Effective Workplace Partnerships
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Effective Workplace Partnerships Have Common Characteristics
“The Power of 2”
When Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller, PhD, began collaborating to write the book, “The Power of 2” (Gallup Press, 2009), they sought to identify critical elements in creating an effective team. Few would argue that success achieved in business, athletics, research, medicine, and personal lives comes without at least some effective partnerships and collaboration.
For example, consider just two contemporary corporate success stories. Bill Gates and Paul Allen forged and fueled Microsoft’s success, just as Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak created and perfected Apple. While successful sports teams display a superior working partnership between players and coaches, even “individual” sports illustrate a team concept and need. The best professional golfers always have their trusted caddies at their sides (and in their ears) during tournaments, and they depend on their advice and counsel.
Wagner and Muller identified eight characteristics common to successful workplace partnerships and team building. While their focus was the world of business, they found strong commonality for numerous other areas and aspects of human existence beyond the board room.
Importance of Building Teams and Partnerships
Successful, seasoned C-level executives are aware of the criticality of building effective teams and workplace partnerships. Their current and future career milestones can be strongly affected, for better or worse, based on the quality of the workplace partnerships they forge and the teams they create.
Of course, all contemporary (and historical) business successes began as a single thought or idea in the mind of one person. However, little concrete success seldom occurs until these ideas catapult into action and achievement by using working partnerships and quality teams.
Modern technology advances, global economics, production techniques, and short business cycles typically require efficient, dedicated teams to achieve superior workplace results. While some may argue that these common characteristics are more “classic” than groundbreaking theories, the beauty of Wagner and Muller’s research lies in the realization that these components and values work so effectively today.
Common Characteristics of Good Workplace Partnerships
There are eight characteristics common to most successful workplace partnerships and high producing teams of all sizes.
1. Trust: Just as the highest performing C-level executives inspire a feeling of trust from their staff, superior workplace partnerships enjoy this two-way respect.
2. Fairness: A strong sense of fairness with regard to effort, dedication, commitment, responsibility, and activities appears continually in high efficiency teams.
3. Complimentary skills and strengths: The integration of partnerships that utilize the strengths of one member to offset the weaknesses of another, making the whole more valuable than individual parts, is critical to every team. The importance of this balance is sometimes overlooked, particularly when two or more senior executives “unofficially” partner to improve the productivity or branding of an organization. Both executives typically win acclaim for their efforts while non-strengths are forgotten, a true win-win outcome.
4. Willingness to accept individual idiosyncrasies: This component is much more valuable than it may initially appear. Analyze any successful management group, sports team, or marriage. Seldom, if ever, will the parties involved be devoid of idiosyncrasies. The human animal has a propensity to attract and display idiosyncrasy. However, rarely do these “unusual” traits or behaviors ever become a problem or roadblock to success in a good partnership.
5. A common mission or goal: Two or more competent people sharing a common goal typically achieve their objective. The only apparent potential downside may be a lack of true “sharing” of their mission. For example, when one workplace partner becomes fully invested and committed to a stated goal, while the other publicly supports but is not truly committed to the mission, the potential for failure increases. However, partnerships and teams in which all members keep their “eyes on the prize” typically succeed.
6. Excellent communication: The “communications component” is sometimes undervalued as an aspect of almost every success formula. Yet, without open, honest, frequent, and meaningful communication, teams are doomed to face problems and possibly failure.
7. Forgiveness: Another undervalued and much more rarely noted success component, forgiveness is common to high-achieving workplace partnerships (and most life situations). The reality that humans are not perfect and sometimes make bad decisions remains true in the workplace. Understanding this reality and freely adopting a commitment to forgive and “move on” is a common characteristic of successful partnerships.
8. Unselfishness and a spirit of cooperation: To paraphrase a truism, “It’s amazing what can be accomplished by a group when no one seeks individual acclaim.” Workplace partnerships and teams succeed when this characteristic is part of the working equation. Conversely, they often fail to achieve should even one member seek individual glory.
Those that believe corporate goals can often be achieved by one C-level “superstar” without effective help, assistance, and support may face overwhelming odds and conditions that stifle success. The extensive research and conclusions reached by Wagner and Muller indicate that the combination of a commitment to excel, shared missions and goals, and the use of some classic human virtues creates outstanding workplace partnerships.