Dare we partner? Should we go it alone? What makes the most sense? We get these questions often from people looking to start a business. What makes it even more confusing is that often your attorney and your accountant will advise against forming a partnership – interestingly, two professions that are known for forming partnerships. So what is the right answer?  The answer depends on your skills, business goals, and ultimately, trust.

What kind of business are you forming, what skills are required to run it successfully, do you have the requisite skills between you, who brings what to the table and what is the shared vision. (That is, where are you going and where is it you want to end up?)

Before we formed our partnership, we each ran independent consulting businesses. We did not have a partner, nor did we have employees. We collaborated with others as necessary and desired, depending on the nature of our projects and the skills required.

We have seen good friends, or people who work in the same company, who went to the same school, who grew up in the same neighborhood, decide to form a partnership and go into business. Unfortunately, it is based on what they hope will happen rather than a thoughtful reflection on what needs to happen and what skills are required to make it happen. It takes more than capital investment and being infatuated with the idea of forming a business with your friend to make a successful business.

When we met (via a professional community), we paired on a project-based activity.  Based on that success we decided to collaborate on writing a book. We worked on the book concept for about six months. Along the way, we used each other’s skills and knowledge on projects and issues we were dealing with in our own business. Through our collaboration, we found that each had skills the other didn’t. We found that working together enabled us to get more work done, less stressfully and with better results.

Complementary skills are not enough to make a successful partnership. Perhaps, at least in our opinion, the most important ingredient is trust, which is easily identified and less easily achieved. If you do not trust the person you want to partner with, if you are uncertain that you can trust them, then do not even consider a partnership. Period. No further discussion is required. Trust is the driver of successful partnerships. A partnership should not be competitive; the very nature and intent of “partnership” begs that you not have to “look over your shoulder,” as ultimately, your partner must “have your back”. It should never result in having to talk to other people to know how your partner feels or what your partner is doing. Never.

Our collaboration revealed something interesting – we found we sincerely trusted each other. Not because we said we did, nor because we said we wanted to, and not even because we intended to. We trusted each other because the “trust events” that came up during our collaboration were handled honestly and respectfully–carefully and thoughtfully and without disregard. (Well, at least, not for longer than our ego demanded, which was roughly up to 20 minutes for either of us to rebase and extend to the other). We define a “trust event” as a situation that could challenge or destroy one person’s trust in the other, and they may be minor or major league in disagreement, misunderstanding or full blown “upset”. The commitment and ability to support one another and work through trust events is what we believe makes a transformative partnership.  That is, each person grows personally and professionally, and together you produce even greater impact and value for your clients.

Based on our personal experience, we suggest that before you partner and create a legal structure – collaborate to test the waters. It may just be the smartest business decision you make.

Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest

Business owners or management can keep employees happy in their job and avoid high turnover, by either being or providing them with a good boss. If your employees don’t have a good boss, save your money, as not much else will work (at least for long). People, even in minimum wage jobs, do not want to work for a jerk.

Good bosses:

• Develop good relationships with their staff – and staff respond positively

• Engage and value their staff by seeking and listening to their ideas, opinions and ways to make the business better

• Ask their employees what can be done to make the customer experience better
• Create a positive work environment

• Ensure that their employees are compensated fairly and recognized appropriately

If this is in place, incentive programs can work, and the small business owner best start with non-cash incentives: time off and special recognition. Cash incentives should be small and represent an appreciation rather than a salary increase.

Small business owners (particularly in the entertainment and service industries) are plagued with high turnover and disgruntled employees. And without a good boss they will stay that way.

Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest

In last week’s blog we talked about collaboration among solo practitioners and small business owners. This week we focus on collaboration in big businesses.

Collaboration in big business occurs at two levels: inter-organizational and intra-organizational. Google and Verizon (WSJ 11/10/09) announced a collaboration to challenge iPhone – a successful collaboration between Apple and AT&T. This is an example of inter-organizational collaboration. Our Blog today will focus on intra-organizational collaboration – that is internal to or within the organization

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones. Man or woman – outgrowing a small job is the prerequisite for career growth. And while it’s OK to be a loner in a small job, it is impossible to be a loner and successful in a big job. And big jobs create the companies that create more jobs.

Getting promoted is often the easy part. Being successful after promotion is the challenge. Studies show that only 50% of bosses (read managers) are successful. Promotion brings new challenges and one of the new challenges is often described pejoratively as learning how to “play politics”. We have a different take. We believe you will be more successful in your new job if you learn how to collaborate. Yes collaboration includes understanding and working within a process that involves “playing politics”, but it is much broader than that. If you only think in terms of “playing politics” you are likely to underperform and find this is your last promotion.

Collaboration is three-dimensional. It involves superiors, peers and subordinates. One of our clients was working on a project involved with reducing the time a patient stayed in the Emergency Room waiting for an available bed. She was responsible for the Emergency Department, but not for nursing, housekeeping or information technology. Yet resolving the issue required support and cooperation from these three areas. It required nurses to identify when a patient was discharged, IT having a system that reported discharges as they occurred, notifying housekeeping that the bed was available for cleaning, and notifying the ED of the available bed. Rapid notification and rapid response to a bed needing to be prepared for the next patient involved superiors, peers and subordinates.

The manager’s authority in this example was meaningless. She had authority over only one group. It required influence and good working relationships with her superiors, peers and subordinates, which are the ingredients of a successful collaboration. It’s also the ingredients for breaking down the silos that form in far too many organizations.

Now you may be thinking that this is ridiculous. Something as serious as patients waiting in the Emergency Department shouldn’t require anything other than the demand to fix it. Well big businesses just don’t work that way. And to believe they do is naïve and dangerous. Like any other human system they have likes, dislikes, friends and foes. Getting things done in a big business requires you to deal with what is and not what you would like it to be.

And what is – is the need to collaborate.

Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest

“No man is an island, entire of itself …”  – John Donne (1572 – 1631). What he meant was that human beings do not thrive when isolated from others. It is as true in the 21^st century as it was in the 17^th century.

Whether you are a solo practitioner, small business owner, department / unit manager or an executive, you cannot succeed if you choose to go at it alone.

This week we focus on the solo practitioner and the small business owner. Next week, we will focus on the department / unit managers and executives in larger organizations. Should you not believe that collaboration is a relevant issue in large organizations, look at the recent announcement between Google and Verizon (WSJ – 11/10/09).

One of the challenges we face as solo practitioners or small business owners is that we cannot know and do everything that needs to be done to run a successful business.  Some believe they can, only to come up far short of the success they hoped for. As we’ve said in the past – hope is not a strategy. Sometimes we need help: someone to talk with about a strategy; someone to add a skill or idea that we do not possess; someone to get us introduced to new prospects and potential clients. One of the more powerful strategies you can use is collaboration. Done right and well, we find it an incredible path to success.

Some benefits of collaboration are:

• It can lead to service differentiation
• It can enable you to provide more value to your clients
• It can help you share the workload and get more done in less time – and important element in life balance
• It can make work more fun and enjoyable
• It can help you generate creative ideas and new approaches to serving your clients

A question we often get is – nice idea, but how do you meet and get to know potential collaborators?

Consider using the following approach:

• Look for individuals already in your personal network
• Ask a trusted colleague – word-of-mouth referrals are excellent
• Grow your own network by becoming an active member of a local, regional or national organization
• Attend conferences, seminars and presentations to meet the presenters and the participants – in fact, that’s how we met.
• Contact authors who are writing about issues important to you
• Use social networks to get an introduction to potential collaborators

When you find someone who you believe may be a good collaborator, be sure to:

• Determine if you share the same values
• Take time to build a relationship – just like any other business relationship you have with clients and prospects
• Be sure this can be a bi-lateral relationship
• Always apply the “doctrine of fairness” especially in work strengths and compensation

Collaborations can be a very positive and rewarding way to develop your business. If entered into wisely, the rewards for you and your collaborators are great.

Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest

In our blog on Monday, we discussed external recruiting. Being hired from outside the organization has its own set of challenges. Specifically, you are coming into an organization that has a set culture, a set way of doing things, a set value system and alliances whose purpose is often to maintain the status quo.  Yet, you were hired to improve the organization. How do you this? You start by thinking through and managing your transition into the organization.

Michael D. Watkins in his book, The First 90 Days, offers the following ten strategies for successfully transitioning into your new role.

1.    Promote yourself

a.    You need to mentally break from your old job and role and accept and extend yourself in your new role

2.    Accelerate your learning curve

a.    Invest in learning and not just the technical side of your job, also spend time learning the culture and politics

3.    Match strategy to the situation

a.    There is no one strategy that fits all situations. Are you going into a start-up, turnaround, realignment or sustaining success situation?

4.    Secure early wins

a.    Get started quickly by picking something that will result in a quick win for you.

5.    Negotiate success

a.    It is important to have a productive working relationship with your boss, to define expectations and to discuss how to work together productively

6.    Achieve alignment

a.    It’s important to align strategy, structure, systems, skills and culture and to identify the root cause of problems.

7.    Build your team

a.    Assess the current team members based on the job that needs doing and build your team

8.    Create coalitions

a.    Authority alone will not guarantee success, you need to learn how to influence those from whom you need support

9.    Keep your balance

a.    You need to create and enforce personal discipline and create a network of advisors

10. Expedite everyone

a.    Why it’s important to accelerate team development, develop high potential leaders, and strengthen succession planning

Successfully transitioning into your new role is critical for long-term success. Becoming successful in that role is a transition, and that takes time and thoughtful action. And remember, the first strategy on the list – promote yourself. If you fail to, no one else will either.

Copyright 2009 Kubica & LaForest

Talent Integration Series: Part 4

Many companies believe they have found the holy grail of talent when they identify and bring a manager in from outside the company. Listening to the executive team and hiring managers you could think you were watching the movie Wargames – as you hear those immortal words – “confidence is high! I repeat confidence is high”. Far too often – some statistics say up to 50% of the time – the candidate crashes and burns. What went wrong? Everything seemed to point to guaranteed success.

In situations like this, we find three things went wrong:

1.    Not clearly understanding the job that needed to be done

2.    Not clearly understanding the organizational context in which the new manager will work

3.    Poor candidate vetting

If you do not know the job that needs to be done (i.e. turnaround, growth, sustaining, start-up), then finding the right candidate for the job is a stochastic event. The best way to determine what job needs to be done is to ask. Ask individuals who are part of the operating unit, who receive services, who provide services. Understand what needs to be done. This is really a 360-degree review of the department or the operating unit.

Organizations have personalities, they have established cultures, and many can behave like the body’s immune system – ravaging foreign invaders that appear as a threat to the system. We had a client who hired a CIO that did not represent the culture of the organization. He was direct and abrasive. The organizational members were polite. The hiring manager believed the CIO would “shake things up”. The only person that got shaken up was the new hire. He lasted six months, even amidst a “polite” culture.

When you know the job that needs to be done and you have an understanding of the culture of the organization, you then outline the skills and behaviors that the ideal candidate should possess. It is helpful to breakdown the skills and behaviors into “musts” and “wants”, that is the non-negotiables to get the job done versus the would-be-nice to haves. No candidate can meet all the criteria an organization can mobilize in the selection process. But the successful candidate must at least meet all of the “musts” identified. We recommend a personality-based and job performance indicator that measures a candidate’s potential for success (we first described this in our October 26, 2009 blog). We also recommend an interview process that includes superiors, peers and subordinates. Also, the assumption is that what the job is (that is, the current and necessary essential functions of the job) has been assessed and accurately captured on a job or position description to clearly frame expectations from the beginning.

Hiring candidates from outside the organization can be a risk: for both the candidate and the organization. It is important to make a concerted effort to reduce the risk and increase the chance for success. Not only does “everyone win”, but more importantly, work gets done, the company continues to grow and you do not end up with a retention problem.

Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest

Talent Integration Series: Part 3

How does your organization promote from within? Do you select the person who is doing the best job in their current role? Do you promote the person you like the most, the person who has the most seniority, or the person who gives you attention and deference? If this is your current practice, then you are missing out on the opportunity to grow your business. You may also be dramatically increasing your cost of operations. This is hardly a good strategy in the current economy.

Let’s take a moment to look at the cost of a bad (mismatched) promotion:

ü  Time to become productive on the job

ü  Time to separate from being a peer to being a boss

ü  Turnover cost resulting from a bad promotion

ü  Lost productivity resulting from the turnover

ü  Recruiting cost

ü  Time to become productive for the new hire

A poor promotional decision is costly.

Internal promotions should be approached the same way you approach external hires: formally. There are distinct advantages you have when promoting from within. The candidate knows the business, knows some of the politics (politics at the managerial and executive level, however, are different), and is familiar with the culture. But this knowledge alone should not qualify them for promotion. What qualifies them for promotion is a positive performance track record and demonstrated ability (versus just interest) to take on additional responsibilities to succeed.

Here are five actions that organizations can take to prepare internal candidates for promotion:

1. Have a formal (or at least an informal) succession plan

a. That is, identify individuals in your organization who can fill current senior positions should the incumbent retire or leave, or new positions that are created due to growth, new product or service introductions or new projects critical to the success of the company.

2. Implement a management development program to provide future promotable candidates the opportunity to take on additional and more challenging responsibilities. A management development program will also identify employee strengths, preferences, values and potential derailers to promote best fit for positions available.

3. Introduce a valid and meaningful 360 degree evaluation program to ensure that the candidates identified for promotion are truly qualified and not just good at managing up and managing their image.

4. Provide the future promotable candidates with a mentor to help guide them through both the tangible and intangible aspects of achieving success within the company.

5. Provide the newly promoted employee with coaching support to support the transition from a functional and technical focus to a manager with broader responsibilities.

Companies should use a mix of internal and external hires to build its team, with the larger number coming internally. A rigorous internal promotion process will best prepare candidates, strengthen the business and ultimately, benefit your customers.

That said, how are you doing at growing your own and preparing your people and business for succession and long-term success?

Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest