What's Partnership Got to Do With Leadership?

Welcome to the second in my three-part series on Leadership, which I define as "holding the Vision, causing Partnership, and holding people to Account". In the last article I explored the area of Accountability. This time I am going to take a look at Partnership, which I define as: 'holding oneself to account for the success of each member of the team'.

But What do we Really Mean by 'Partnership'?

Perhaps you've heard the story: There was a man who wanted to see both hell and heaven. He goes first to a land where all the people have delicious food to eat. But they have spoons longer than their arms, so they go hungry and suffer horribly. Then he goes to another place where everyone has the same wonderful food and the same long spoons. But here, they use the spoons to feed each other! This is the nature of hell and heaven, and the hair's breadth that divides them.

We use this parable, which exists in many cultures, to demonstrate the difference between what people normally call 'partnership' and the partnership which could possibly exist in a team or an organisation of people working together. How would it be if you and everyone else in your team came to work committed to ensuring each other's success?

What Kinds of 'Normal' Organisational Behaviour Would You No Longer See?

- You would never fingerpoint (or be fingerpointed at!) over failure to deliver a promise

- You could not be at ease with delivering results and getting recognition, when other members of your team had struggled to achieve their targets

- You would never suffer from anxiety and overload, while other team members were happy, thriving and successful in their work

In a team where the 'long spoons' model of partnership exists:

- The whole team takes accountability for everyone's results - if one team member is struggling to produce results, the whole team feels it has failed

- The leader is a full member of the team, not set apart from other team members in any way, though he has a specific role to fulfil. And it is their job to have him succeed, just as it is his to have them succeed

- The satisfaction, motivation and well being of other members of the team is just as much a part of your job as is achieving your targets

Why Should You, as a Leader, Create Partnership?

You could argue that, in the presence of a powerful leader, partnership is unnecessary - you will get the job done with or without others' involvement. But in today's organisations, this is not sufficient. You might achieve the result, but at what cost? If you don't involve others, you leave them disempowered and demotivated. You don't train them in how to produce results. Your organisation is the poorer, and if you leave, your knowledge and skill leaves too.

Then too, many organisations these days are moving to a matrix structure, where it is increasingly difficult for any one person to get the job done without involving others. In fact it's often positively destructive to focus single-mindedly on your own targets when so many others' success depends on your cooperation and involvement.

Working in partnership maximises the chances of success for you, and for everyone else in the organisation. Leading the charge on a white charger is a very lonely position to be in, especially when you look round, and there's nobody behind you!

Step 1 - Change your Mindset

The foundation of the kind of partnership we are talking about here is Trust. If you don't trust someone, you won't want to contribute to them, and you won't want them to contribute to you.

The way most of us regard trust is that the other person needs to earn it. And if they do something that reduces our trust in them, they should do something to put it right. The problem with this is that the change in perception has happened in your mind. Very often 'they' don't even know there's a problem!

If as a leader you are committed to creating partnership around you, you need to make a fundamental shift in your own mindset around trust, and around who is accountable (see last article: "How can I be a great Team Leader?") for generating and maintaining it. In our model, you are accountable! Not for any moral or ethical reason, though some belief systems and religions would argue this, but because being accountable for generating trust and partnership with those we need to work (or live) with, works!

In fact, if we are talking about your work team colleagues, your boss, your customers, your suppliers, you are paid to be accountable for generating this level of partnership, and not to do so is a breach of integrity.

Step 2 - Take Action

Here is a series of actions to take if you are committed to creating partnership with others at work:

- Draw up a list of the people you deal with in every area of your work: include your immediate team peers, your reports, boss, customers, suppliers, and anyone in the organisational matrix whose work interacts with yours

- Mark against the names on your list any that you don't trust

- For each of these people, think about why trust is lacking. Usually something will have happened (or not happened) in the past that has led to this, though sometimes you will be surprised to find no concrete basis at all for your feelings of mistrust

- Taking each person on the list in turn, have a face-to-face conversation to resolve the issues and convert the relationship into one based on trust. Don't stop until trust and partnership are fully present in the relationship

Remember - it's your job to trust them and to create partnership with them. You are accountable, not them, for making it happen!