How can you adapt to new leadership as a partnership manager?

Get to know the new leader, build this new relationship, ask questions, learn about their style, and offer to bring them up-to-speed on what you have been working on and solicit their input.

In order to be successful in your role, it's crucial to build an internal network of people and orgs that find value from the partner team. How have you helped Marketing increase leads and conversions, Product with new integrations or AE's and managers reach their goals? Come prepared with these stories and numbers and be ready to discuss what has worked, what needs improvement, and what strategies should be implemented. Setting the stage with the work and results you've delivered will allow for a constructive conversation with your new leader. Understanding the leader's background, it's important to ask their perspective on the partner program and the goals. Building this foundation will be crucial for a healthy working relationship.

The first and most important thing is to listen and be present. Its important to understand what they want and are trying to accomplish in their first 30/60/90 days. You'll probably spend time educating, so ensure you communicate clearly, and if possible have everything documented. Process flows will be one of your best allies. Finally, you need to learn to adapt. In this day and age adaptability is a key skill. Make a point of trying to understand them and get to know them.

When you adapting to new leadership as a partnership manager, the initial step is to assess the situation. Understand the new leaders expectations, communication style, and vision for the role.

-Embrace new leadership by understanding their vision and communication style -Align partnership strategies with leader's objectives -Adjust workflows and reporting structures to match preferences -Proactively seek feedback for continuous refinement -Adapt partnership approaches to complement the strategic direction of new leadership

Key here is to always communicate starting from the customer’s needs first. That means to remain focused on how this change will continue to improve the way that the partnerships serve common customers.

Communication is essential in partnerships, especially when it comes to the AEs and CSMs working for your partners. A lunch-and-learn and access to your portal are key but nurturing relationships is what truly builds trust, understanding, and excitement.

Demonstrating genuine commitment to building new lines of open and transparent communication through tangible actions can set the tone for a long term relationship. While being mindful that they are likely to be over solicited in the early days of their mandates, setting up a “welcome lunch” or chat offers the opportunity to ask appropriate questions that will allow you to learn more about the new leaders experience. Crafting relevant information and meaningful insights to help their ramp up can be enabled by better understanding their professional journey, past accomplishments and values. Perhaps they’ve even gone through a similar transition in the past, and learned best practices that will influence their approach?

Regularly share updates, progress, and challenges while being receptive to feedback and insights from the new leader. Open and transparent communication and a collaborative environment and ensures alignment with the leaderships objectives.

All change can bring uncertainty and speculation. Clear, honest communication is the best approach. Inform but from a place of empathy and understanding of your partnership and how it impacts your relationship. Never try and fill in the ‘gaps’ or add to speculation, you don’t know what you don’t know.

This is one of the benefits of new leadership. Adding new ideas, thoughts, and balance to the team almost always gets new ideas flowing. Ways to get started are: - get to know your new leader, who are they, what is their experience, what are the new goals for the business and specifically the partnerships team. Working on plans together helps strengthen your relationship as well as gives you the opportunity to share what is currently working, not working, and areas of opportunity for improvement.

I believe being open minded and learning is the key to bringing people together when change occurs. A new leader will always have knowledge to share that will impact the business and new and substantial ways. It is important to trust and build community around the new team for future success!

That mental flexibility and capacity to learn, grow, accommodate and remail objective is absolutely critical. When one is able to work beyond their biases, fears, uncertainties and harness their capacity to embrace learning and innovation, then they (as an individual) could truly thrive even in the midst of such change.

Be open to new ideas, strategies, and tools that the new leader may bring. Encouraging innovation within your partnerships and adapting to emerging trends is vital for success in the evolving business landscape.

It may be helpful to keep in mind that you’re not the only one who has thoughts about the new situation. So if possible take the opportunity to communicate clearly with the client or partner. Use the situation to focus on new corporate processes you both can collaborate together.

If you have been in a partnership where the relationship has been at breaking point, congratulations! You now have an opportunity to iron out your differences, resolve any pre-existing conflicts, re-evaluate challenges, and essentially have a new start. Take advantage of the change to create change for the better and benefit for everyone. Conversely, if you have been in great partnership, reflect on what made it work so well and try to achieve a similar relationship. Perhaps you could even improve the partnership. Start by looking at both your objectives and KPIs to ensure that both parties are working towards your respective goal. Keep an open mind, be open to change or doing things differently, and respect each other.

Conflict is inevitable, but it’s the way you address it that creates healthy or unhealthy conflict. Build a process that allows for input and perspective. Gather the different opinions and ideas for a path forward, and together evaluate what would be mutually beneficial, without overly critical.

Changes in leadership can provide misunderstandings or assumptions that weren’t accurate. Building a relationship with a new leader based on gaining trust, stepping up to assist, holding back on resistance to new ideas and thoughtfully putting yourself in the new leader’s shoes, will go a long way to build comfort between the new leader and team member. When new ideas are brought forward the natural inclination is to say, “we don’t do it that way here” an silently you are shaking your head. A mindset of inquiry when conflict surfaces will help in the long run because again you are listening for intent and not “what’s wrong with this idea”. Conflict is not always about who wins and who loses.

Managing conflicts and challenges that may arise with the change is a critical step in adjusting to new leadership as a partnership manager. Resistance, misunderstandings, or disagreements from your partners or the new leader might occur, especially if there are differing expectations, styles, or cultures involved. It is important to approach these issues with respect, empathy, and a constructive attitude, striving to find common ground and solutions that work for everyone. Additionally, being flexible and adaptable, adjusting your strategies and actions according to changing needs and situations, is essential for navigating this transition effectively.

LinkedIn is frankly one of the best detective tools to understand context - where the new leader came from and what they are known for. These nuances are important to establish common ground from the start. 2nd level connections can potentially provide context and their own first hand experiences so you come into the new relationship with a running start on how to best meet the needs the new leader has.

In some cases, the new leader may already be known to you from your network. This makes it easier to accompany the change well, if a good relationship existed before. Sometimes new opportunities with up- and cross-selling potential arise from this cross-connection, which should not be underestimated. In case of a rather challenging relationship with the new manager, the network, as described in the article, can help you to resolve the difficult situation. Experiences from others or a person who mediates can be helpful.

I agree with Lynn, @LinkedIn is a great tool to be used in the execution of this 6th step. Also many organizations often do not use the entire capabilities of their CRM software, as a leverage tool, to support change in their partnerships.

Leveraging your network and resources is the fifth step in adapting to new leadership as a partnership manager. Don't hesitate to reach out to colleagues, mentors, or peers who can provide advice, insights, or assistance as you navigate the change. Additionally, make use of any available resources, such as training, coaching, or tools, to help develop your skills, knowledge, and confidence in managing partnerships. It's also beneficial to seek opportunities to expand your network and connect with other partnership managers or experts who can share their experiences and best practices, enhancing your ability to succeed under the new leadership.

Regularly assess the effectiveness of your partnership strategies and make necessary adjustments based on feedback, changing market dynamics, and the guidance of new leadership.

Adapting to new leadership requires understanding the leader's background and their vision for the partnership program. Also, leveraging your network and continuously evaluating and improving your approach and performance will ensure partnerships' continuity and growth in line with the new leadership.

The most important thing a new leader wants to know is that you are coachable. Ask for feedback, listen, and show the changes you are making to incorporate new insights into your program. But don't be afraid to push back when necessary. Nobody else will advocate for your partners internally. You often know the company and your partners better than somebody who just joined. Just because something worked at their old company doesn't mean they'll be able to replicate it here.

Leadership is a skill that requires constant improvement and evaluation, regardless of one's experience or seniority. It involves focusing on the resources, actions, and outcomes of a process, and understanding the next steps to achieve the goal. It also means being open to suggestions, brainstorming, feedback analysis, or any other method that can enhance the positive progress of the organization. Improvement leads to development and growth where success is achieved and efforts are celebrated.

It can be particularly complex when a member of the existing team has applied for the leadership role and has been unsuccessful... The best approach is for both parties to openly acknowledge the situation at the outset. The CEO or Director who has overseen the appointment should check-in regularly with both the leader and team member during the transition. It is a naturally tricky situation which is best managed by open communication and a good degree of self-awareness.

Change is always going to take place. Being open minded and adaptable are key attributes to finding success whenever there is change. I find that asking questions seeking to understand the why, the how, and the when helps. Secondarily, I see changes in leadership as an opportunity for everyone to learn and grow.

A change can be experienced as a risk from one side but also as an opportunity from the other one. Leave any kind of judgments aside and focus on why the new leader has maybe a different vision and how this new lens can add value to your partnerships. This is not always easy, sometimes it seems impossible to understand the vision of the other, from my personal experience getting to know the person better, even from a personal perspective can be the key for interpreting his/her points of view and also to find a way to address potential sources of fear / risk adverse-behaviors

I worked for someone once and every time she called me into her office, it was because I had done something wrong. Years later, early in the morning, my new manager asked to meet with me that afternoon. From 8:00am until 2:00pm I racked my brain for what I had done wrong. When we met, she said we have been having trouble covering a leadership training in San Diego. Would you be willing to go to San Diego, weekly, for 6 weeks to help out? I said I would be glad to cover the training. The new leader taught me a lot. Look at new situations or negative situations with a mindset of “How can I learn from this”? Leaders with poor management skills teach us what not to do. Leaders with great management skills teach us what is possible!

When new leaderdship takes place one must also look at the world around us all, the company that made the change and why, but also what else happens outside of our company amd that partnership. Are there circumstances that affect why, what, where, when need to be done and changed in their part or your part? What the world needs and is asking for in this situation, at thus moment? What else has or has not changed? Are we still in alignment with mutual goals? Is there a need for cooperation or collaboration? What kind of new styles,roles and actions can be beneficial to maintain that partnership? What and where in the processes are elements that need to be changed,taken off,rebuild?How can we function the best way to support each party goals?