Learn From My Mistakes When it Comes to Strategic Alliances Pitfalls to Avoid

My favourite saying around strategic alliances and collaborations is a brilliant African proverb - "To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together". Nothing could be truer when it comes to successful strategic alliances and collaborations. Learn from my mistakes and aim for quality alliances not quantity.

Often in my haste to fast track an outcome, I have fallen for one of the pitfalls outlined below.

^ Watch out for different personal habits e.g. smoking, drinking, running late, disorganised, lying, etc. I find that contrary habits can take the focus off the outcomes and end up being a major distraction from the project you are working on. 

^ Ensure all parties are prepared to pledge/invest the same amount of effort and money. Often with alliances there is no income at the start from a joint project/collaboration. And each party may have different skills/knowledge to contribute. This contribution may not always be money, but it will definitely equate to time and effort in the long run. 

^ Avoid the ‘cowboys’ – all hype and no substance, rarely deliver or follow up. Often these 'cowboys' come out of the blue with a big offer and amazing opportunity - usually sounding too good to be true. It often is. What they want to do is use your name and reputation to further their own profile. I often equate it to loading all your clients/customers onto a train with the cowboy as the driver, who spins a yarn, drives off into the desert and leave your connections with unfilled promises at the next train station or worse still, stuck between two stations. It is up to you to do your due diligence on anyone, whom you are intending to form an alliance with. 

^ Avoid the ‘promisers’ – they never deliver. "I'll get it to you by Friday", "I'll transfer that money next week", "I just have 2,000 more words to complete". Once bitten twice shy here. I was once going to co-author a book with a person who had been referred to me. 25,000 words each was a big commitment, so I suggested we start with a 3,000 word joint article. This was my way of testing the waters, rather than move ahead with a 25,000 word project with an unknown. I'm still waiting for that joint article contribution. Once bitten, twice shy. 

^ Research your potential partner with your own network – if there is any doubt at all, review your alliance and/or discuss your concerns with the potential partner. I once asked a potential ally for the name of someone in my network that they had worked with previously. When I phoned my friend (her recommendation), she quickly said, "Don't touch her, she is very unreliable". When I went back to the person and asked if there was anyone else she could recommend, she came up empty. I did give her a chance to explain the unreliable tag, but it did not convince me that I should take the risk and invest my time and energy into this alliance. 

^ Be prepared to start small and prove your worth to a potentially large alliance. You may have met the prospective ally of the year (in your opinion) and your values and ethics are aligned, personal habits mesh and are respected, you are on a winner. My tip here is to go slow! Start small with a short term time frame project. This will give you an opportunity to see how each of you works under pressure and if you really are aligned. No harm done, if you are not. 

^ Always have an open mind. Today markets are being disrupted left, right and centre. Just because you don't know about a new concept/project, does not mean it is not valid. You have been reading, learning and gathering from different sources to your potential partner. This person has selected you for a reason, maybe it is because you are a completer, you have lots of connections in the potential marketplace for this project. You might ask 3 simple questions in this situation: Why have you approached me? What are you hoping we will achieve with this collaboration? How do you envisage we will do that? They may need time to come up with the answers, that's fine. But if they can't answer the 3 questions confidently, you might suggest they come back down the track with a revised opportunity for you.

 ^ Be prepared to cut your losses – if you are on the wrong road, it will always be the wrong road. Sometimes we have invested so much time, money and effort into an alliance that we are extremely reluctant to walk away, even when the 'writing is on the wall - it is not going to work'. Bite the bullet, have a courageous conversation with your collaborators and walk away. Investing more time, money and effort into a project that has missed the market, is faulty or unreliable is the wrong road for you.

 ^ Aim for quality alliances, not quantity. I admire people who have lots of balls in the air and alliances left, right and centre. "Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt". In my own experience, I found it difficult at times to give full attention to multiple projects and alliances. So I made the tough decision to walk away from the alliances that I was not passionate about and the ones that were past their use-by date, but I really liked the people and just wanted to hang out with them. Another courageous conversation and you can cut the project without cutting the friendship.

 ^ Always be prepared to walk away. - Ditto be prepared to cut your losses. If the alliance is not working, it is not working. There may be someone else who is actually a better fit for this project than you are. Talk to your allies, clear communication and being prepared to walk away and offer the opportunity to another person is often the right road for you. Value your worth, your knowledge and your experience and be prepared to admit when you are not the right fit for the project. 

^ Don’t sell your soul, just to get the contract. When the market is tight and the bank balance is low, which usually means a thick bill file, selling your soul can be tempting. What might this look like? Cutting your normal rate even though you know this project will require additional time to complete and/or commiting to do something that you ethically cannot do or would never want to do. Just say no and make space for other opportunities to show up in your life.

It took me years to admit that I was not Superwoman and never would be. Today I have some great alliances and friendships and have learned many lessons along the strategic alliance and collaboration highway of life. It is so much harder when you are trying to do it all yourself.

Asking for help before you need it is my final suggestion for creating the best strategic alliances and collaborations possible. When you ask for help your allies will want to help you if they are able and if they can't help, they probably know someone who knows someone who can help you with your situation. Who knows, they might even be on LinkedIn, waiting to connect with you.

If I am not connected to you on LinkedIn, please send me an invitation to connect with you.

?