The subject of dealing with partners in the business comes up often in the business owner meetings I facilitate. There are patterns that emerge in these discussions that parallel other parts of life. Good partnerships and marriages exhibit a shared vision for things-where the business and where life should go. They also share open communications-the willingness to bring things up, (the good and the bad) and deal with and resolve them. Further they share the understanding of their personal differences and how they can complement one another for the good of the relationship. (This can get very difficult to accomplish sometimes in the heat of a given moment of disagreement.) A related point here is the acceptance that partners bring significant value to the relationship regardless of how different what they bring happens to be. In earlier blogs, we have talked about running an organization requires the balancing the power of all the functions of a business. This can also apply to any kind of partnership. And, all partners must have “skin in the game.” In business partnerships, letting people in as partners without them investing any assets in it can lead to extreme difficulties as time goes by and success increases. I will let you draw your own conclusions as to the parallels between this point and a life partnership.

There are two marketing strategies deployed over the past 40 years or so that have shaped our lives. Both are deceptively simple and, in many ways, brilliant. The first was a 20th Century strategy that I call Sweatshirt Marketing. In it, companies got people to pay say,  $60 to buy a sweatshirt with their logo on it and presumably wear it while being out and about. One can only wonder, how many billions of visual impressions and brand reinforcement each of those sweatshirts made as part of reinforcing the brand displayed on it. Of course, the logo imprints were not limited to sweatshirts but appeared on all manner of apparel. One offshoot was the rise in “career clothes.” These items range from company uniforms to logos on dress shirts and blazers. And, take a look at an NFL game and look at the predominant color being worn by the people in the stands-the color of the local team.

The 21st Century brought us another brilliant move-giving ideas away-keying off of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s phrase, “The more you give, the more you get.” There was a recent movie called Pay it Forward. The whole idea of that movie was to show that being helpful to others has positive ripples throughout society, People have figured out that imparting helpful information is a very strong way to build trust with people you have not met. It can establish the giver as a center of influence and thought leadership. Hence the popularity and explosion of blogs discussion groups and social media. So, what can you give away today to build your business?

In this age of specialization, there is a trend that is somewhat bothersome: the tendency of some specialists to define a problem and its solution only within the confines of their specialty. For sure, many problems can be resolved that way. But, in some cases their expertise is so great and their reputation so solid that people may be reluctant to question the solution if they have inklings that the problem may have a wider scale. In other cases, they may be so worried about losing a client that bringing someone else in on a project is not desired. By no means is this piece meant to demean specialists-they are bright, hard workers, well educated and experienced and deservedly respected and honored. But there is more to consider. Here’s an example: in medicine, there are internists-generalists-whose job it is to look at the whole patient and understand the interaction of the marvelous systems that make our bodies and minds function. There are also specialists-cardiologists, surgeons, endocrinologists and a host of others. The internist’s job is to consider the whole patient and bring to bear those specialties that can work together to solve a complex patient problem. So, if you have a problem in your business, are you taking a balanced approach to its definition and solution? If you can clearly define the problem, then you can see what other areas of your business impact the area with the problem or are impacted by the area with the problem. Then you are on your way to a comprehensive solution.

I don’t think a day goes by without hearing at least a brief conversation about work/life balance. It is a subject on the mind of many who work, whether they own a business or just work in an organization of some kind. The rapid adoption of technologies like e-mail, texting, laptop and tablet computers have made us more productive.   But they have also made us more reachable, more hours of the day. All of this is occurring at a time when companies have discovered that technology enables existing staff to be more productive and therefore the company needs less people. All generations have probably had to deal with the increasing pressures of life. But you have to wonder if all the angst about balancing work with the rest of life has not gone up a notch or two faster in the last 10 years. For those of you who think there is not much you can do about it, help is on the way. You can access this article on the Mind Tools website and actually attack the problem and assess your current balance and then develop strategies to make it better.

We have talked before in this space about the lead/lag syndrome-the situation where things around your business are changing but you are not acting on the changes. This condition can manifest itself as the economy gets worse or gets better and you just don’t adapt soon enough. Maybe the news is a little more positive these days. Whether it is or isn’t, there have to be some things going right in your company.

So here are three suggestions:

• First take a look at this list of success celebrations and try one of them every once in a while to perk things up.
• Second, send me a success story that you can make public and we will report them here.
• And third, post them on your business Facebook page and LinkedIn. Success can be contagious and a real morale booster.

Ever suffer from “call reluctance?” It strikes all of us, not just sales people. Sometimes we think we will get to it “soon.” Sometimes we are avoiding something we do not want to do or say. And sometimes, we just want to take the hour, afternoon or the day off. OK, but what if you made a list of the people you should be calling but aren’t. Next to each name, put the reason for the call and the goal you want to accomplish with it. Now, write what is holding you back from making that call. Be as specific as you can. Now put an “A” or “B” next to each call. “A” means very important. “B” means not so important. One of the traps of lists is assuming that everything on it is of equal importance. Look at the “As” and look at what is holding you back and think about the outcome if you achieve the goal of the call. Try the toughest one first. The point is, think of all the times in the past you have faced up to a difficult task and accomplished it. Not a bad feeling, is it? So make your calls, achieve your objectives and go home happy.

Verne Harnish, CEO of Gazelles, Inc. (www.Gazelles.com) has become the guru of best practices for growing companies by searching for the smartest people with the best ideas and crystalizing them into workshops, books and documents like the One Page Business Plan. These resources can help every business owner and CEO nail down a successful plan that aligns strategies and tactics with Vision and gets everyone on board and keeps them there. So here are two recommendations: first, get a copy of and read the book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Fast-Growth Firm by Verne Harnish; and second, sign up to attend the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Workshop on Friday, February 24, 8am to 5pm at Linden Hall in Columbia. Space is limited so sign up early. For more information and registration, click here.

Every business, regardless of size or industry, has four basic internal functions. Each of them must do its own work and also support and be supported by the other three functions. The functions are: Sales & Marketing, Operations & Production, Finance & Administration and Human Resources & Organizational Development. The detailed job descriptions of each function may vary from industry to industry, but the four functions must be present and working in every organization. The right people must in the right jobs doing the right work. Each function must understand its role in the overall success of the enterprise.

The big job of executive leadership is to keep the four functions working together and to preserve the political balance between them. The more specialized we are as individuals, the greater our tendency is to see things and to define problems and solutions through the lens of our specialty. This situation is further complicated by the differences in peoples’ styles and ways of processing information and seeing things.

We are fond of using team sports or military analogies in defining issues and solutions. There is a clarity of both mission and outcomes in team sports and military endeavors that supports the use of the analogies. Team sports and the military are not without their share of political imbalances that deflect success. But when the successes occur, you hear how strong the various parts are and how well they work together.

So in your planning for the coming year, take a measure of your four functions. Do you have the right people working in them? Do they work together well? And, when the inevitable conflicts arise, are they harnessed to gain improvements? And if you are still doing all four functions. has the time come to build an organization around you?

We all need goals. They keep us pointed towards the future and things we want and need to do. You could even say that we are wired to have them and work towards them. But, we also have to realize that goals need to be replaced once they are reached. We further need to realize that many goals are not just destinations; they are also journeys that need to keep on going. There is an old saying that says “Success is a journey, not a destination.”  If your definition of success is a certain income, or a certain job or a title or the ability to have something or someone in your life, then what do you do when you have achieved it or that certain someone is in your life? One of the most familiar goal/journey situations is learning. Graduations mark an event. They are called commencements because they signal the beginning of something-continuous, lifelong learning not simply the end of going to school. So, look at your plan for 2012-how many of those goals involve on-going journeys and not just the objective itself? What will you be doing to keep on actively learning? Is your business involved in continuous improvement? There’s a great example of a journey that has multiple goals and milestones, but it never ends.  And finally, what tools -training, equipment and support and assistance do you and your people need to make those journeys successfully? Travel well and as that great old baseball player once said, “Don’t spend a lot of time looking back, somethin’ might be gaining on you.”

One part of your business that you may have not gotten to in your planning for the coming year is employee (and owner) compensation. There are two links in this blog for you to use to gather some input for your compensation strategies: one is to an article from a recent newsletter from Payroll Network, Inc., a mid-Atlantic region independent payroll and human resources information processor and another is from Dave Ryan, a partner in Chesapeake Compensation Strategies, LLC. If you want more information from either or both sources, I am sure they would be happy to provide it.