Lead Before You're Told

Pardon my bluntness: Let’s be honest with ourselves for a brief minute.

I reckon most data professionals are trapped.

Not by their skills. You’re smart. You know the tech, you can wrestle the data, you can find the signal in the noise.

You’re trapped by permission.

You’ve been trained to be a silent genius. A service desk for questions you didn’t ask. You deliver the report, you answer the query, you build the dashboard.

Then you wait for the real decision-makers to do something with it.

You’re the person who brings the map, not the one who chooses the destination.

This is the fast lane to career stagnation. In a world where AI can pull data and build charts, the "brilliant executor" is becoming a commodity. Your value isn’t in your technical prowess alone; it’s in your judgment. Your ability to connect the dots and drive action.

But if you want to move from executor to leader, you can’t wait for someone to hand you a new title. You need to start doing something deeply counterintuitive, something that might even feel wrong at first….

The blueprint for this isn't in a data science textbook. It's in a decommissioned nuclear submarine, detailed in the book Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet.

And it’s likely a key to unlocking your next career chapter.

The one mindset shift that changes everything

Instead of asking what’s needed, start saying:

It’s not arrogance. It’s ownership.

And it’s how you start building leadership trust without waiting for a promotion.

Why this book earns a permanent spot on your shelf

Turn the Ship Around! isn’t written for data teams. It’s about a nuclear submarine.

But the lesson maps really really well in my opinion:

Instead, he flipped the model.

He asked his crew to stop waiting for orders and start declaring intent:

That one shift—from passive to proactive—turned a low-trust, underperforming team into a top-tier unit.

Analytics teams aren’t nuclear subs.
But we’re often operating with the same bottleneck: decisions flowing too slowly to too few people.

This book shows a way out.

Where it gets messy in the analytics world

Let’s be real—most data teams aren’t built for this kind of decentralised leadership.

Decision rights are fuzzy.
Org politics are real.
Your manager might still be CC’ing you on every email instead of letting you lead the call.

And if you jump too far, too fast, you risk:

• Getting shut down
• Making a bad call without the full context
• Losing credibility instead of gaining it

Intent, in the wrong context, can look like overreach.

But here’s how to bridge that gap

Don’t start with the big calls.
Start with one. Small but visible.

Look for a decision you already understand better than your boss. (There are more than you think.)

Then say:

You’re not asking for permission.
You’re building leadership through clarity, not control.

That’s the magic of Marquet’s model— I think it works because it builds trust while increasing ownership.

How to turn this into a weekly leadership habit

1. Flip your next 1-on-1
Instead of updating your manager, ask:

2. Launch an ‘Intent Log’
Create a shared doc or Notion board.
Start logging decisions with:

• What you intend to do

• Why it matters

• What feedback you’re inviting

It shows initiative and invites guidance.

3. Build your “Decision Map”
Sketch three columns:

• Decisions I already own

• Decisions I want to own

• Skills/context I need to earn them

This becomes your leadership growth map—without waiting for HR to make one.

Try this one play this week

Run a 30-minute solo session or 1-on-1 using this format:

1. Pick one stalled project or recurring decision.

2. Ask: “What would I do if this were my call?”

3. Draft your ‘intent’ statement:

4. Share it—ideally with the stakeholder who’d normally make the call.

5. Invite feedback, not sign-off.

Intent is a signal. Not a request.

The most powerful ideas are the ones we actually put to work. To help you move the "I intend to..." framework from a concept in an email to a tool in your arsenal, I’ve created a free micro tool called The Intent Submarine. It’s a simple, 3-step playbook designed to help you spot your first target, declare your intent with confidence, and start logging the evidence of your growing influence. Think of it as your bridge from theory to action.

Best,

Tom.