Develop an understanding of your community and its board of directors, who are tasked with making the best business decisions as fiduciaries. Keep in the forefront of your thinking that this is their community and as such, it is incumbent that you provide them with the best resources available to help them achieve their goals. Be curious. Ask questions. Before starting any partnership, define goals and expectations. Do not assume that you know what the other party wants. Making assumptions without clearly defined expectations may result in unnecessary challenges as the relationship progresses.
Understand the internal power dynamics amongst your board members. Be ready to hear both the more vocal and quieter voices. Listen more, talk less. This can be challenging for management professionals, especially when we feel that lending voice to our expertise strengthens our position with our board of directors. While tensions may arise from differing points of view and how to get things accomplished, being aware that these exist will help your partnerships.
Creating an environment in which all parties feel comfortable in speaking openly and honestly is essential to lasting partnerships. Intentionally build opportunities for communication, where feedback can be provided and discussions can ensue, whereby you can respond to their input with follow up questions, further discussion, and identify concerns that are actionable and correctable.
Practice regular check ins. Do not allow too much time to pass between conversations. While some partnerships require weekly check-ins, others may require monthly checks, while others only need quarterly checks-ins. Determine what that looks like for you and your partnership relationships and stick to it.
Transparency is key to a trusted partnership. Be clear about intentions and goals from the beginning. Each partner should be able to answer how they plan to contribute toward the relationship and what they hope to gain from the relationship. This is not to be confused with abuses of quid pro quo. One should never enter in a partnership based on providing a "thing of value" to influence the other party to make a decision that benefits the company or persons providing a service.
Discuss anything that could lead to tensions. Do not allow minor issues to fester into larger ones. Be ready to address any issues that may arise due to deficiencies in the work performed or services provided and be solution driven.
Establish clear roles and responsibilities. This makes expectations clear, affirms accountability, and promotes power sharing.
Practice accountability. Hold yourself and others on your team accountable. This means taking responsibility for both intended and unintended consequences of our actions. Regardless of intentions, we are human, and mistakes happen. When mistakes are inevitably made, acknowledge it, state your commitment to remedy the problems and most importantly, act differently in the future. Do not get caught in the cycle of the blame game. Address issues quickly and work toward resolution that is equitable for all involved.
Partnership is easy when you trust one another, however, building trust takes time and effort. Building trust requires intentionality.
Make a plan and stick to it. Following up and following through are essential to building and maintaining trust.
Leverage resources available to you that assist your partners outside of the scope of work or project on which you are working. Sharing your unique skills, resources and connections with your partners helps to establish interdependence. You move from having a transactional relationship to becoming a strategic partner, trusted advisor, and valuable resource.
Do you have ideas for expanding opportunities for collaboration outside of the current project? Share them. Do not be reticent to share those ideas but rather, offer them readily. You will be surprised that in many instances, your partner needed additional help but did not know how to ask or thought of it as an imposition.
Successful partnership relationships are the backbone of thriving communities. Alignment is critical for partnerships because it provides a foundation of shared goals, vision, and values, which leads to increased trust, better collaboration, and more successful outcomes. Without alignment, partnerships can suffer from conflicting objectives, wasted resources, and a lack of trust, while a high degree of alignment ensures partners are working toward the same results and can navigate challenges more effectively.