Pt.3 What I wish someone told me when I started my career in Partnerships

This is Part 3 of my story where I share what I know now that would've been useful when I started my career in Partnerships.

Over the past six years, my journey in building one of Europe's most successful Partnership organizations at Teamtailor has been a blend of success and continuous battles with our own demons. Despite the polished exterior, our path has been far from straightforward. In this series, I open up about the challenges, the learning curves, and the unique experiences that have shaped our journey.

From being thrown into the world of partnerships to navigating through unrelatable research and guides, I've come to embrace and love the complexities of this role. As I share these insights and stories, I invite those new to the field to learn from the lessons I wish I knew at the start of my career in Partnerships.

If you haven't read the two parts, I highly encourage you to explore it before delving into this one 👇🏻

Part 1 - Understanding the WHY

Part 2 - Your internal stakeholders - Your most important partner

At this point you should have an idea of what it is that makes your partners (internal & external) tick, WHY they want to work with you, and how you help them reach their goals.

In many ways, this is a Part 2.5 rather than a new chapter. Because enabling your most important partners (your colleagues) for success doesn't happen overnight. In many ways, it's going to be a long change management exercise. Because most likely you will be required to change the way they work and think.

In order for you to become a successful manager of this partnership football club you're going to need to change the way they play the game. You're going to need to teach the star striker to make the extra pass rather than trying to dribble past the defences and shooting themselves.

You're able to succeed once you're able to prove that making the pass to someone else creates the highest odds of scoring a goal, instead of relying on their past tactics.

The goal isn't to take the goal away from your striker, but rather to make an extra pass that is then passed back to the striker so they have an open goal instead of being forced to make the miracle shot.

This is certainly easier said than done, especially because most of them will most likely be successful with their old tactics.

So how do you make this a reality?

Become a Leader - Formal & Informal

Leadership is arguably the most important skill you can develop as a partnerships manager. But the tricky part of being a leader as a partnerships manager is that most of the people you're trying to lead do not report to you, they report to a different boss.

However, leadership isn't necessarily just a single skill, to be successful you need to essentially nail three different roles.

• The Manager

• The Leader

• The Coach

Leadership as a partnerships manager is a weird thing because your role on the leadership ladder can vary every day in theory, which adds further complexity.

Monday - You're an individual contributor

Tuesday - You're leading others

Wednesday - Back to individual contributor

Thursday - Leading leaders who are leading others

Friday - Leading the entire function

Fortunately, it's not as daunting as it may seem and the complexity is part of the fun because it makes the success more rewarding.

So where should you start?

The most important alignment you need to establish is with the managers of the teams you're hoping to influence. If you and their manager don't speak the same language and not communicating the same thing you're never going to make any progress.

You need to start small and build big. Rome wasn't built in a day and this change isn't going to happen overnight.

• First make sure you're aligned with the department leadership across all levels.

• Second, make sure you start with a few individuals, preferably the ones who already get it or show excitement. It's easier to get someone from 1-2 than 0-1. Remember you can never motivate someone, that has to come from within. But you can inspire someone.

• Third, trial & error. Start small with different initiatives and make sure there are clear incentives for the individuals who are part of the trial and for those who contribute.

• Fourth, track everything. The purpose of the trial is to start incentivizing a behavioral change and for you to get a proof of concept. This proof of concept you will need to back up with numbers to further enforce that making that extra pass is beneficial for them

Once you have a few individuals succeeding and have a clear proof of concept you will start to see others follow. If an individual at 0 sees that everybody else is getting better results they will be inspired to start as well.

It might seem simple in theory but in practice, it's much more difficult. This will take time and you can't rush this you need to listen and be open to feedback and continuously tweak and optimize.

This segways well into the next point of the "leadership tools" I've had the most success with over the years which I strongly encourage everybody to use.

Feedback:

Feedback is arguably one of the most important tools you have in your arsenal as a leader. Not just for partnerships. Here are my 4 best tips for feedback.

1. The majority should be positive feedback Positive feedback makes us feel good, but it is also a very powerful tool for changing behaviors. So a rule of thumb is that you should give seven (7 Positive for 1 negative) times more positive feedback than negative. Don't be afraid to give positive feedback also to the small things! This creates an encouraging climate that will make people want to do even better going forward.

2. Feedback needs to be specific "Great job" is not feedback, it doesn't help someone better understand what they should do more or less of. Always give feedback on a behavioral level so it is clear for the receiver what he/she did. The more specific you are, the more helpful you are!

3. Feedback needs to be timely The closer in time you can give your feedback, the better. With that being said, late is better than never.

4. Describe the subjective consequences of the behavior Always try to explain what consequences the specific behavior had on you. How did it make you feel? How did it change your thought or behavior? Keep in mind that your own feelings are never incorrect. To illustrate: "you showing up too late to the client meeting made a terrible impression" might be correct, but we can never know for certain that this was the client's opinion. Rather: "you showing up too late to the client meeting made me stressed and I was worried it would send the wrong message to our client" can never be argued against, because that was your individual experience.

The most important thing from my perspective here is the value of positive feedback and how that enforces the effects of constructive feedback. You give positive feedback that encourages and enforces positive behavior. This also means that when you're forced to give constructive feedback they're more likely to listen

Accountability:

You need your team to feel accountable for the outcome and you need to feel like you can rely on them to do certain things. This pairs well with feedback but holding someone accountable is easier said than done. So here's my best tips and a guide to how you can hold someone accountable.

1. Articulate what you want

• Be Specific: Clearly define the task or outcome, detailing what needs to be done, how it should be done, and the expected standards or quality.

• Set Clear Deadlines: Provide a firm timeline for when the task or project should be completed.

• Ensure Understanding: Confirm that the person understands the expectations and requirements, possibly by asking them to summarize what they've heard.

2. Explain the Importance & potential consequences (If the task Is not completed by the deadline)

• Initiate After Missed Deadline: This step is undertaken if the task is not completed by the deadline.

• Reiterate Task Significance: Articulate why the task is crucial for the team or organization.

• Consequences of Non-Completion: Examples of what the consequences could be: Immediate Impact: Explain the immediate effects on the team, project, or company. Long-Term Implications: Discuss potential long-term repercussions, including impacts on team morale, project timelines, and organizational goals. Personal Consequences: Outline the personal implications for the individual, such as loss of trust, reduced opportunities, or formal performance consequences.

• Your Responsibility: It’s your responsibility to ensure the importance and consequences are fully explained and understood.

• Offer Additional Support: Provide necessary resources or support.

3. Hold Them Accountable (Can only be done after explaining importance)

• Post-Explanation Review: Once the importance of the task has been fully explained and understood, reevaluate the task completion.

• Feedback and Consequences: If the task remains incomplete or unsatisfactorily completed, provide specific, constructive feedback and enforce appropriate consequences.

• Encourage Self-Assessment: Have the individual reflect on why they were unable to meet the initial expectation and how they might improve.

Leadership is difficult, leadership in partnerships is often even more difficult. But it's one of the things that makes partnerships such a rewarding job. You're forced to understand how the business operates from inside and out and become the best version of yourself.

Allow it to take time, a 1% improvement every day compounds to a big improvement over a long time. It's a marathon, not a sprint, it's more important to be consistent over a long time than to make big changes short term that you can't keep up with.

Part 4