The Insight-Driven Leader

How to harness the data already in your company to solve your business problems

In today's fast-paced world, data is everywhere—but only actionable insights can drive real success. The Insight-Driven Leader offers a practical guide to transforming raw data into powerful workforce insights that solve critical business challenges. Through clear frameworks, compelling case studies, and proven strategies, Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider reveal how high-performing organizations combine business and workforce data to innovate, engage employees, delight customers, and exceed financial goals. Readers will also find:

• How to move beyond traditional rear-view HR metrics to actionable insights
• Real-life case studies from leading organizations, as well as cautionary tales
• Recommendations for becoming an insights-driven organization using workforce analytics

This book empowers leaders to align data with strategy, build a culture of insight-driven decision-making, and unlock the full potential of their HR and leadership teams.

Whether you're a CEO, CHRO, or first-time manager, The Insight-Driven Leader will elevate your leadership, equipping you to tackle perennial business challenges and deliver measurable impact in your organization.

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword xi

Preface xv

Introduction xix

Case Studies xxvii

Section 1: Change What You Measure, Transform What You Can Manage 1

1.1 Commit to Insights, Not Metrics 2

1.2 Embrace Workforce Insights 20

1.3 Let HR (Get Better at) Help(ing) You 34

1.4 Act on the Insights 42

1.5 Key Takeaways 45

Section 2: Enabling Workforce Analytics 47

2.1 Get with the (Workforce Data) Program 47

2.2 Support Data Integration 53

2.3 Fall on the Sword of Data Governance 62

2.4 Understand Workforce Analytics Capabilities 72

2.5 Key Takeaways 87

Section 3: Moving the Goalpost 89

3.1 Remember Yesterday’s IT 90

3.2 Know and Demand Excellence 98

3.3 Take Your Preference 106

3.4 Accountability as a Two-Way Street 113

3.5 Key Takeaways 119

Section 4: Become Truly Insight-Driven 121

4.1 Why “Insight-Driven” Matters 122

4.2 Making Culture Your #1 Strategic Asset 124

4.3 Upleveling HR 129

4.4 Creating Your Insight-Driven Culture 146

4.5 Key Takeaways 163

Section 5: Higher Math—Workforce Analytics at the C-level 165

5.1 All About the CHRO 165

5.2 CEO: Be a True Partner, Get a True Partner 174

5.3 Evolve the Power Structure 187

5.4 Integrate HR into the Business 198

5.5 Key Takeaways 211

Conclusion 213

Notes 215

Appendix A: Guide to Workforce Data 233

Appendix B: CEO+CHRO Survey Results 243

Appendix C: Interviewees 249

About the Authors 255

Index 257

JENNY DEARBORN is an experienced executive leader in enterprise technology sales and human resources. She’s also a board director, advisor, and investor, and currently serves as the Chief People Strategy Officer at BTS Group, a global consulting firm.

KELLY RIDER is a talent and learning strategist with over ten years’ experience on leadership teams. She specializes in connecting business needs with measurable outcomes, and in finding ways to use real-world data to drive leadership decisions.

Data is everywhere. And its sheer ubiquity and quantity can feel overwhelming to even the most well-prepared and conscientious business leader. Overwhelm aside, we must find ways to incorporate both business and workforce data for better decision-making and outcomes.

In The Insight-Driven Leader: How High-Performing Companies are Using Analytics to Unlock Business Value, two veteran executives and strategists deliver a practical guide to transforming raw data into powerful workforce insights that you can use to solve critical business challenges.

The authors offer clear frameworks, compelling case studies, and proven strategies for high-performing organizations seeking to combine business and workforce data to sell innovative products and services, engage their employees, satisfy their customers, and meet—or exceed—their financial goals.

The Insight-Driven Leader shows you how to move beyond traditional, rear-view human resources metrics towards forward-looking indicators that provide data you can act on in a timely way. It presents real-world case studies from successful organizations who have found ways to leverage the data they own to make remarkable progress in the market, as well as cautionary tales from companies that failed to adapt to changing conditions or respond to red flags that should have been clear when they were first raised.

You’ll learn how to use workforce analytics to generate durable competitive advantage, placing your organization at the forefront of the latest trends and changes in your industry.

Perfect for executives, board members, and the HR professionals who serve them, The Insight-Driven Leader is an engaging and innovative approach to optimizing how organizations leverage human resources and data. It will earn a place in the libraries of business leaders everywhere.

PRAISE FOR THE INSIGHT-DRIVEN LEADER

“Dearborn and Rider have delivered a timely book for leaders navigating today’s data-rich world. The Insight-Driven Leader is a compelling guide on how to transform workforce analytics from simple numbers into powerful tools that elevate culture and empower teams to deliver results.”
—HUBERT JOLY, Former Best Buy CEO, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Bestselling Author of The Heart of Business

“It has never been easier to have a practical, data-driven approach to leadership, team performance and broad-scale organizational change. Jenny Dearborn and Kelly Rider offer a blueprint of mindsets and ways of working that HR can lead on behalf of their organizations.”
—JESSICA SKON, CEO, BTS Group

“The insights, case studies, and practical advice Dearborn and Rider bring together is a roadmap for the modern CHRO (or any modern executive). As we look ahead to a world where AI changes the game for people leaders, The Insight-Driven Leader is a great foundation.”
—TOM HALE, CEO, OURA Health, makers of the OURA ring

“At last, a handbook describing the value-creating CHRO. Dearborn and Rider provide an essential guide for the CEO limited by the ambition and skills of their current HR function, and for the new CHRO looking to drive business impact.”
—DIANE GHERSON, Board Director, Kraft Heinz, Centivo and TechWolf; BCG Senior Advisor; CHRO Coach; and former CHRO at IBM

“Dearborn and Rider masterfully bridge the gap between data and people in The Insight-Driven Leader. They demonstrate how data can be used to empower employees, enhance customer experiences, and drive organizational success.”
—ROB ENSLIN, President and Chief Commercial Officer, Workday, and former CEO of UiPath

“A compelling call to action for leaders ready to drive culture, engagement,and business performance with workforce insights.”
—KELLEY STEVEN-WAISS, Chief Transformation Officer, ServiceNow, and Author of Valley Girls