Analytics Professionals are Politicians?

One thing I realize is that most courses on data analytics or data science do not cover many things related to data storytelling and presentation. Even if they do cover it, they are pretty brief.

Data storytelling and presentation skills is a very important skill to have, given that as a data analytics professional, besides seeking solutions and impactful insights, the final step for us data analytics professionals to realize their value is the final analysis presentation. That final presentation should influence and impact, at the end of the day, gaining stakeholders’ buy-in, and motivation to take action, and finally, the action leads to a positive outcome for everyone.

Granted it is a skill set that can only be brushed up when the rubber meets the road i.e. practice and participate a lot in the different presentations. There should be people we can learn from if we want to present to influence.

From another perspective, looking at the data analytics profession, we are part of the larger corporate jungle. This means that in order to survive, data analytics professionals will have to dip their toes and fingers into office politics. Part and parcel of working in a job and for survival, a must-do to stay in a job and influence.

Influence Like a Politician

Combining the two points, of influence through a presentation followed by enhancing individual influence and survival through politics, data analytics professionals do have a lot of things to learn from politicians.

Analytics professionals can learn how politicians present their points and also how they narrate them to the public while consistently capturing their attention. Secondly, learning from politicians how to ensure the interests of everyone are balanced while still maintaining their own benefit at the same time, is not an easy task.

So the point I am trying to make is that, while we do not want to deal with overbearing office politics, as analytics professionals it is important for us to present and communicate well so that the impact we can make can be realized by the business, justifying our existence. To present well and influence, we cannot run away from playing politics and thus we should learn a thing or two from politicians perhaps.

What are your thoughts on this?

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Thanks for reading till the end! I hope this has sparked more thoughts in you! All the best in your analytics career! :)

If you are in Singapore, my co-instructor Eric Sandosham and I have launched a new program focused on Visual Analytics. If you are keen on how to analyze and build dashboards, and storytelling with data, consider joining the program! Details are found here! <Advanced Certificate in Visual Analytics>