Making Connections
Creating better business partnershipsAre two heads truly better than one? New entrepreneurs have a choice: go it alone or team up. Those who decide to partner often discover their business relationship is much like marriage -- it can be wonderful or disastrous. "I've seen business partnerships deteriorate to the point of being harmful to each partner's health," entrepreneur Fernando Lopez says. ROGER PIERCE |
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 [ 2006-03-08 ] |
Lopez helps other business people to bring out their personal best. Called "The Partnership Coach" (www.partnershipcoach.com), he works with clients to create a better partnership.
"A partnership can be the cornerstone of your venture's success or the cause of its death," Lopez says. "Some partnerships want to pull together, others want to dissolve, and still others want to morph into something altogether different."
Like any Olympic Team, partnerships are only as strong as the people in them; however, sometimes it can be difficult for partners to address each other on issues to do with personality, performance or direction. As a neutral third party, it's easier for partners to work with Lopez.
In business for three years, Lopez designed his partnership coaching based on the cutting-edge "Co-Active Relationship Coaching" model. "Instead of fixing a relationship, we reveal the dynamics in place, and partners take action from there," he explains.
The results of his coaching services can take a business to new heights. "A strong and positive relationship is ideal," he says. "With my services, clients design an intentional partnership where their strengths are amplified, their differences create a powerful synergy, and their conflicts give way to constructive change."
True to what he preaches, Lopez has discovered that he can do a lot more and have more fun doing it when he partners with others. "Partnerships are good accountability structures for making sure that my projects are carried to completion," he says. "Currently, I have different partners in four mini joint ventures."
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