As Project Manager in many projects, I have come to appreciate the value of well-selected partners for the implementation of a project!

Select Your Associates Carefully

In business is not always at your hand to select your associates (that term includes business partners, vendors, collaborators, freelancers, outside contractors, anyone assists you to provide the best possible – business – result). Other situations, usually determine the “who is doing what” in a project (business, endeavor, venture, startup, etc.). But their selection is vital to the success of every business venture!

A Like-Minded Pack

In business, it is important to have the right associates. Their expertise, knowledge and resources can further the success of the endeavor, or the lack of them can cause a lot of a problem, for all the stakeholders involved!

In order you, as a business person, to cooperate effectively with your associates you need to select (if you can) or develop (need more effort!) associates, people to work with, vendors and collaborators having the same beliefs and values and are committed to the achievement of the common venture’s goals!

The most important issue in a common business venture is to be in a group of people, you know their strengths and weakness, you trust them and you have the same goals to achieve!

Select Your Associates Carefully

How to select your associates? This is a good question, and, unfortunately, there are no ready-made recipes to help you do it without the personal involvement and without a sweat.

If you are the person who has to decide on the suitability of associates for a business person, you need to evaluate a lot of things and try to develop a well-balanced, goal-oriented group of people can achieve the tasks at hand!

If you are not that person, you might be a little happier, but that does not elevate your burden of decision. In such case you should decide whether you (or your company, team, etc.) will be a functional, proactive agent of the group who he/she is going to enhance the capabilities of the whole group and promote its objectives by bringing balance and strive after consensus and consolidation or not!

Both functions (that of a decision maker or a member of a team with common business objectives) have their pros and cons and they need commitment and an achieving results mindset!

There are many ways for you to select your associates either at the first or to the second role! Every one of them depends on your character, personality, business culture you adhere or have, personal likes or/and dislikes, etc.

In any case, though, you should pay attention to some issues, that might help you decide, better. You should particularly make sure to:

  1. Know thyself. You can check your – business – strengths and weakness while as a person you can take a more formal test (as the DISC personality test) to assess your personality and improve your relationship with other people.
  2. Know your goals and set them in a SMART mode (in order to know how close or far you are from your objectives, when you should have achieved them, how relevant they are with your business, etc.).
  3. Articulate your goals and communicate them clearly towards people you think they can assist you.
  4. Set the specifications for your ideal associates. You check the profile of person or company, who is the decision maker or what is the chain of command (you, usually, should prefer small flexible structures if you can select), what is his/hers/theirs expertise, previous projects, reputation in market, values & beliefs (and how close or far are from your own), record of commitment to their associates/clients, personal or company’ culture, his/hers/theirs direction towards quality results, etc.
  5. Select associates you know and trust. The people you have collaborated in the past and have provided you value are usually the best choices.

These are some, only, of the guidelines you should use, in order to select your associates, carefully! Do you know some more? Please, write in the comment section, your ideas about how to select your associates more carefully!