Great Partnerships

 Friday, October 23, 2009 from 11am EDT to 6:45p EDT
Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 11am to 4:45p EDT

For $29, this 2-day conference aims to educate and inform copreneurs on timely topics for couples in business. We welcome married couples, those who are dating, or are in same-sex relationships. Every registrant receives a FREE 1-year membership to National Copreneur Society. Here is just some of what you’ll find at Copreneur Camp:

·                             A keynote address from Paul and Sarah Edwards, copreneurs and award-winning authors

 ·                             7 sessions led by professional consultants, coaches, authors, or copreneurs

·                            2 opening sessions by the National Copreneur Society co-founders

·                             2 Copreneur Roundtables where attendees can learn and share with each other

·                             Twitter Chat Room for live interaction during the Camp

·                             A virtual swag bag of educational and informative goodies provided to all attendees

Plus, the best part, is that it’s virtual! Attend from your home or business. All you need is access to a computer and telephone (or computer speakers and a microphone).View the schedule, session outlines, speaker list, and register for Copreneur Camp http://www.copreneursociety.org/membership/2009-virtual-copreneur-camp

 If you have questions on anything, please e-mail NCS.

As promised here are a few more essential skills to master to build great business relationships. 

Managing - The true art of management is knowing when to instruct and when not to instruct. A great manager understands that individuals desire to lead their own lives and they can accept or reject any pressure exerted from the outside. Managers need to recognize those who need clear guidelines for the execution of a task and those who need to be given guidelines, but ultimately given free reign to create solutions and to seek out means. 

Leading - A great leader creates opportunities and winning environments, where people feel liberated to become what they have been born to become. Great leaders encourage their followers to utilize their gifts and talents and develop hidden abilities. They then acknowledge and appreciate all members’ contributions to the overall success of the team. 

Partnering – Collaborating with a partner saves your resources, and can bring innovation and creativity to projects. Learning to include and even lean on others is important because, as the world becomes more connected, the synergy that comes from working together becomes a competitive advantage. Going it alone can cause stress and overwhelm leading to business slowdown, poor customer service, and loss of market share.

Need help mastering any of these skills? Let me know and I will gladly help you build great business relationships. 

Building any relationship requires many skills. Business relationships, where money, power and reputation are involved, require strong specialized skills. Three of the most important business relationship building skills are as follows:

Listening - Listening is essential in effective communication. It serves as the foundation for relationships and improvement. Those who listen well hold the keys to success. Listening requires commitment, an act of the will, and perception. When building a relationship make sure that you help it along by carefully listening. Create an environment where as you listen, you make commitments and agreements upon which you deliver.

Setting boundaries - Professional boundaries are about how you want others to treat you within your business. Boundaries not only protect you from unwanted behavior, but also  foster behavior you desire and need. Strong boundaries let people know where they stand with you and thus foster honest relationships.

Negotiating – Most business situations require some level of negotiation.  In negotiations, mutual respect for each other’s priorities must prevail to build a solid relationship. Negotiating need not be a contest to prove who is better nor involve a battle. It should be a two-way process to come to terms as easily as possible.

Coming soon will be a post about additional important business relationship building skills. In the meantime, if you need help honing any of the above skills, please let me know and I will gladly help you build great business relationships. 

I was recently asked, “What is the most important requirement for partnership success?” My one word answer – “Trust.” 

When a deep level of trust exists between partners, they are each able to take great risks - risks they might not have taken without the trust. The mutual trust provides a safe space to step out in faith and achieve what might appear difficult, impossible, or overwhelming. Remember that people live up to expectations - the more you trust, the more your partner will achieve new heights. When such trust exists in your business relationship it supports growth, improvement, and excellence in the business.     

Follow these guidelines to build and strengthen trust:  

1. Respect your partner at all times.
2. Listen to your partner - make sure you know what they really mean.
3. Don’t make major decisions unilaterally.
4. Honor your agreements to everyone.
5. Realize that you are always connected to your partner.
6. Back up your partner’s decisions to outsiders, even if you disagree.
7. Be consistent.
8. Be honest with yourself and your partner.
9. Have clear boundaries.
10. Do not over promise.

“Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware.” David Armistead

1. Insist on being right all the time
2. Compete with your partner instead of collaborating
3. Make up the rules as you go along
4. Criticize your partner in front of other people
5. Complain instead of requesting what you really want
6. Don’t forgive or forget your partners mistakes
7. Spread gossip about your partner
8. Keep score of who does more work
9. Second-guess your partner’s decisions
10. Get distracted by outside events
11. Avoid difficult conversations
12. Launch personal attacks against your partner
13. Blame your partner for your problems  

I was at two different women’s business networking meetings last week where the subject of ex-husbands and ex-business partners came up. While these very savvy businesswomen were “complaining” about lingering problems caused by their ex-partners they were also talking about exciting new partnerships that were unfolding for them.

This all started me thinking about the likelihood of these new personal or business partnerships surviving. After all, statistics indicate that 50% of first marriages fail but the failure rate of second marriages is a staggering 70%.

Business partnerships fare even worse. According to the Harvard Business School they start out with a 70% failure rate and who knows,  like marriages this rate may climb for second partnerships.

This raises questions for me. Why are people jumping in again without learning from their mistakes and past experience? Why aren’t they learning from other people’s mistakes? Why do they think that next time will be different? Are they spending the time and energy to make more intelligent decisions? Do they realize how they may be contributing to these failures?

And the big question for me is - how can I help?  Since, in my mind one ex is enough. 

It came up again today in a coversation with a client - “How to maximize your network building ability at a professional conference.” Some of the best advice I have seen is from Keith Ferrazzi’s book ‘Never Eat Alone’ in the chapter called Conference Commando. I have decided to share (with the permission of the author) a tip-filled excerpt from that chapter.  You can download it by clicking this link  15tipskeithferrazzicc.pdf

I am back to this blog after a six month hiatus during which I was trying to figure out how to tie together my various offerings. I have decided to concentrate on my core message that the way to success in life and business is through building great partnerships of all types.

My plan is to share insights and information here that will help you build a great life by connecting and collaborating with yourself, others and the world. So, you may see posts on personal relationships, business relationships, marriage, family, networking, business building, or anything else I believe will help you to grow and prosper. 

Jean Charles, Business Relationship Coach

The last but not least stage of partnership is Completion. Just as it is advisable to plan your exit strategy from any business, it is important to know when to dissolve and how to break up with a business partnership. The process should be defined in your written agreements, but even so many times issues arise that are not clearly articulated in the formal agreement. So, it is important to commit to:

·         Delineate each partner’s preferred exit strategy

·         Clearly define what each partner expects to get out of the business

·         Never discuss merger or acquisition proposals without informing all partners beforehand

·         Set up probable timelines

·         Plan thoroughly for possible changes in the partnership structure