In the past 25 years, global corporations have vastly increased their emphasis on the value of collaboration and teamwork. Entrepreneurs and small businesses also often partner in order to enhance their business model or fill in talent gaps.
Developing quality partnering relationships in your business ecosystem can be a career game-changer.
Here, we discuss two routes to creating a productive partnership. Each route is powerful and one is no better than the other.
The first type of partnership is when each partner’s personality strengths strongly complement the other.
For example, two artistic and creative types get together to produce an original idea or concept, two hard-driving extroverts combine their energies to exploit each other’s networks or two highly analytical people combine their talents to develop a new algorithm that exponentially leverages their knowledge and impact. These partners don’t compete with each other; their similar strengths complement and enhance each other.
The partnership of Elton John and Bernie Taupin is an example of a successful collaboration of two creative types. Recently they celebrated a rather stunning achievement: 50 years working together as the longest-lasting songwriting team in music history. They are both highly creative but each person plays a distinct and complementary role: Taupin writes the lyrics while John writes the music.
Be aware that when teams with similar strengths collaborate, they must still create additional partnerships to complete the transaction cycle. In order to be successful, even this creative songwriting duo had to assemble a team to fill in strength gaps to expertly produce and market their product. You only have to watch Shark Tank to see many examples of innovative products and ideas that require additional expertise or financial resources to get them over the finish line.
The second type of partnership is when each partner’s personality strengths compensate for the other’s weaknesses.
For example, one person expertly drives processes and gets things done but they lack imagination and creativity. This person partners with someone who is a visionary – someone who can’t manage a shopping list but is able to see possibilities nobody else can. One person thinks big and the other executes on the vision.
A great example of a successful partnership where strengths compensated for each other is Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak from Apple. Steve Jobs was a forward-thinking visionary and a genius in design. Wozniak was a master of analytics with superb technical skills. Wozniak never once thought about selling his original computer model – that was Jobs’ idea. And without Wozniak, Jobs would have had a lot of great ideas that went nowhere. By combining their strengths, they formed the ultimate successful business partnership.
The most successful partnerships consistently do one thing. They create a dynamic where the sum is greater than the individual parts. This is where each component of the partnership is exponentially additive to the other – where 1+1=3.
When you consider your partnering successes, what type of strategic value did you add? Have you complemented the other person’s strengths or have you compensated for your partner’s weaknesses? Even when partnerships had elements of both, did one type outweigh the other? Were there challenges in completing the transaction cycle and how did you overcome them?
If you are currently in a partnering relationship it’s important to engage in deep conversations about individual strengths and areas of weakness.
It’s a powerful exercise to place yourself and your team members on the Strategic Transacting Model (described in Chapter 11 of Becoming a Strategic Leader). Now you have a tool to help you understand where each person adds strategic value. Facilitate a conversation about what can be done so that everyone can more effectively use their strengths. This is the essence of optimizing team performance – making sure people are in the right role to capitalize on strengths and minimize the impact of any weaknesses. The model can also help you to identify talent gaps and where and why breakdowns in the cycle occur.
It’s especially important not to critique or judge yourself for acknowledging the need for a strong partnering relationship. The right partnerships can add tremendous value, especially to those of you in entrepreneurial situations. It’s not easy to complete the transaction cycle by yourself. Even some of the most talented people have needed additive partners to achieve success. Just ask John, Paul, George and Ringo!