3 tips to optimize collaborative partnerships

A business partner can be a co-owner, an employee, a strategic alliance…Basically, anyone that collaborates with, or has a vested interest in your business.

Challenges arise when expectations aren’t clearly stated, and what starts as a synergistic collaboration takes a left hand turn as one or both parties feel that they are giving more than the other.

Here are THREE tips to optimize partnerships and avoiding potential pitfalls:

1. Start small. Because every business has a human element, starting with a small project will allow you to assess if the other person is someone you’d like to continue to collaborate with. Like dating, it will allow you the time to see if you work well together or not.

2. Create a simple exit strategy. A written contract with an arbitration agreement can be extremely valuable if one person is hurt and feels like they want to hurt you in return.

3. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things blow up. If you start small and create a simple strategy then the external pieces are covered. This doesn’t address the surprise or frustration that may occur. For the internal piece, I recommend a loving kindness meditation. It may sound silly, but the more clean and clear your heart is the easier it will be to navigate the waters ahead.

Are you struggling with a collaborator? If so, join me for 30 min: https://jasonstein.com/chocolate/

And here is the lovingkindness link: http://ggia.berkeley.edu/…/loving_kindn… and one with 18 scientific reasons: http://www.mindful.org/18-science-base…/

Together is Better!