5 Surefire Ways To Know It’s Time To Leave A Professional Partnership

Collaboration can be wonderful, especially in terms of your career.

Joining forces with another entity to produce or create something new is exciting, and your ability to interact effectively and harmoniously with others as part of a professional duo is a huge asset.

But not all partnerships are created equal. And even if they begin well and with the best of intentions, over time, they can sometimes morph into something undesirable and unproductive.

Any successful professional partnership—whether your relationship is with an employer, business peer, consultant, or client—needs to feel more advantageous than going it alone.

But how do you know if and when you should part ways? Watch for these five red flags:

1. You’re no longer aligned

Working toward a mutual goal is impossible when you don’t have one. And even if you share the same objective, if your methods to achieve it vastly differ, you’ll have major issues.

When you agree to begin a partnership, you share a common goal and set of values. Those elements often become the foundation of your work together, acting as a de facto playbook to keep you on the same page. However, if things have shifted and your goals and values are no longer aligned, it’s time for a hard conversation to reset your working relationship—or end it.

2. They don’t respect you, your time, or your talent

The best partnerships deeply admire each other and demonstrate this by treating them with respect, honoring their time commitments, and trusting their unique talents.

Unfortunately, the inverse is also true. Someone who treats their partner poorly, continually wastes their time or lacks punctuality, and undermines their professional efforts, demonstrates a dangerous dynamic.

Mutual respect is the basis of any successful relationship, so if you feel your partner doesn’t respect you or value your time or talent, it’s time to part ways.

3. Your once equitable partnership isn’t anymore

A partnership implies an equitable relationship where each side shares the workload, risks, and rewards. While every collaboration will experience times when one member does more than the other, that should be the exception, not the rule.

If you find that your partnership has become lopsided, where you’re shouldering most of the burden yet receiving less than your share of the rewards, that’s a clear sign that it’s no longer working.

4. They’re not communicating with you

An occasional communication oversight happens when you’re in a busy partnership with lots of projects. But thriving partnerships quickly acknowledge those missteps and go out of their way to over-communicate to ensure they’re a unified team operating from the same playbook.

If you’re consistently kept out of the loop, it’s a red flag that yours may not be the best partnership.

5. You can’t clearly articulate the benefits of the partnership

The most successful partnerships have clarity of purpose, goals, and benefits. Though things can sometimes deviate from your original plans, you should always feel better off with this partner than without them. If you find yourself struggling to identify why you’re still associated with a professional partner, it may be time to reexamine (and possibly leave) that relationship.

Breaking up a professional partnership isn’t easy or fun. But if you’re no longer aligned, your time or talent isn’t respected, you’re consistently kept out of the loop, it feels lopsided, and you can’t articulate why you’re still in that partnership, it’s time to acknowledge the elephant in the room: it’s no longer working. The good news is that if you find yourself in this situation, once you take action and part ways, it frees you up to join forces with a partner better suited to you.

________________________________

WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T MISS ANY OF MY CONTENT?

Head to my profile and hit the ?? in the top right corner to get notified when I post.

WANT MORE?

Subscribe to my ??ILLUMINATE ME?? newsletter for illuminating insights to help you communicate and connect better delivered directly to your inbox every Sunday morning:?https://amyblaschka.substack.com

Oh, and be sure to?follow me here?and on?Twitter,?Instagram,?and?Forbes.

When I'm not actively creating momentum?(this newsletter and the other kind), I'm a?social media ghostwriter.?(Yep, that's a thing.) I help founders?craft their stories?to communicate and connect better by magnifying their reach and impact. (Think personal branding and thought leadership.)?Contact me?if you'd like my help.