As a Business Systems Analyst or a Business Analyst consultant, I have learned a new placement is never a walk in the park. It is extremely rewarding when there becomes a comfortability in the placement after you connect with your team. At first, there is general on-boarding and a lot to learn about the product in a short time frame. Then, there are new team members to get to know and unfortunately, we sometimes have negative stereotypes to counter. Eventually, you become part of the team that you’ve worked hard to win over.
When I first head to a client, my focus is learning the product I will be supporting but also learning about the team, who they are, how they interact with each other, and where my skills/role fall in the team makeup.
Here are my top four tips to learn about a team:
Meet with your team– Meet with other team members one-on-one and get to know a little bit about them.
Be honest- Tell them you are still learning about their company and their needs you will be relying a bit on the team in the beginning. Coming in without that know-it-all attitude will help you connect with them.
Ask questions-
- This is typically a short meeting with the following discussion topics:
- State one or two personal things about yourself.
- Remember: Boundaries are important. My general rule is not talk about anything I would not want everyone at the company to know.
- I typically go with I have two dogs; I actively volunteer with a dog rescue group and may have a new foster dog at my house at any point in time. We have a travel trailer and go camping a lot when the weather is nice.
- State one or two personal things about yourself.
- Your SHORT professional background
- My background is typically one or two sentences – I started in the education field and somehow found myself working a summer job in IT and fell in love. I have been working in the IT space ever since.
- All companies are different and have different needs. I typically ask something like “How can I serve this team and this company best?” during my one on one with the other team members.
Listen to their answer-
Ask them if they are comfortable sharing and remind them, they are not expected to share. If they are not comfortable sharing, do not worry, as this may change over time. Either way you learn something about the person, and it helps your interactions with them while you are there.
Be nice-
Follow the Golden Rule
I will not throw my team members under the bus as I would not want this done to me. If you have concerns, talk to me and we can figure it out together or as a team and vice versa. If I have concerns, I will speak to you or the team depending on the concern.
Follow the “Guest Rule”
As consultants, we must treat ourselves as guests of the client. When you stay at a friends’ house, you would make sure you pick up after yourself and help when you can. The same rule applies to consultants. While our focus is on the project or product we were brought in for, we can look for other ways to assist the company. We bring a high standard of care to our work and do our best to leave the company in a better place than when we started.
Using these 4 tips of; meet with your team, be honest, ask questions and listen to their answer, and be nice you’ll be on your way to winning over your new team. I find that in the end the working relationships I build have not only benefitted the companies that I worked with but also me personally in more ways than I could have imagined.