Business Partnerships – 2 Additional Tips to Staying Connected

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Business Partnerships – 2 Additional Tips to Staying Connected

Article by Barri Carian

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility. ~George Levinger

Does this sound familiar? That cute habit or personality trait of your partner was endearing at the beginning of the relationship. Today, it gets on your nerves and is often the source of conflict between you.

So often I am mediating between business partners because they no longer appreciate and value the differences between them. The irony is that it was these exact differences that attracted them to each other to begin with.

Take the case of Ann and Robert (not real names of course). When they first decided to merge their two companies and form a business partnership, they were excited about the fact that Ann brought strong finance and operations experience to the table, and Robert was a business development whiz. They reasoned that their partnership was a great blend of skills that could only enhance the success of their new company.

Fast forward three years and Ann and Robert are constantly arguing and often find themselves in decision stalemate. Why? Because Ann's approach to solving problems or deciding on opportunities, is to analyze the financial soundness and operational capacity and efficiency of the solution. Robert on the other hand, sees only the possibilities and upside of any issue.

To Robert, Ann is a naysayer who never gets excited about any opportunity he brings in. She is the “yes, but” person in the relationship and he feels deflated and often defeated. To Ann, Robert has no ability to discern a profitable or doable idea from a disastrous one. They have stopped listening to each other and no longer appreciate the differences between them.

So what can Ann and Robert do to “rekindle” their relationship and the business partnership?

Sometimes it's just enough to remind people that these are the traits that attracted them to each other in the beginning. More often, it's necessary to put some guidelines and structure into their communications. In Section II of “Creating Great Business Partnerships. A Workbook For Success”, I offer many tips for how to leverage differences between business partners in order to make the best decisions. Below I list just a few of them:

* Keep the focus on your shared objective during discussions. This ensures your conversation is geared toward the best way to achieve your goal, not on what's wrong with the idea you are discussing.* Set aside a certain amount of time just to brainstorm and list as many ideas as you can without rendering judgment.* Listen for commonalities and build on the other's ideas and comments.

Tip #3: Learn how to leverage and maintain your differences as strengths for success in your relationship and in the business partnership.

A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time. ~Anne Taylor Fleming


Is there one right way to keep a business partnership happy and healthy?

The obvious answer is no. If you look around at the long-standing successful relationships of people you know, you will note the many differences between them. In some partnerships, one partner is clearly the dominant one. In another, it appears to be an equal partnership in which all decisions are made jointly. And in yet another the partners seem to go their separate ways, coming together only on important occasions.

Each of these partnerships, as different as they are, work for the parties involved. Successful business partnerships have their own unique formula in which the partners find the balance between the varied needs, strengths and expectations of the individual and the shared purpose of the partnership.

So how do you accomplish this in your business partnership?

The short answer is….proactive, candid and regularly scheduled communications. In my workbook, “Creating Great Partnerships. A Workbook For Success”, I offer several ideas and tools to help you achieve the right balance for your partnership. Here are a couple of ideas taken from a sample Partner Meeting Agenda template and a Healthy Partnership Annual Check-up questionnaire in Chapter 7 of the workbook:

* In your regularly scheduled Partner Meetings add an agenda item called “The Partnership”. During this discussion share what is working and not working for you and between you, what you would change in the relationship and what you appreciate most.* Periodically check in with each other on such things as:o The balance of workload, effort and commitmento The balance of influence, give and take and compromise between you

What are some of the things you have done to find the right balance between dancing the duet and the solo in your business partnership?

Tip #4: Finding the optimum balance between collaboration and shared purpose and individual needs and contribution is of critical importance to the long-term health of your business partnership.

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