Week after week, we sat in those meetings.
The idea was simple: create a council of unofficial data leaders, backed by a board of their superiors who could validate the big decisions.

In practice, it was a stalemate.
The data leaders — feet on the floor, hands on the wheel — had no appetite for more debate. They wanted to build, not talk.
Their superiors, meanwhile, jumped at the chance to sit with the C-suite and hold court.

The rift grew wider each session.
And instead of creating focus, we were about to unleash a multi-headed monster.

I've learned the hard way that giving everybody an equal voice is not always the way forward early on.

The leadership trap

That’s the trap many data leaders fall into.
We mistake more councils, more boards, more meetings for momentum. On paper it looks like progress: committees formed, agendas set, stakeholders “engaged and committed.”

One top manager proudly told me: ‘At least we’ve got everyone in the room now.’

But underneath, nothing was moving.
The people doing the work are exhausted. The people in the boardroom are distracted. And you, as the leader, are left with the worst of both worlds: responsibility without real leverage.

Clarity alone doesn’t solve this, even if your board would give you only one task.
You can have a crisp North Star, a well-drawn map, even a framework like the 4Cs... and still stall.

What you need is something else.
A way to turn clarity into coordinated motion.
What you need is an execution engine.

An execution engine isn’t about cranking out more reports or scheduling more stand-ups.
It’s about building a system where:

- Everyone knows the rhythm.
- Everyone knows their role.
- And when the ground shifts, the machine keeps moving instead of grinding to a halt.

Like any engine, it works because the gears mesh.
And in data leadership, there are three gears that matter most once you have your compass.

The 3 Gears of Execution:

1. Cadence
Your operating rhythm. The meetings, decisions, and feedback loops that create forward motion.
Without cadence, you drift. Too much cadence, and you choke the work with bureaucracy.
Decisions that could be taken in 30 minutes start to take more than 3 weeks... and every new meeting spawns another head on the monster.

One team I worked with had 14 weekly meetings on the calendar. Nobody knew which one actually counted... but they had to be present at each one or risk being told they were "not committed"

The right cadence is light, predictable, and designed once... so you don’t have to renegotiate it every week.

2. Crew Alignment
Momentum dies if your doers and your deciders are out of sync.
Your crew isn’t just your direct team... it’s stakeholders and leaders across the business. They need a story they can believe in, and a role that feels real, not ceremonial. Marketing wants dashboards and the latest AI agents, finance wants controls, IT wants stability… if they don’t see themselves in the story, they’ll pull in different directions.

When your crew is aligned, execution feels like rowing together. When they’re not, it feels like dragging anchors. Many new leaders make the mistake of taking everybody on board and giving them equal roles... Early on, you don’t need consensus. You need a couple of believers who can show the rest it’s possible.

3. Course Correction
No plan survives contact with reality.
Your job isn’t to defend the old map; it’s to keep the compass steady while you redraw the route.
That means setting clear checkpoints: quarterly strategy reviews, monthly delivery reviews, moments where it’s safe and expected to adjust.

A way to communicate across stakeholders without getting pushed overboard at the first sign of trouble. It would not be the first time in my career where the moment we hit a speedbump, the big guns came out... and suddenly it was updates every five minutes, stripped of decision power and dragged deeper and deeper into the valley of death...

Without cadence, you let the monster grow.
Without crew alignment, you stall.
Without course correction, you waste months.

But when the gears mesh, clarity becomes momentum. And momentum compounds into results. That’s the flywheel every data leader is chasing... and the one most never manage to spin.

So where do you start once you've set your compass?

- Audit your cadence. Is it designed or accidental?
- Check your crew. Do they know the story they’re part of?
- Mark your checkpoints. Where is it safe to adjust the plan?

If your flywheel is wobbling, don’t grip the wheel tighter.
Build your execution engine.

That’s exactly why I built the Compass Lite Diagnostic... a quick way to see where your gears are slipping.
And if you’re ready for a deeper reset, my Navigator program helps you rebuild the engine from the ground up.

Because clarity without execution is just a map.
Execution is what gets you there.