Building a trusting relationship is critical for the start and continuation of any business relationship.

A “true partnership” – takes some hard work – and time. Laying the foundation for a solid working relationship from the very beginning should make everyone feel comfortable that a working business partnership will be worthwhile in the long run. Both the investor and investee should consider these strategies for getting to know each other before signing any contract:

1. Be Available and Responsive

Spending time to get to know the other party is important. Whether it’s in person, by phone or in an online meeting, plan a regular meeting as often as is comfortable. And do meet in person, which is still the easiest way to communicate. Meet for lunch, take a hike, play golf, go running or just be available to really get to know the other party’s strengths and weaknesses – on a business and personal level. In addition, get back to them in a timely manner when they call or email. While surprising, many a relationship has failed because one party did not respond promptly enough to a message.

2. Be Open

Be transparent about how you conduct business, including how you resolve problems as they arise. Share what has worked well in the past and what you might need to improve upon. Give examples. The more open communication there is between parties, the easier it will be to keep everyone satisfied and any issues resolved. Keep each other informed about new services or any news pertaining to your businesses that might help either party decide to go ahead with the investment.

3. Be Prepared

Whether you are the investor or investee, come to each formal meeting armed with the information you need to demonstrate why you should work together. Discuss the success of past investments by bringing along a case study or two. Highlight a recent client relationship that went especially well – and why – or one that didn’t go so well but disclose the steps you took to resolve it. Or if you’re at the right point in an investment-type relationship, bring in your company’s revenue data showing the projected growth to further demonstrate why you’re an attractive investment.

4. Be Quiet

As in any successful relationship, you need to really listen to fully understand what the other is looking to accomplish. So make sure that when it’s your turn to listen, you do.

5. Be Flexible

As you’re listening, be open to suggestions on running your business or providing your services. As you grow, needs change, and as your competitive environment shifts, how you provide the services may not work as well as it previously did. Know that when both parties learn to work together, both will bring ideas to the table and learn from each other.

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Manage
Yes, leadership and management are different. Hallelujah. Whether it’s managing their company’s organization, brand, products, customer experience, operations, finances, whatever, business leaders spend most of their time managing. Leadership is a skill set. Manage is what they do.

Strategize
In the old days, the big buzzword was invention. Then it was innovation. Now it’s improvement. Whatever. If you want to lead in business, you have to come up with a unique solution to a big problem that people are willing to pay for. You can call that Sylvester if you like, but I call it strategy.

Create culture
The root of the word culture is cult. Steve Jobs created a unique, cult-like culture at Apple. Likewise John Mackey at Whole Foods and the original Trader Joe … Joe Coulombe, that is. If you’ve never been to Google, check out the movie “The Internship.” Great leaders are not cast in a mold. They break the mold.

Inspire
We all need inspiration at times, but real leaders are usually inspired by their lives, which typically revolve around work and family. And since their job is to inspire and motivate others, they tend to have a pretty big source of it inside. If you’re in constant need of inspiration, you’re probably not leadership material.

Prioritize
Before everyone became so obsessed with personal improvement, productivity, and time management, real executives and business leaders learned to prioritize their time. And they prioritize their organization’s time by setting direction and goals, as well. That’s how the work gets done on time.

Juggle
No matter how well you prioritize or delegate, when your business is growing, you’ve got to keep a lot of balls up in the air. And if you’re not growing, you’re stagnating. For CEOs, especially in high-growth industries, multitasking is just a way of life … and I don’t mean tweeting while watching a YouTube video.

Plan, execute, adapt
There’s a three-part cycle to operating just about any business: plan, execute, adapt. In the beginning it’s mostly ad-hoc, but the bigger a company gets and the faster it needs to scale, the more formalized its operating processes must be.

Make smart decisions
Life is full of decisions but the vast majority — like what to eat for dinner or which phone to buy — aren’t super critical. Business is not the same because, unlike food choices, competitive markets are essentially zero-sum games. The bigger your title, the more critical your decisions. Great leaders make smart decisions.

Win
Just about any type of human performance is described by a bell-curve. Every field has its top performers, its bottom performers, and everything in between. Leadership is no different. Good leaders win more than they lose. Great leaders consistently beat the competition. That’s just what they do, and they do it better than anyone else.

Bottom line: Leaders lead and followers follow. It’s not complicated — you’re either one or the other. Which are you?
Source: Entrepreneur