Business analysts are in high demand these days because business owners understand that they play a vital role in the success of every establishment. If you go through any business research paper, you’ll see that being a business analyst requires more than having excellent communication skills. If you’re considering building a career for yourself as a business analyst, depending on your certification alone may not be a good idea. Keep reading to find out more.
Top 5 Skills Every Business Analyst Should Have
- Communication Skills
As a business analyst, you’re going to need good communication skills. That includes both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. You should be able to tell your supervisors, business shareholders, and fellow employees, everything you can without stuttering. Every point must be clearly stated, along with vivid explanations. When you have questions for the business owner, you need to be able to break things down in a way that non-technical specialist can understand. Excellent communication isn’t the same as using big technical words that only specialists can understand. Apart from your verbal communication skills, you also need to master non-verbal communication like gestures, facial expressions, and texting. Being able to read, understand, and give appropriate replies to texts is important, especially when you’re working remotely.
- Writing Skills
Your job is going to require a lot of writing and documentation. Rather than outsourcing these tasks to someone else, you can pick up the skill and handle it yourself. Most of these documents will be presented to business stakeholders. So, getting every little detail correctly is important. Just like with the communication, your writing, which is also part of communication, should be clear and concise. Thankfully, you can take online classes to become a better writer. Also, make sure you practice regularly with non-official content if you want to get the hang of it before you start writing official documents. You can pay a writing coach to teach you how to write like a professional. Also, don’t be afraid to use tools like Grammarly and Hemingway Editor to confirm that your content has no grammatical or typographical errors before submitting.
- Time Management Skills
In the business world, time is money. Every project has a timeline, and you need to know how to manage your time efficiently if you want to complete these projects in record time and keep your superiors happy. Sure, it’s good to multitask from time to time, but work should come first during office hours. Everything else can come second. Apart from managing your time, you need to know how to manage the time of your co-workers or anyone whose work directly influences your work. The last thing you want to do is to miss a deadline because you didn’t set a deadline for someone else. Delegate tasks to others and make sure they know when they are to deliver. Remind them of the time routinely until they deliver.
- Listening Skills
You have to be a good speaker. That is correct. However, you also have to be a good listener. There will be times when all you have to do is listen and analyze everything you hear thoroughly. Apart from simply paying attention to what a person is saying, you need to learn how to understand body language, tone, and mood. Is the person angry, pleased, or confused? Is the person disappointed? Paying attention to more than just words will allow you to give the right answer.
- Presentation Skills
Well, every other skill listed here will determine if you’ll have good presentation skills. You’re going to present your analysis from time to time. If you’re going to be good at this, you need to be a good speaker, listener, writer, and time manager, whether you are presenting a project to stakeholders, overseeing a workshop, or just speaking to your project team. You must learn to use every tool at your disposal to send your message in a way that everyone will understand. Make sure you speak with conviction. You can’t convince others of something that you’re not convinced of yourself.
Bottom Line
Being a good business analyst isn’t something you can achieve in one day. You need to make an effort to be successful in your field consistently. Hone these skills if you want to stay on top of your game as a business analyst.