In a world that’s become reliant upon digital technology, obsessed with metrics, and focused on continual, endless growth and innovation, data is king. This is especially true for leadership figures, where the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of the business world make every decision more impactful, more nuanced, and more important than ever before. For businesses in the technology sector, the importance of making data-driven decisions becomes paramount if they’re to find success in a historically hyper-competitive environment.
For Linda Apsley, the seasoned and successful technology executive and one of the top 3% of influential female technology leaders in the United States, a data-driven mindset has been critical. By blending her own deep knowledge of technology and data with proven leadership and business skills, Apsley has built a career out of forming transformative teams and solutions. By leveraging a data-driven perspective, Linda Apsley has continuously driven technical change and improved high-scale stability across many industries, including technology, retail, media, and finance.
By building her leadership style and workplace philosophy around data and awareness, Linda Apsley has been able to build toward consistency and success. Making good decisions requires having good information and a solid understanding of it, and adopting a data-driven mindset is a foundational step toward that.
The Qualities of Effective Leadership
Linda Apsley has made her mark as a technology leader in several roles. From transforming GEICO’s technology team and paradigm as their CTO to leading the development of cloud data ecosystems with Citi and Capital One to significant leadership during the design and launch of Office 365 with Microsoft, Apsley has demonstrated her competency and excellence time after time. In building such a resume of success, Apsley has modeled several noteworthy leadership qualities worth emulating.
One of those traits, and perhaps the most important of them, is a commitment to lifelong learning. Linda Apsley spends regular hours studying a range of topics relevant to her work—these days, mostly technology and business—to stay up to date with the evolving world. Being not just conversant but actively understanding of new technologies allows her to synthesize new solutions and propose them to the teams she leads.
“I always believe that it is important to understand both the system you are working in and the people who are involved,” Apsley says. “I like to approach projects with respect for decisions of the past and the people involved.”
To Apsley, the best leaders are aligned with robust core values. In her case, Apsley operates in alignment with three core values: integrity, compassion, and respect. Approaching leadership with a baseline level of honesty keeps Apsley’s working life straightforward, allowing her to focus on the important things. She also emphasizes the importance of compassion and respect, saying, “Being a leader means you should be highly conscious of how your behavior affects others and be working for the greater good. One of my favorite managers once told me that you are not a leader unless people want to follow you.”
Effective Decision Making
Good decisions come from good data—this is the fundamental philosophy behind Linda Apsley’s leadership style, as well as many others. This approach is relevant for any business but is especially effective in the very data-centric technology sector. Gathering the data needed to make data-driven decisions is a multifaceted process; there’s more nuance than simply building and checking the world’s largest spreadsheets. Data is more than mere metrics—a robust data set goes beyond KPIs to include relationships, employee perspectives, and systemic knowledge held by various subject matter experts.
“I also like to have multiple people with expertise discuss the problem and solution as it produces more well-rounded solutions,” Linda Apsley explains. “If the problem is interpersonal, the deep challenge is trying to find the right balance that drives the best outcomes for the most people.”
Decisions are made in pursuit of goals, and part of successful decision-making is setting achievable goals and building systems to consistently track progress. Scope creep is the bane of many projects, and avoiding it is the first step in any of Apsley’s long-term plans. When approaching any new project or initiative, the first step is determining precisely which problems are being addressed and which ones are out of scope. Once these clear goals are set and defined, data can be collected and experts can be consulted to begin ideating on a solution.
Speaking of subject matter experts, learning when to delegate a task is another important part of being an effective leader. The key to effectively determining which tasks to tackle and which to delegate is identifying strengths and weaknesses in a team or organization. By delegating appropriate tasks to skilled team members, a good leader can both free themselves up to focus on higher-level tasks and encourage the development of the team’s own skills.
“I like to give people a challenge that is hard yet achievable and coach them to success,” Apsley says. “I get a lot of joy out of seeing people grow.”
Encouraging Team Growth and Development
Keeping teams motivated is important. Engaged workers accomplish more, develop their careers, and remain with their teams long enough to develop systemic knowledge that can carry on for years worth of projects. Linda Apsley does this by creating an environment of independence and interdependence where everyone takes full ownership of their tasks but consistently relies on one another to succeed. By encouraging people to leverage their talents and skills to the fullest in this way, she avoids the motivation-killing micromanagement that some organizations fall into while keeping accountability systems intact.
A data-driven approach helps keep teams engaged and growing too. This is where classic metrics and KPIs can be helpful to track productivity and identify which employees are deserving of reward and which require additional support or coaching. In cases where an employee appears to be struggling, Apsley has long found that empathy is the best overall approach, paired with a plan for success driven by actionable data.
Future Prospects and Goals
Linda Apsley is currently operating as a Senior Advisor to BCG, with a focus on technology, data, and AI in insurance and finance. She continues to apply her technical and leadership expertise across the technology sector, in part by launching her own company, the Apsley Consulting Group, which provides executive leadership development, coaching, and technology consulting services to business clients. Linda Apsley continues to succeed in the tech world, leveraging data and keen leadership to develop teams across industries.
