What Business Analysts Can Learn from Competitive Sports: The Power of Consistency

I am a Business and Systems Analysis Manager.  Day-to-day I perform the essential duties of a business analyst.  In my management capacity, I instruct a team of analysts and guide them in their daily analysis activities, as well as coach and mentor them in their career growth and development; a role that I take to heart.

Coaching and mentoring others to reach their full potential requires a bit of analysis itself.  The challenge: How to help others plan the specific and actionable steps that they need to take in order to improve in areas that perhaps I as a manager have found to be more second nature.

That is not to say that I don’t have areas where I need to improve.  But for my own areas of improvement, I often have already taken the time to develop an actionable improvement plan.  In contrast, in areas that have come more naturally to me, I may not have determined which actionable steps may help others improve.  As such, I’m always looking for better ways to convey those qualities and actionable steps which are crucial and necessary for analysts to achieve their goals.

While my co-workers know me as a manager of Business and Systems Analysis, others know me as a Triathlete (A triathlon is multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events; most commonly swimming, bicycling, and running).  It was while reading a recent article about Triathlon that I began to draw a strong parallel between achieving career goals as a business analyst and achieving goals as a triathlete.  Both are an exercise of endurance.  Short bursts of strong performance will not achieve your goals.  That is why it is so fitting that the author writes about “The Power of Consistency”.  After reading this article you will see that consistency is such a simple concept to understand and yet it can be one of the most challenging to put into practice.

Triathlon Article on the Power of Consistency by Kelli Montgomery:

http://www.usatriathlon.org/resources/multisport-zone/multisport-lab/the-power-of-consistency

By simply reading this article you will probably be able to draw many parallels to your role as a business analyst.  But to further articulate the metaphor, I’ve translated the words and phrases related to Triathlon to their equivalent terms in relation to Business Analysis.  By replacing the vocabulary of Triathlon with the vocabulary of Business Analysis we can see how strong the “Power of Consistency” is for both activities.

Completion of the Business Analysis Metaphor

One of the key elements I stress with business analysts that I coach or mentor is how important it is to have long-term consistency with their career development. It’s basic that if you want to see the most gain or improvements in your career development and advancement in roles and responsibilities, you’ve got to be consistent — and that’s over the long haul. Acquiring stellar job performance is not a short-term process. It can take at least a year and a half of consistent career development to become ready for advancement in roles and responsibilities. It’s worth the wait, as you will then be able to reach your potential as a business analyst.

So how do you get to be consistent in your career development day in and day out?

You need to make a 100 percent commitment to career development and back that up with action. It isn’t easy to be consistent and self-disciplined, and there will be times when it will be hard and it would be easier to take a seat on the couch and turn on the tube instead of opening a book. But, if your goal is to reach the next level or advance in roles and responsibilities quickly, you’ve got to decide you really want it and fight through the tougher days and adversity - do this and you will succeed!

Once you’ve decided to commit, engaging a coach or mentor to help you plan for your goals and design a career development plan that works with your life schedule will also help you be consistent long term. Having a coach or mentor to provide helpful feedback, positive motivation and accountability, especially during tougher periods, will help you stay on track.

Whether you decide to use a coach or mentor or plan your career development yourself, it’s important to have a career development plan that is realistic with your schedule. A schedule that will allow you to be successful includes adequate time for mental recovery, career development, and is in harmony with both family and your work life. Trying to cram career development in and not allowing enough time for the mental recovery process, or having a career development plan that puts stress on work and family time won’t be sustainable over the long term.

Keep your career development simple — to improve you don’t need a complicated career development plan or complicated software. Most of us are busy and have lives outside of business analysis, so keeping it simple allows for consistency. Put in the work long-term and you will see the rewards!

I have my business analysts use repetition to build consistency. Standardizing study sessions provides a number of positives to your career development. It helps develop skills and a greater understanding of your career development; you’ll develop awareness and intuitively feel better than if you have a career development plan or study sessions that are constantly changing. You’ll see improvements and notice over time that you feel better and mentally recover faster. By repeating study sessions week to week you will be able to see progress and work to get better with each study session. It also keeps career development simple; for instance, knowing you will do a certain type of study session each Monday brings better time management. This all adds up to long-term consistency.

Fueling your job performance properly will also help you be consistent with your career development. I tell my business analysts to think of their job performance as race cars - to get the most from your vehicle, you want to use premium-grade fuel. Aiming for ample focus, effort, and accountability will keep you refreshed and help get more out of your time. If you can avoid discouragement and distraction you will be more consistent over the long term.

Mental recovery is vitally important to success of consistency. You can’t intensely focus on career development if you are not refreshed.  Aim for mental recovery and renewed focus by planning specific down time.

As you plan your next career development goals, think about the Power of Consistency and what it can bring to your career development and advancement in roles and responsibilities...the rewards in improvement and success are worth investing in!

What the Business Analyst Should Be Asking Right Now

After reading the translated version of this article, ask yourself the following questions (honestly!):

• Am I 100% committed to my career goals?

• Do I have a coach or mentor that can hold me accountable?

• Have I taken the time to develop a personalized career development plan?

• Is my career development plan realistic and does it work with my life schedule?

• Does my career development plan provide adequate down-time?

• Is my down-time planned so that I can use that time as efficiently as my development time?

• Is my career development plan standardized and relatively simple to follow?

Translation Table

Author: Chris Adams is a Senior Technology Manager with Bank of America where he manages a team of analysts on multi-million dollar projects and develops custom-fit analysis processes and deliverables used by the analysis organization.   He also spends time coaching and mentoring analysts.

Chris has 13 years of experience in various roles within software development, 10 of which have focused on business analysis.  His other roles have included project management, development, quality assurance and business intelligence.  His experience spans a number of Fortune 500 companies in the Information Technology, Mortgage Banking, and Financial Services industries including PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Countrywide Financial, and Bank of America.

Chris holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Six Sigma Green Belt certification.  He is a regular contributor of ModernAnalyst.com