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6 Audiobooks Every Business Analyst Must Listen To

Let’s say on an average you commute 2 hours everyday (to and from work) – which I do. So, that’s 10 hours a week and roughly 520 hours a year. If an average audiobook is about 8 hours in length, then technically you can listen to 65 books in a year!

Well, practically speaking that might be a lofty goal. You will also have to mix in music, podcasts, reading or just observing strange behaviors of your fellow-commuters. Right?

However, what about a goal of listening to 6 books? Much more achievable, eh?

Related Article: Want to Improve?  Don’t Make Resolutions.   Play Games and Keep Score!

If you have never heard of audiobooks and you always thought listening was for music and radio only, think again!

Your world of learning is about to change!

In this post I will share 6 must-listen audiobooks for business analysis practitioners. Read on to start your audiobooks journey.

The first one of the list …

1. Start With Why – How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their successes over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with why. This book is for anyone who wants to inspire others or who wants to find someone to inspire them.

What’s in it for a Business Analyst?

Learn about the “Golden Circle” and how great companies work from inside out of that circle. Go from “why” to “what” to “how” and apply this in your practice to understand the “why” of a certain area of analysis. This concept could be applied both at macro (strategy) and micro (detailed analysis) levels in an organization.

2. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has been a top seller for the simple reason that it ignores trends and pop psychology for proven principles of fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.

What’s in it for a Business Analyst?

This was the first audiobook I listened to, and that’s how I started my audiobooks journey about 15 years ago. There are many things to apply to your business analysis practice, including being proactive and setting goals.

3. Getting Things Done -The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work – and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen’s entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

What’s in it for a Business Analyst?

If you want to master the art of getting things done, and take your personal productivity to the next level, this is a must-listen book.

4. How To Win Friends and Influence People

For over 60 years, the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this audiobook has carried thousands of now-famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

What’s in it for a Business Analyst?

We deal with people side of analysis on a daily basis. If you want to learn how to form friendships, bonds and build trust with your stakeholders, listening to this book will help you go the extra mile.

5. Linchpin – Are You Indispensable?

Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they’re indispensable. And in today’s world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn’t reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back.

What’s in it for a Business Analyst?

I am a big champion of Seth’s work. He is one of the inspirations behind my first book and also TheBACoach brand. My key takeaway from this book was that everyone now can be an artist. According to him:

An artist is not just some person who messes around with paint and brushes, an artist is somebody who does “emotional work.””

Work that you put your heart and soul into. Work that matters. Work that you gladly sacrifice all other alternatives for.

Business Analysts are artists of the knowledge work, and this book will help you discover this in various ways.

6. Just Listen – Discover the Secret of Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone

You’ve got a business colleague who’s hostile, a client who’s furious, a staffer who’s deeply cynical—how do you get people to do what you want in tough situations like these? In Just Listen, veteran psychiatrist and business coach Mark Goulston reveals the secret to how to get through to anyone, even when productive communication seems impossible.

What’s in it for a Business Analyst?

From the audiobook page:

Here’s the challenge,” Mark says. “People have their own needs, desires, and agendas. They have secrets they’re hiding from you. And they’re stressed, busy, and often feeling like they’re in over their heads. To cope, they throw up barricades that make it difficult to reach them even when your goals are in sync with their own.” But the good news is that there are simple strategies that can make you compelling, and break down the walls that keep you from getting through to the people you need to buy into your ideas and goals.

Which one of these have you listened to and/or look forward to listen to? Do you have any additional recommendations?

Please use the comment space below to leave your comments, feedback and questions.