform stage, and it indicates that the choice

of an appropriate data and analytics leader doesn’t

have to be an either–or proposition.

Another possibility for getting the best of two worlds

lies in an “arranged marriage”: the deliberate pairing

of two executives with different styles so that one

can help compensate for the other’s blind spots.

Consider, for instance, the case of a major commercial

bank. With traditional businesses struggling, margins

dwindling, and new digital-only entrants offering

stiff competition, the industry is currently involved

in an arms race to put data and analytics to work

in new business models and compelling customer

experiences (for more, see Clare Buxton, Arjen van

den Berg, and Camelia Ram, “Seizing banking’s

uncertain future,” heidrick.com). To make the leap

from the Support to the Transform stage, the bank

installed a full-bore Pilot from outside the industry as

CDO. But to ensure that bread-and-butter execution

wasn’t neglected and the function’s thousands of

employees weren’t left behind, the CDO was paired

with the bank’s COO, whose formidable operational

skills could be counted on to keep the Pilot’s feet on

the ground even as his head was rightly in the clouds.

Although the CDO reports to the COO, they are in

essence full partners in the transformation of the data

and analytics function.

Legible leadersAs we’ve noted, there are no definitively good or

definitively bad leadership styles. Each one has its

distinctive strengths and weaknesses, and each

can be highly effective. Further, leadership styles

constitute only one of several dimensions along

which leaders should be assessed. Experience,

education, past performance, potential, career

trajectory—all these dimensions are important. But

a full understanding of an individual’s Leadership

Signature offers a degree of specificity—whether in

the case of a function such as data and analytics; a

business situation such as a start-up, a turnaround,

a merger, growth, or new competitive pressures; or

individual skills such as influencing, strategizing, or

executing—that more general leadership frameworks

lack. It makes leaders’ particular attributes, in effect,

more legible. They leave their distinctive mark in their

Leadership Signature, and, when they are put in the

right situation with the right support, they leave that

mark on the organization.

About the authors Ryan Bulkoski (rbulkoski@heidrick.com) is a partner

in Heidrick & Struggles’ Big Data & Analytics Practice;

he is based in the San Francisco office.

Joshua Clarke (jclarke@heidrick.com) is a global

co-managing partner in the Big Data & Analytics

Practice; he is based in the Boston office.

We surveyed 82 big data and analytics leaders: the vast

majority were 40 to 59 years of age, male, and based in

the United States and the United Kingdom. More than

three-quarters of those surveyed work for organizations

with gross revenues greater than $1 billion. Over half

describe their main functional role as technical, engineering,

security, or based in data management or analytics.

Roughly 18% see their main function as general manage-

ment, while only 2% describe their role as operational.

About the research

10 Choosing the right chief data officer

Big Data & Analytics PracticeHeidrick & Struggles’ Big Data & Analytics Practice helps clients find leaders who understand the power of data and have the skills, experience, and know- how to harness it. For companies in a growing number of industries, big data and analytics represents the next frontier for

innovation, productivity, and disruptive competition. Heidrick & Struggles’ Big Data & Analytics Practice is

on the forefront of these trends, serving clients across a market that spans hardware, software, and

analytics services. With wide-ranging expertise in industries such as technology, financial services, consumer,

retail, healthcare, and life sciences, our Big Data & Analytics team helps clients around the world find and

develop a range of leaders who can create, and deliver on, the game-changing data and analytics strategies

of tomorrow.

Joshua Clarke Global Practice

Managing Partner jclarke@heidrick.com

Rebecca Foreman Janjic Global Practice

Managing Partner rfjanjic@heidrick.com

Leaders of Heidrick & Struggles’ Big Data & Analytics Practice

Heidrick & Struggles is a premier provider of senior-level executive search,

culture shaping, and leadership consulting services. For more than 60 years

we have focused on quality service and built strong relationships with

clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership

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