How the Dog Whisperer Can Help Your Joint Venture Relationship
February 23, 2010 by Christian · View Comments
Forming a joint venture can be wildly successful, and it can also become a headache. Joint venture partners come in all shapes and sizes. And though most entrepreneurs and business owners are professional in their conduct, many are still difficult to deal with, and personality conflicts can arise. So what can you do to help assure a sound relationship with your JV partner?
Take heed of advice from Cesar Millan, also known as the “Dog Whisperer”. Cesar has become the leading expert in dog psychology and dog rehabilitation. Although his strategies are aimed at canine “pack” instincts, his psychology can work well for joint venture partners as well. Here are some examples:
Calm-Assertive Energy
Cesar advocates that all dog owners display calm-assertive energy. An owner should show a dog that he or she is the pack leader using compassionate and calm methods. Yelling, nervousness, and anxiety are not good qualities of a good calm-assertive leader.
This tip doesn’t mean you have to set yourself apart from your JV partner as the “pack leader”. Nor does it mean one of you must become the “calm-submissive” type that will obey the commands of the leader.
How this can benefit you and your JV partner is that you both display assertive behavior without becoming emotional. Energy is calm, and both are in control of all communications and tasks.
Set Rules, Boundaries, and Limitations
Cesar teaches that dogs must have rules, boundaries, and limitations to know how to respond to different situations. Your JV is just the same. Both you and your JV partner must set rules, boundaries, and limitations so you both are clear on your roles and responsibilities.
For instance, can you contact your JV partner any time of day? Do you have permission to access your JV partner’s facilities? And likewise, does your JV partner have permission to utilize your equipment? All this and more need to be pre-determined before the JV goes into effect. Your rules, boundaries, and limitations will help you and your JV partner know exactly what to expect from each other.
Clarify “Issues”
An unstable dog is unclear about its role. This causes anxiety, aggression and fear. Cesar Millan teaches that a dog must trust his owner to be a pack leader and know its role in the pack.
Likewise, you and your JV partner must know your roles. Who will perform the marketing? Who will keep the books? Who’s in charge of production? Clarify all these types of issues and you will have a more successful JV “pack”.
Achieve Balance
Ultimately, you want to achieve balance with your JV. Much like Cesar advocates for dog owners, balance creates a harmonic, productive, and happy life. Set and know your limitations and boundaries. Set up roles for you and your JV partner. Let Cesar Millan’s experience with canine psychology teach you similar lessons in JV psychology. All elements should be balanced so both parties are happy with the effort, as well as the outcome.
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.
10 Steps to Building Trust in Your Business Relationships
January 17, 2009 by Christian · View Comments
Martin Haworth writes, there are some simple things you can do with your people to ensure that they start to trust you. As a letter from Mike Emmott of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK says, in April 2005’s UK Management Today says:-
“Our surveys show that only one in four employees trust senior management to look after their interests”
Is that not appalling? How on earth can businesses develop, survive and above all hang onto their best people if they are seen to be untrustworthy?
It’s horrible.
There is an article below which talks a little about ‘Rapport Building’, but to supplement that, here are Ten Steps to help you build trust with your people.
- Keep Your Promises
- Never Tell Lies
- Keep Confidences
- Communicate as Fully as Possible
- Have No Favorites
- Challenge the Behaviour – Not the Person
- Follow Through
- Listen Attentively
- Forgive Mistakes
- Don’t Talk Behind Backs
If you can’t keep a promise, then don’t make it in the first place – it is a big negative emotion being let down in this way.
Why would you? And if you have to, it’s much, much more about you. Your people will really lose faith in you fast.
Sometimes people will tell you things that they don’t want broadcast – they need you to hear them sometimes. But keep it to yourself. Do not be the instigator of gossip and rumor.
Keep as little from your people as you can. Communicate as openly as possible. Sometimes you have to hold some information back – it happens, but think really carefully about it.
Treat all of your people equally and show no favorites. I know this is tough – I found it tough, but it needs to be right. Have agreed principles and standards that everyone works to – sorry, but no exceptions.
People make mistakes, do things wrong and need to be told. It’s the thing they did, not the person they are. “You’re useless”, is not a good way to build trust, but, “That wasn’t what I would expect of you usually, tell me more about what happened”, works better.
If you say you are going to do something. Do it! Your people will love that you do what you say (or apologies at least if you find you can’t). And it sets a great example.
There’s a whole piece about this, but safe to say if you don’t pay attention to people fully, they will not trust you. It’s rude and it diminishes the relationship.
Be generous. It is a value-creating action. People hate to get things wrong – they expect a ‘bollocking’ (as they say!). Help them with a learning from the mistake. “What might you do next time?”, is far more valuable.
If you do this with anyone, they will always wonder what you say about them when they aren’t there – and what are they saying about you – it’s a bad habit.
Building trust is vital if you, your people and your business are going to excel. Working on it is just a discipline. These points will help you.
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