Leadership, Resilience and the Power of Data: A Q&A With Heather Adams

Heather Adams, an instructor for the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership program,  reflects back on her eight years as a communications officer for the Air Force, the unique ways that experience shaped her leadership style and what makes for an effective leader in today’s work world. 

What are some highlights from your time in the Air Force? 

• I was a communications officer responsible for technology such as the radio control tower communication systems, general computer systems and help desk in Hungary during the air war over Serbia in 1999;
• I spent three years stationed in the U.S. Air Force Headquarters, Europe (USAFE) in Germany and was able to visit 27 countries;
• I served as a squadron commander to a group that gamified military training.

What roles helped you develop and define your leadership style?

The Air Force put me in charge of a lot of people very early in my career at age 22. One reason it was manageable was the extensive training I received in college where there was a heavy focus on leadership. It was a great experience and I learned a lot from influential Air Force leaders. That, along with some tough life experiences, shaped me as a leader and allowed me to use the empathy and insight I gained to be an effective leader. 

How did you begin teaching for the Organizational Leadership program?

I loved teaching a statistics course to freshmen in Leeds School of Business at CU Boulder and it was going really well, so when I had the opportunity to work with data at a higher level with graduate students, I jumped at the chance. It has been so rewarding and enlightening to see how much the analytics course applies to so many careers and every time you see students who are also full-time professionals understanding the material and applying it, it’s a small victory.

What key concepts do students learn in your course, ORGL 5015 – Analytics & Data Driven Decision Making?

Students learn about types of data, hypothesis testing, regression, probability and so many other things. I’m hoping to also add a data visualization piece so students have the option to create dashboards using the data—dashboards with line charts, pie charts, infographics, etc., are a great way to make the information accessible to many.

How do you connect theory to real-world leadership challenges in your course?

I use a variety of examples from the sports, skiing, travel, manufacturing, distribution and healthcare spheres, but I also encourage students  to use examples from their own careers and share them with the class. Many students have told me sharing their challenges helped them make key decisions at work. 

What do you hope students walk away with by the end of the course—beyond the syllabus?

I hope students walk away thinking about the depth of numbers every time they see them. I hope they are curious about what factors predict certain problems or successes in their careers and can think of ways to make data digestible so that it can be used to more easily make decisions and predictions. I’ve had many students that are either in college athletics, have moved on to the National Football League (NFL) or the National Basketball Association (NBA) and I can just tell by their assignments that they will continue to think about the value in the stats they see every day—they will make sense of the data and make better decisions because of it.

What makes the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership program at CU Boulder unique compared to other similar programs?

The program contains such a valuable assortment of courses that cover business, communications, data and social sciences—so much that is valuable to leaders in this day and age. Someone once told me the average age of students in this program was 35 and that is another valuable aspect—everyone in my class gains insight from people in a variety of jobs from a range of U.S. and international locations. The online and asynchronous format really allows for that diversity.

Why is it important for an organization’s leader to understand analytics and data?

I teach another course for Leeds students called Leadership in a Digital Age and one key trait we talk about all semester is being “data driven” and how important data can be for critical decisions in an age where the amount of data is so overwhelming. An example we discuss is how the McClaren Formula 1 pit crew deals with 1.5 terabytes of data per race and 11.8 billion data points per season. For those individuals, managing data is crucial for split second changes and decisions.

How do you define effective leadership in today’s organizations?

Today’s leader is not only data driven but also adaptive, visionary, customer centric, and to an extent, tech savvy.

What advice do you give students who doubt their ability to lead?

• Every time you fail, you become a better leader: People who can see opportunity in failure are already better leaders and people who have been through the toughest of times have already become better leaders. There is a certain resilience and calm from those that have already experienced failure.
• Leaders are created from experiences: It takes time to find your comfort zone, find your people and realize you can handle risks. That experience makes you a better leader.
• Every position you have been in has given you a chance to lead: Whether you are a coach, brother, sister, mentor or even a son or daughter—leadership is about character, moments and action, not about being a good speaker, telling a good story or having the most power. 

If you are ready to take the next step in your academic journey, learn more about the Organizational Leadership program.