Leadership – the timeless “it factor” that businesses know is critical to success and that every company should seek to attract, develop, and retain. It’s hard to develop something that can’t be defined. While every company should have an internal leadership framework, they are inherently more susceptible to being biased, myopic, or vague. That’s the beauty of the Leadership Challenge. This book lays out a framework, then brings it to life and defends it with evidence. I was afforded the opportunity to learn and apply the principles during my MBA through a leadership class built around a team-based consulting engagement simulation, with planned conflict and ambiguity (of course). The high-pressure extended simulation was a great proxy for the situations we face every day in our jobs. The framework outlined in the book was a reliable compass for all team members, regardless of our background. I personally have revisited the Leadership Challenge several times since – even after years of consistent leadership development and practical experience during my career – it never fails to deliver!
This book was highly recommended by a seasoned data science and business intelligence expert (DaveonData.com). It’s a great foundational book for anyone looking to sharpen their descriptive and diagnostic analytics skills. I have years of business analytics experience with the academics to back it up (undergraduate & graduate). Even so, this book helped me translate theory into a practical toolkit using just Excel and SQL. Analytics teams often face low ROI or misguided diagnostic questions from the business on trends. Those situations represent a great opportunity to educate and refocus the business. The toolkit empowers my team to efficiently address historically “grey area” questions head-on without sacrificing momentum on the measures that matter. Efficiency preserves bandwidth for continued progress on the long-term projects that will deliver much-needed prescriptive analytics solutions…and delivering for business leaders ensures no precious momentum is lost.
