Good Leaders Say, “Let Me Explain.” Great Leaders Say, “Let Me Illustrate”

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The title of a recent story in Harvard Business Review by Dr. Michael Li caught my eye: “The Best Data Scientists Know How to Tell Stories.” It is well worth reading, even if you are not a data scientist.

Dr. Li identifies the three attributes top companies look for in data scientists:

1. The ability to articulate the business value of their work.
2. The right level of technical detail.
3. Getting visualizations right.

He went on to say:

“When hiring data scientists, people tend to focus primarily on technical qualifications. It is hard to find candidates who have the right mix of computational and statistical skills. But what’s even harder is finding people who have those skills and are good at communicating the story behind the data.” [Emphasis added]

As a senior leader in your company, you already know how important your database is to the success of your company. You know that a faster database means quicker orders, faster inventory turns, better customer service, and more revenue. However, what you may not know is that you are perfectly within your rights to demand from your database team:

1. A presentation of the business case for any significant change or purchase. You want your IT leaders thinking about the entire business, along with how what they do impacts it.
2. Clear analogies, illustrations, and even graphics that help you understand what is going on with your database and what needs to happen to optimize it.

At DBI software, we make patented, award-winning software that makes IBM DB2 LUW databases fly for some of the best companies in the world. It takes a lot of work and a lot of technical expertise to make products this good, and to keep them well ahead of the competition. However, we take pride in being able to easily explain:

The business case for using our products, which turns out to be easy because our solution for top database performance is so much more economical than purchasing non-returnable CPUs, memory, and licenses. This is also why hardware salespeople tend to hate us. What exactly is going on in your database in easy-to-understand terms. We can tell you - in a very short period of time, what costs the most (in terms of taxing your database), and what hurts the most (in terms of performance).

WC Fields once said, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull****.” You have the right, not only to peak performance in your database, but also to have your team explain to you what’s going on in clear, non-technical terms and easy-to-understand illustrations - not have key data hidden behind some “dashboard” or intentionally obscured by technical language designed to get you to stop asking questions.

What You Need to Know

You can and should expect your IT team to think in terms of the entire business and explain their work in easy-to-understand ways.

If your IBM DB2 LUW database isn’t keeping up with performance demands, or if you’ve just been handed an emergency purchase request for CPUs and memory—or you want to prevent this from happening in the first place—contact us. We’ll diagnose any database problems for free in about 15 seconds, solve a problem in two hours or less, and save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in CPU’s, memory, licenses, consulting fees, and wasted time. Frankly, we’re not very popular with hardware and database license vendors, but your CFO, shareholders, and customers will love us.

Take the 15-Second Challenge. In 15 seconds, our patented, award-winning systems will tell us exactly where the problem is, and if you give us the greenlight, we typically have the problem fixed in two hours or less. Click or call us toll free (866) 773 – 8789.

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