Here's how you can cultivate assertiveness in Business Architecture without coming across as aggressive.

As Enterprise Architects, we need to be as clear about our intentions as a GPS giving directions. Just as you wouldn't want your navigation system to mumble "turn left... maybe?", stakeholders need crystal-clear explanations of our architectural choices. It's like being a tour guide through the blueprint of the business - we need to point out the sights (benefits) and the potential roadblocks (trade-offs) with confidence, not confusion.

I immediately recall my visits to a doctor here, I have much more confidence in the proposed treatment if the doctor has invested enough time in probing (proactively enquiring into many aspects) before starting to prescribe. Active listening is not only important for finding the best solutions but also build trust through empathy, and assurance that we are going to use our precious time and resources on the most relevant causes.

An Enterprise Architect's body language should be as open as our system architecture. Just as we design seamless integrations between systems, our non-verbal cues should create smooth connections with people. Think of it as being a human API - your open posture and eye contact are like well-documented endpoints, inviting trust and collaboration without a single line of code.

I would certainly rate this at the top of all that is said here, the reason is that if one does this right he can be pardoned for some of the mistakes elsewhere, but many good deeds are rendered useless if the delivery is not made with the appropriate body language. This is also the most difficult to train yourself on, as this entails controlling your impulses from default behaviour, which in turn means changing yourself at the foundations.

Very important when you are dealing with an audience which you already haven't stablished rapport with, as each word is taken at the face value in this case. Using words that indicate flexibility also portrays you as someone open to new ideas that may be conflicting to yours.

Emotional intelligence for an Enterprise Architect is like having a well-tuned sentiment analysis algorithm for human interactions. We need to read the emotional data in the room, process it in real-time, and output empathetic responses. It's about being the cool, collected CPU in the sometimes overheated motherboard of business discussions, preventing emotional buffer overflows with our EQ firewall.