In this episode, ten thought leaders in the field if business analysis and project management share the best advice they ever received.
Happy New Year!
To start the year off right, I’ve brought together some of the top leaders in the world of business analysis to share the best advice they ever received.
Kupe Kupersmith | President, B2T Training
Be comfortable with who you are and be who you are. You can look at other people to see if there are qualities you want to take on but you’re never going to be that other person you are who you are just be you.
Richard Larson | Founder and President of Watermark Learning
Do what you love and what you’re good at and success will follow.
Elizabeth Larson | CEO of Watermark Learning
Whenever possible, spend time in your stakeholder’s area using their systems and doing what they do. This not only helps build trust, it also gives you the knowledge to identify problems and make solution recommendations.
David Mantica | President, ASPE-Training
David shared two pieces of advice that he received at different points in his career.
- You’re going things at work that you want to do and things that you don’t want to do. Focus on the things you don’t want to do and complete those first. They are usually the most important.
- You’re a leader. People watch you. Be cognizant of that.
Roxanne Miller | President, Requirements Quest
Get some good books, read them, and apply the lessons from those books (Roxanne recommends Software Requirements by Karl Weigers). Also, get a mentor.
Paula Bell | Paula A. Bell Consulting, LLC
Be true to yourself and be authentic. Don’t let your circumstances define who you are rather overcome them to define where you’re going.
Cheryl Lee | Co-author of the book Effective PM and BA Role Collaboration
You can talk to people about the value you provide to the organization, but the best way you can prove your value is to show them.
Hans Eckman | Eckman Guides
An ecosystem is greater than the sum of its parts. Take a step back and look at the organization holistically to see if there are larger patterns or influences we need to take into account for our solution.
Adrian Reed | Principal Consultant at Blackmetric Business Solutions
Adrian shared three pieces of advice he received:
- Embrace uncertainty. It’s okay not to know yet.
- Network
- Be authentic and be yourself.
Angela Wick | Founder and CEO of BA-Squared, LLC
Your job is to add value every single day. Ask yourself three questions:
- At the beginning of the day ask “how will I add value today?”
- In the middle of the day ask “How am I adding value by doing this?”
- At the end of the day ask “Did I add value today?”
I hope you’ve found something in this advice that can help you in 2017. Of course, it will only have an impact if you take action. Make 2017 your year.
Listen to the full episode to hear the best advice these ten thought leaders ever received (as well as my own).
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Happy New Year from Germany,
Honestly, the best advice I personally took from this podcast came from David Mantica who said that you should focus on things you don’t want to do; do them first because they are probably the most important. That’s so true and very often I experienced that I loved to be distracted by these tiny funny things which I love to do but which finally cause trouble because the important things are delayed. So, now I have to go back to real work quickly, it was great listening to all advices but know I have do the mst important thing and continue to work on the upcoming BA courses next week ;-)
Thank you very much and wishing you a successful 2017!
Rainer Wendt, masVenta Business GmbH, President of the IIBA Germany Chapter