Abstract:
|
Much conversation has recently encompassed building leadership capacity within the field of statistical practice. While this topic is paramount, it is also critical to recognize the efficient use of statistics is a leadership skill in itself across all professions. Leadership challenges are often complex and ill-defined; therefore leaders need to have the requisite competencies to navigate through demanding environments. McKinsey (2011) documents this urgency, reporting by 2011 there will be a deficit of 1.5 million managers (in the U.S. alone) who know how to harness the results of big data to make effective decisions. This presentation argues why statistics is essential to the practice of leadership across all fields and provides structured recommendations on how to increase this awareness in professional practice, leadership training, and graduate education. The foundation discussed will focus on how statistics can be promoted beyond its non-statistician, colloquial view of being an isolated tool that is only a means to an end; but rather inter-weaved in a more effective manner, as a way of thinking for leaders, into professional and educational competencies.
|