What a clich\u00e9, right?\u00a0 But, Albert Einstein even said it: \u201cI have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.\u201d The thing is, the people who LOVE what they do, I mean genuinely get excited about everything that comes across their desk, will be seen as a true team player.\u00a0 Sure, not all projects you are given will invoke pure passion, but if you decide to make the most of all projects, if you recognize there is something to learn from every opportunity you are given, then you will show up passionately each and every time.\u00a0 And that curiosity? When you are passionate about your work you are more interested in digging in deeper, in uncovering those \u201cah-ha\u201d nuggets. Those who show pure passion and a sense of curiosity are the best types of people to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Be honest<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I\u2019m tough. I expect a lot; I\u2019ve been told I push people harder than they are used to being pushed. I always tell my team I need to know their breaking point, not because I want them to break. We want to always be pushing ourselves to just before our breaking points, and then pull back, push again\u2026and I bet you start to notice your breaking point moves. You get stronger and can handle more as your skillset grows.\u00a0 I expect honesty so that I know when you are close to your breaking point. I once had a direct report break down on me \u2013 they were overloaded and couldn\u2019t take on more work, admitting they had felt this way for a few weeks. I had been asking them for more because they kept saying \u201cYES\u201d. We sat together and prioritized their work and calendar; we got the workload to a manageable amount. This person grew from this experience. And when they left my team for another said, \u201cI don\u2019t know that anyone will push me the way you did. I\u2019m better because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.Be respectful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We know our world and the challenges we are faced with. We rarely know all the issues our peers and colleagues are facing in their day to day jobs (nevertheless their personal life). Someone else\u2019s job may seem easy to you, or unnecessary even. I once said I didn\u2019t understand the role of the client service group, the sales team. It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t see the sales they brought in, it just did not seem \u201cthat hard\u201d to me. BOY was I wrong. I spent some time in a more consultative role once and, while I could hang, I hated it. I tell you this story because it taught me the importance of valuing all roles on a project and team. There are parts I do not wish to play; I am thankful every day there are people who love sales because without them, what projects would I have had to analyze?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Challenge the data and others (but do it respectfully) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We live in a data rich world \u2013 data is streaming in from all angles. Not all data is perfect.\u00a0 When something seems off, when your gut is telling you the data is wrong, chances are your gut is right. Pressure test the data and insights, making sure they measure up to benchmarks or your overall knowledge of the data. Challenge yourself, too. Ask yourself if you\u2019ve done all you can do to deliver a top-quality product. Challenge your colleagues and peers \u2013 it is our job to ensure quality work is delivered to the end user\/client, which means we need to help one another pressure test the work. I also encourage my team to challenge me \u2013 if there is a better way to do something than I am proposing, challenge me to think differently. Loop back to point #3, though, and be sure you are respecting the opinions and ideas of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Take accountability<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think about this in two ways (a) when you\nare assigned to work, take ownership and see it through, and (b) when you make\na mistake, fess up to it right away. I\u2019ve worked with people above me who quit\nputting effort into work they weren\u2019t interested in and it sent a message to\nthe team: if you don\u2019t like a project, it\u2019s ok to phone it in. I\u2019m here to say that is not true. That\nproject is important to someone else \u2013 they are expecting your best\neffort. When a mistake happens, I\nencourage people to let me know. It\u2019s\nrarely as big of a deal as they feel it is in the moment, but I promise I will\nalways have their back and will take the fall so long as I know they are behind\nthe scenes cleaning things up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What often amazes analysts and data scientists when I share\nthis list is that there isn\u2019t a single technical skill listed. Those skills can be taught \u2013 these softer\nskills are harder to teach, are often innate in us. They require time from our own selves to\ndevelop and nurture. I encourage you to\nanalyze the way you work \u2013 are you lacking in any of these areas? Can you come up with ways to strengthen these\nskills? Feel free to reach out if you\nare interested in discussing further \u2013 I\u2019m always happy to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was given an opportunity to attend a leadership conference one year.\u00a0 I was pretty early in my career, maybe five or so years in, and had just started managing a team.\u00a0 One question they asked attendees really stuck with me: \u201cDo your people know what you expect of them?\u201d\u00a0 We all answered, \u201cYes, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3098,"featured_media":113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-and-tricks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3098"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}About the Author<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/the-center-for-analytics-and-data-science\/files\/2021\/02\/Sandy.jpg\")
Sandy Steiger is the Director of The Center for Analytics & Data Science (CADS) at Miami University. Sandy earned her Masters degree at Miami in statistics after graduating with a Bachelor’s from Mount St. Joseph University in mathematics and business. She worked in industry for fifteen years, most recently as the Vice President of Insights at 84.51 before joining CADS in April 2019. <\/strong>
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