Discover the three pillars of healthy business relationships

Pulse check: The quality of your business relationships

Many major business transformations take place because of collaborations.

The Wright brothers invented the aeroplane.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney changed popular music forever.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak invented Apple computers.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin gave life to Google.

American Express tells us that highly collaborative organisations had the highest revenue growth rates even in recent years.

However, half of the Australian businesses have low or no collaboration initiatives in place.?

What holds them back from starting collaborations??

What gets in the way of maintaining strong business relationships?

Over the years, I’ve been working with leaders who are struggling to make collaboration work.?

They understand the benefits of collaborating and creating meaningful relationships, yet are stuck working on their own.

Their focus is more on the task than the relationship.

This causes a lack of trust, fear of conflict, and commitment avoidance.

What separates highly collaborative organisations apart from others is the foundation of how they think, act and communicate.

Shared values, purpose, and goals.

The foundation of strong business relationships

Business partnerships start with a similarity.

The Wright Brothers both devoted themselves to the goal of human flight.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak shared a love for electronics.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney shared a love for music.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin both valued creativity.

From a single similarity, connections blossom, and relationships are made.

Here are the three pillars of strong business relationships:

Purpose. This answers the why. For example, both Larry Page and Sergey Brin both wanted to make information universally accessible and useful to people around the globe. Their purpose helped fuel them to make Google a world-renowned success.?

Values. This answers the how. It is important to have a talk with your business partners about what they value most because it reflects how they think, act and communicate. Having the same beliefs will help you be on the same page and understand each other more.

Goals. In every business relationship, both parties should have aligned goals to make it work. When you begin a collaboration with the same goal in mind, you will picture a clear and concise direction toward your desired outcomes. Both parties will know what to prioritise and how to compromise.

Creating collaborative business relationships

Find out the deeper connections you have with your business partners by identifying what you have in common. By answering the following questions, you will discover alignment and clarity in your business relationships

1.What is your shared mission??

Do you both practice a similar approach to it?

2. What are your shared long-term and short-term goals???

What are your 5-year goals? What are your 1-year goals?

3. What are your shared values??

Who do you both model that has the results that you both want? Are your values in line with them?

4. What are your shared intentions??

How can you both check if it’s still heading in the right direction?