Leadership Lessons: Partnerships

Leadership Lessons: Partnerships

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**Before I start, I want to note that although my thoughts on this topic come from various experiences, I have been very fortunate to work for all great companies throughout my career so far.**

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I have preached the importance of strong partnerships my entire professional life.?Sales is so funny to me in ways.?The competitive?aspect of selling is great, don't get me wrong.?But the byproduct of the fierce?side of the business can blind our vision to the long term.?In fact, it can diminish it.

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Yes, we all run in our own lane to be successful, but nobody does it without help.?If someone on the top of the chain tells you otherwise, they're withholding the truth in my humble opinion.?

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When I interviewed for my current job, I shared my admiration for this person's success and asked how they got there.?This person responded back, "I worked hard, but I have to say, I was extremely lucky.?Lucky to be surrounded by the right people and many things unraveled in my favor.?Hard work, luck and timing."?

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I LOVED that answer.?It honestly sealed the deal for me if they wanted me on board.?

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Reason one, saying you got lucky is the most transparent yet vulnerable thing someone can say.?Most would immediately start to sell a story of how great they are and how it was all about them or the company.

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Second, this person showed me they're genuinely realistic.?"Being real" to me is saying EXACTLY what you truly believe inside your heart about any topic.?Whether it is positive or negative.?Whether the answer is in your favor or not.?And with this example, I am sure part of their success surely was their own incredible hard work, but there are always factors where the universe gives you a little helpful nudge.

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Lastly, this person clearly showed gratitude for the luck in their career by explaining it was others that helped pull them up to where they are.?

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And this leads to my tip-top belief:

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?A company, team or operation is only as good as the partnerships that are crafted within them.

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If you look up the exact definition of partnership, it’s basic.?If you googled it right now, it'd say it's "when two or more people become partners."?But the synonyms of the word give more of a helpful hint.?Collaboration and Cooperation.?The magic happens when two or more people put their brains together to collaborate (game plan) and cooperate (support each other).?This is how anything great happens.?If you’re looking at America’s history, July 4th, 1776, shouldn't even be called Independence?Day.?It should be called Collaboration Day.?When people with respect and care for each other start to brainstorm on an idea or challenge, they can do anything.??

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On the flip side, when people start to "sugar coat" realities or treat people differently due to their social or even professional status, it's called politics.??

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To me this is like smoking cigarettes for a company.?Even with it being damaging, we hear stories where some smokers do live long lives.?But the few smokers that somehow live long have health/lifestyle issues along the way, and they never really get to excel to their true full potential.?

In comparison to this analogy, lack of partnerships and politics won't change things overnight at a company but over the long-term, politics will suck the fresh air out of any environment. And we all know where I'm getting at.?

I won't get into real politics, but most of us would agree that the US Government is currently very politically divided.?This didn't happen overnight; this is an unfortunate byproduct of dissolved collaboration and cooperation.?And hopefully someday we'll remember our roots to find our way back to the partnerships we need to continue to lead the free world.

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In my industry (IT Staffing) the foundation of a successful IT placement at a client relies on the partnership between the recruiter (the person who networks with candidates looking for opportunities) and the account manager (the person who networks with hiring managers looking for candidates).?These recruiter and account manager relationships are the foundation of the entire business.?Without this, the successful magic in the industry flatlines.

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For these relationships to be strong partnerships, there must be care, respect and trust between both parties.?Recruiters earn their side of the partnership through candidate sourcing efforts and Account Managers through their client coordination efforts.?Both must have positive relationships with their contacts but even more important, with each other.

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Of course, money makes the world go around.?Commission is the fuel to any IT Staffing professional's?fire.?The same for any other sales-type industry.?And the fuel powers the competitive engine to lead people to work hard enough to change their lives for the better.?Sales progress (as well as activity) is broadcasted company-wide for motivation at any organization.?I do truly believe this is extremely encouraging for aspiring professionals and agree it is a good business practice to showcase other successes.?The only byproduct of this showcase that can be potentially damaging is how it affects the people in the top-production seats.

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If a person starts to feel they are above others strictly because they are more profitable, the collaboration completely dissolves.?And the people who are rising stars will no longer work under the positive energy of empowerment.?They will have to work under the negative energy of sole demand.?In staffing many leaders go wrong by disguising?demand as accountability but they are completely?different and it's unobliging to do this to any professional (in my opinion).?Accountability is understanding and owning your effort in comparison to agreed-upon expectations.?Demand is someone else owning your effort regarding their expectations that were never agreed upon.?This is why entitlement is toxic in the workplace and forces high turnover.?

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A lot of Special Operation Veterans from the military?will coach business professionals once they are done serving.?And rightfully so, in our business if partnerships fail, our teammates quit.?In their business, if partnerships fail, their teammates die.??Their lessons go a lot further than ours.

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I once read that when recruits?in the Navy attempt?to become Navy Seals, the leadership in Navy will scout for people who are both extremely loyal and extremely productive.?But if they must choose between both attributes, they’ll go with loyalty.?Someone who is loyal will collaborate and cooperate with the mission no matter what. ?Whereas someone who is highly productive but not as loyal will be the first to stop cooperating.?They know the contribution of productivity means nothing if the person doesn't work well within the group.?These Naval leaders are wise enough to know that the lack of?cooperation from this person affects the entire team and causes mission failure.?No matter how physically strong or productive an individual soldier is, the team’s success relies on the entire unit having a completely fortified partnership.?

The idea behind this Special Operations mindset is every single member of a team can have complete confidence that the person next to them is covering their back no matter what.?This operational brilliance leads to each teammate comfortably excelling in every situation that occurs.

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Just like an educational classroom has a curve of grade-point averages for students.?All teams have a curve of sales production numbers for producers.?But if a team has a very small percentage of top-billing professionals and the rest are consistently failing, this is a partnership issue.?The team will be at a standstill.?

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Even worse, in some cases a producer will be promoted to leadership solely over their productivity, even if their collaboration and cooperation is poor.?Leadership is your ability to help others, not help yourself.?So, when a company stakeholder up top is scratching their head and saying, “Why can’t everyone be like this one person putting up all this profit??Why is this person growing but nobody else is even close?”?

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If this happens, I recommend they sit on the floor and observe.?There is more to it.?If a team gets to this point, they must make a very difficult decision to choose integrity over numbers.?This may be a damper to their short-term success but if this re-oxygenates the entire room, then it can be such a massive win for the overall business.

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Whenever I hire someone, I tell them before anything to always treat people well no matter how far you go.?And I tell them in order to be successful they must build fortified partnerships with the people they work with day to day.?We work with people just as much as we spend time with family.?For some people, more than family.?And some leaders still say co-workers should not be friends or life-long deep acquaintances.?I disagree so much.?I consider that ideology resulting from personal greed and fear.?If a leader pushes away the friendship or companionship on their team, they A, should not be a leader and B, they don’t want to deal with the emotional attachment when times get tough.?And that lack of care and emotionality from someone who is supposed to be an admired leader is what makes people around them feel like they are robots, who are only as good as the profit they can create.

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The reality is, we're human beings, we need to have meaning.?We need to feel appreciated, and just like a military unit, we need the people on our team to have our back no matter what.?And yes, business is business, even if you're friends with someone or care deeply for someone, it doesn't mean they get to do whatever they want.?Good friends challenge each other, grow together and keep each other accountable naturally. ?You grow together, or not at all.

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Companies are like cities and it's our job to partner up and build the bridges.?But remember, the traffic needs to always flow both ways.