We recently read through Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The truths laid out in this book, written over 30 years ago, have transformed how we think about personal growth, company growth, and, yes, even partnerships. As we grow at CoPort, seeking to help companies grow through partnerships, we took the content in that timeless book and applied it to what we do everyday.

We're going to take the next several blogs to lay out each habit, provide inspiration, and then give practical application so you, and I, can grow as partner leaders. 

Because we know that when we get better with partnerships, our companies win.

Proactive.

“[Proactivity] means more than merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.” - Stephen Covey

The first step in growing as a partner leader, or growing your partner program, or even elevating your partners, is to know that you can grow. So many of us are doing our best to just manage the work we have in front of us, and we’re unsure of why we’re not getting the results we see in other partnerships. Partnerships is a goldmine, it’s an opportunity to exponentially grow your company through others—it can unlock industries, customers you never would have been able to talk to, and create integrations and acquisitions that help your customers succeed.

And it all starts with accepting that the opportunity is before you. For many years the partnership teams in organizations are seen as an ancillary piece to the sales or marketing strategy at an organization. Partnerships requires a dedicated strategy in and of itself, becoming the third leg in the stool, not replacing direct sales or marketing, but joining in the fight of helping our companies grow.

The conversation around partnerships can sometimes lean to the struggles we experience internally and externally in our organizations. We can too easily complain that no one understands what we’re doing, feel jaded when CROs don’t see the value in our work, or feel left out when the company makes investments in their GTM strategy. But that doesn’t have to be your story, and it doesn’t have to be ours. In fact, as Stephen Covey wrote, we have the responsibility to change the narrative and the opportunity, like no other time in the partnership ecosystem, to be a pivotal piece in the growth and success of our companies. It all starts with you and your team. The decisions you make, the tools you use, the systems you create, and the partnerships you help enable all matter.

So continue on and keep digging in. Because partnerships matter, and you have the opportunity to contribute significant growth and success for your company through partnerships.

Application

• Define reality for your partnership program. Are you achieving the goals and accomplishments that align to your company values? Are you helping other teams succeed and ultimately seeing your company succeed through the partnerships you’re making?
• Take action to learn and grow in building an effective partner function
• Track the metrics that matter to your company, you, and your partners. Data matters, and helps us tell our stories.
• Keep reading. We have some work to do together.