The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced March 25, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person May 11 at the The Ritz-Carlton in McLean, Virginia.
Next is Chief Data Officer (Government) finalist Kirsten Dalboe, who’s CDO at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Here, she talks key recent achievements, learning from failures, career advice and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2021/2022?
- Building and maturing FERC’s data governance by launching a data stewardship campaign to implement and mature the data stewardship framework across the commission through training and collaboration with stewards across the FERC program offices.
- Successfully delivered the first phase of FERC’s cloud-based analytics platform and completed a reporting modernization project to meet our internal reporting and dashboard needs, which integrates data governance practices and internal data standards for consistency across reports. The modernization consolidated about 530 reports down to 50 by applying data governance practices and data standards, allowing my team to enable self-service for certified data sets, putting data at the fingertips of analysts.
- Launched a Data Science Training program and facilitated monthly lunch and learns to bring together the first cohort of trainees to collaborate and idea-share on data challenges across the commission.
- Supported and built stronger cross-agency collaboration by chairing the Small Agency Committee under the Federal CDO Council and representing the small agencies in the Federal CDO Council Executive Committee.
What has made you successful in your current role?
- My passion for data and building an effective data program to support our important mission
- Relationship building with partners across the agency, learning and understanding their data challenges, recognizing that it’s not about me, but the needs of the agency to deliver our mission effectively
- Servant leadership and empowering my staff to deliver effectively
What’s one key thing you learned from a failure you had?
Reframe the concept of a failure — everything is an opportunity to learn and grow, especially the activities that didn’t play out as we’d expected.
What’s the biggest professional risk you’ve ever taken?
Turning down promotion opportunities earlier in my career that would have taken me away from the data experiences that I was building. It felt a bit crazy to be turning down a promotion opportunity, but when playing the scenario out in my head, the promotion would very likely have limited the direction in which I wanted to grow and build my career.
What’s your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
Be deliberate in defining what you want your career to be about and what you want to achieve — but focus those goals on experiences and skills that you want to build, not on job titles.
Find the organization, the boss and the team that will support you in achieving those career experiences. Celebrate when you’ve achieved those career experiences and think about what you learned from those experiences. Life is long and you want to enjoy the ride!
Also, never burn bridges, and always have class, character and a sense of humor. It’s far easier to refocus and replan when something goes sideways if you know you’ve always behaved with integrity and can see the humor in the situation.