Graet leaders see the future, set a course , and pursue it relentlessly. They conquer the present despite criticism, ambiguity, adversity. They reflect on, learn from , and weave patterns from the past. Great leaders possess the humility, optimism, passion, and wisdom to inspire others and evoke their full commitment.
Dr, Karol Wasylyshyn, president, Leadership Deveopment Forum.
Hey, partner!
Going into business with a friend? Forget perfect match. Think compatible team.
By John Bittleston, 28 May 2004
When the world throws you a fast, unwelcome ball, who do you turn to? The answer tells you who is your favourite Kindred Spirit.
It may be your spouse, a parent, one of your siblings, a former classmate, someone from your church or a friend at work.
We usually have one most cherished friend. They are often irreplaceable.
We also have “Kindred Spirits” beyond the most cherished one. They are people we feel comfortable with, people of like minds, often of similar backgrounds and education.
Rather closer than “friends”, they can be absent for a long time but are completely reunited with us when we next see them or talk to them.
Most people will have a short list of such people. They’re the ones you write longer notes to on your Christmas or New Year card. They’re the ones you talk to first in times of crisis.
People who know no Kindred Spirits are seriously lonely, however many acquaintances they have. The super-rich often have this problem. They are wary of closeness in case it leads to demands for money and thus destroys the very thing it stood for.
What part should Kindred Spirits play in business? Are they good Partners? Do they make running a business easier? Can you trust your Kindred Spirits?
There seem to be certain rules about family and friends in business. If they are bright, family can be a great asset. If they are too bright, they can be a menace.
We all know of family squabbles about money, rows that go on and on expensively, lining lawyers’ pockets but decimating the family’s fortune. Beware the day they fall out. There is so much at stake.
But good, cooperative families can help a business grow much faster than it otherwise would.
Friends are not always such a good bet.
The old saying “two’s company, three’s a crowd” is often as true in business as it is in marriage and other spheres of life.
A friend can quickly become less friendly if he thinks you are ripping him off — even if, in fact, you aren’t.
In my experience, the important criterion for friends working together is that they have the same objectives and the same time scales, which may — but does not always — imply that they are roughly of the same age or at least the same mental maturity.
The ideal partner, however, is not someone exactly like you.
People who are too alike may reinforce each other’s good points but they tend to reinforce each other’s bad points too.
For example, unbridled enthusiasm is a useful and charming asset. Put two people with this asset together, and you will have an ideal working situation or environment for most of the time.
Then again, two doom-forecasters will confirm each other’s disaster scenarios and never achieve anything useful because they’ll never have a vision, never see a rainbow.
A couple of marketing wizards may make a great selling team but watch out for the quality of the products. Similarly, a group of engineers may produce amazingly high quality products — and be quite unable to sell them.
It’s important to have complementary skills and outlooks. It is also vital to have a common sense of purpose.
The man devoted to making money at any cost will not sit well with the rounded, benign employer who wants more in life than wealth. And yet, paradoxically, we need both attitudes.
How can we arrive at the perfect match? The short answer is, we can’t. We should face that fact right at the start. But there are several things we can do to make a compatible team.
If you are the driving force in starting a business, do some of the homework before you approach a potential partner.
I know it often doesn’t work like this in reality. It is quite usual for two friends to chat over the shortcomings of their company or the market place and come up with an idea of how to fill the gap or improve the offerings.
Even so, the discipline of writing down the skills and experience required to develop a business should come well before any agreements about who will control it.
How to get from the raw material to the finished product, successfully sold, is a route all budding businesses must plot.
You wouldn’t think of starting a business without knowing where the product was being sourced from. The brains running the business are a special set of raw materials. They have to be assembled just as carefully.
It’s easy to say we must have experience in accounting, marketing, engineering and so on. These are the very basic requirements. But it is vital, too, to determine the style of management of the business and the type of personalities that will make it succeed.
Remember, a Partner is initially an Employee, just as an Employee should always eventually become a Partner.
No business will work for long if they aren’t.
John Bittleston
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Thought for the week:
“If one doesn’t know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.”
— Seneca, Roman orator (c. 55 BC to AD 39)
