What Does It Mean to Be a Partner?

Abstract

This chapter introduces and explores the notion of being a partner, someone who regularly acts in ways to support the business, their customers, and each other. Partnership is a different role for people in our businesses—not in a legal sense, but in an attachment sense. Partners act with a mission to contribute and to do so in ways that might go far beyond a traditional understanding of a work role. They make decisions, they act, they speak up, they push back, they add ideas, they contribute creative ways of thinking about old problems, they take risks, and so forth. Partners do what needs to be done. In white water business realities, businesses need partners to respond in real time to the many challenges and opportunities that an increasingly faster changing business reality brings.

Application Activities

Look over the following questions and activities. In this chapter, they are designed to give you a current snapshot of you, your leadership team, and your people. If you are part of a leadership team, do this together as a team. Talk about the issues raised in this chapter. Collect information and data from within your business. Interview people and listen to what they have to say. Do so with an open mind…you may hear many things that you will not believe (and some that should not be given great consideration), but you may also learn about so much more than you currently understand.

Application Activity 4.1: Partners in My Work Setting

• 1. What evidence do you see in your organization of people playing a “partner role?” Do you regularly see people who make relevant decisions, act, speak up, push back, add ideas, contribute creative ways of thinking about old problems, take risks, and so forth? Do you regularly see people step up to do what needs to be done?

• 2. Speculate on what new/better results your business could produce if your people acted as true partners to your customers, the business, and each other.

Application Activity 4.2: Organizational Models and Their Impact

• 1. Look at the continuum, below, ranging from “traditional machine model” on the left to “People-Centric model” on the right.

  

  • (a) Put a check mark that best describes where your company is currently.

  • (b) Put a check mark to indicate which direction it has moved towards in the past five years.

  • (c) Put a check mark to indicate, ideally, where it should be to get the best from your people.

• 2. In fact, all organizations are a mixture of more traditional and more People-Centric models.

  • (a) Where, within your company (e.g., operations, customer service, sales, R&D, finance), do you find a more traditional model?…a more People-Centric model?

  • (b) Does this make sense to you?

  • (c) Where would you invest in moving the needle toward a more People-Centric culture?

Application Activity 4.3: Unexpected Leadership

I discussed one outcome of turning your people into your partners as the occurrence of “unexpected acts of leadership.” Think about whether you have noticed unexpected leadership in your organization and the impact it has had.

• 1. Can you think of examples of people stepping up, beyond their job descriptions, to address important issues that otherwise would have been ignored?

• 2. Is this uncommon and unexpected…or commonplace and expected?

• 3. What impact do these acts of leadership have on your business outcomes?

• 4. Speculate on how much more impact people would have in your business if the company were more People-Centric.