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.

Sharpen the saw

“This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute. We are the instruments of our own performance, and to be effective, we need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw in all four ways [physical, social/emotional, spiritual, and mental].” - Stephen Covey

Unless partner leaders take care of their personal growth and development, there’s no promise for potential growth and change. It takes a dedicated individual who’s willing to continually learn and ask questions, network and listen, and consistently grow professionally in order to be an effective partner leader over the course of their career. It takes lots of small moments, like little seeds, planted over the course of the entire career in order to continue to help our companies grow through partnerships.

There’s always systems that help partner managers become more efficient and scale their programs, but the differentiator between a successful program and a mediocre program is the consistency of growing and learning the best system that helps them and their partners succeed. To continue to give you and your partner program the best chance at succeeding, it requires both investment of time and willingness to learn.

Now more than ever there’s resources like Partnership Leaders, Pavilion, and other partnership groups that are available for growing partner leaders. Jim McBain, a channel analyst at Canalys, coined the 2020 decade as the “decade of the ecosystem.” There’s been more products, consultants, and resources available for people to help their companies grow in partnerships, and we can’t do it justice on our own.

As we conclude our time, we hope you’ve enjoyed and learned a lot from each habit, and even got some handholds for you to start on your own journey. We’re not done, now we start back at the beginning and proactively grow in getting better both personally and corporately. There’s work for all of us, and don’t think we can do it on our own. We can’t. We’re in the world of partnerships where we believe we’re better because of the partnerships we make. In the same way, you’re going to elevate your role and expertise in partnerships by the partners you take along the way.

Application

• Join a group that collaborates and networks with partners: Partnership Leaders, Pavilion,
• Attend a class by Scott Pollack at Firneo
• Join a partner networking session with Adam Pasch
• Join the conversation and listen to podcasts like: Friends with Benefits, Literal Scratch and a host of other partner-led podcasts
• Follow Reveal, Crossbeam, Impartner, Allbound, Channeltivity, PartnerStack, and Kiflo, among many others.