OK you say – don’t start with this self-help pablum. What’s with you two? I’m a real businessperson who needs real business advice. Well, if that’s true keep reading.
Have you ever stopped to think about the impact you have on your partners, the partnership and therefore the business? Right, you’re perfect; we get it. It’s the other partner or partners who are the problem. No! And if you sincerely feel this way – dissolve your partnership today. Why, because your partners do not need to put up with your nonsense and self-deception.
Yes, we know these are strong words. So why did we choose to start our blog this way today? Because we see partnerships started by well meaning, caring people who want to make a real difference through their business, but end up perpetually snipping at each other and worse. And each time we start working with them, we find the same thing: misunderstanding shrouded in a lack of self-awareness and blame on the other(s). Sometimes talking with the partners we get the feeling we are teleported back to 1959 listening to the lyrics of the newly released song – Charlie Brown (why is every body always picking on me).
So you have two choices: you can recognize, through awareness, that the partnership is important and it’s worth working on, or you can get stuck in the “ain’t it awful” syndrome. You know, ain’t it awful that my partners don’t carry their share, ain’t it awful I have to do all the work. What’s interesting is when we talk with partners whose partnership is in trouble, they all feel this way. And if you get stuck in it, it can become a spin of “martyr, victim, rescuer routine”. Really no fun, unnecessary, and a loss of precious time and energy.
It start’s with you and it starts with self-awareness. To make your partnership work takes personal effort. But awareness is not enough. You also need to care enough to want to make the partnership better, you need to know what to do to make it better, you need to know how to do it, and then you need to take action, consistently.
On Thursday we’ll give you some tips on how to improve your partnership through self-awareness, self-correction and self-management.
Copyright 2010 Kubica and LaForest
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