Partnerships and teamwork can lead to success. Flikr: ThinkPanama.com

Just recently I’ve realised that I really flourish in a team environment.  I don’t mind doing things by myself, but when engaged in a team or working with someone I find it really works to boost motivation and desire to knock over goals and milestones.

In addition, fnding a partner for something you’d like to do is one of the best ways to get things going.  I’ll call this GTG, similar to the well-known GTD (Get Things Done).

Getting things going is a big part of the difficulty that we have when trying to do something new.

Be it a new project, a new business, a new blog, or a personal goal like trying to get fit – it’s tough to start when we’re unsure of what might happen.  It’s not easy to keep going when you’re not really getting the results you hoped for initially, especially if you’re out of pocket on the way.

One solution is to do things with a partner or a team.  A great example is having a jogging partner, someone who relies on you and someone you equally rely on to go jogging on weekends.  It’s a lot easier to face the pavement when you’ve got someone to go with, or when you know if you don’t go you’re letting someone down.

So why do we try to go things alone when we really need help?

I think it’s a combination of:

• Greed:  We want it all to ourselves;
• Lack of trust:  Chances are you’ve been let down previously.  It’s not easy to trust someone if you’ve been burnt;
• Pride:  It’s a real ego booster to do something all by yourself.

Any one of those alone is a pretty powerful reason for wanting to do things by yourself.  But more often than not, these are the reasons we will fail.  Factor in touch of stubbornness and denial and there’s a recipe for a project without hope.

Teaming Up

I’ve always found that when I start something new, I can get a lot done while I’m really excited and ambitiously planning world domination.  But often that drive can be misplaced or scattered because I’m not concentrating on the part that’s most important – I’m busy trying to set up the structure required rather than working on the deliverable.

When I’m doing something with someone else, it’s a lot easier to spend that energy doing the most important bits where you can make an impact – not just running around like a kid in a candy store trying everything at once without making headway.

Use your expertise on your parts, let your partner use their expertise on the other aspects which you aren’t so sure about.  Great partnerships have partners and teams with different skill sets, but there’s advantages in having both people in a partnership or a few people in a team with a similar expertise so that together you can create something really impressive.

What’s even more important is that a partner or a team can really help move beyond the first downswing. You can’t have overnight success – and in fact it’s probable that you won’t have much luck early on.  This relative lack of success isn’t easy to persist against.  A fair percentage of us give up when we realise it’s not as successful and not nearly as fun as we first thought.  We know we need to put in a consistent effort but suddenly it gets hard.

A partner helps us push through for so many reasons:

Competitiveness: A desire to challenge each other to produce your best whilst being joined forces against the competition you face together.

Friendship: Nothing like being able to go out for a beer together – that’s when the best ideas happen, right?

Commitment: A joint effort can be more effective when you’re able to share ups and downs and motivate each other to keep going.

Perspective: Sometimes you need a different point of view.  Maybe you need a woman to join you if you plan to include ladies in your target segment.  Perhaps a young person can give you some insights into areas you hadn’t thought of.  Use it to your advantage.

I expect to be just the first of a number of GTG posts – helping you get things going!  When I was talking about this topic with a friend of mine, he jokingly suggested that this site would have been better as thenewmenofaction.com.  In a way he’s  right*, it’s far more interesting sharing stories rather than just listening to me all the time.  Let me know through a comment or an email if you’d like to share anything.

*He’s wrong because he should’ve said thenewpeopleofaction.com =]

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