adminnice little catchphrase bandied about over a crouton infested lunch. The word synergy is used too often in business. When the laughter, joke attempts and small talk are over the true essence of the relationship begins.
No one comes into that first meeting with all of their junk on their sleeve, but everyone has baggage or character flaws that suck (unless you are perfect, which then means you never want to work with the real flawed version of me).
Over time that baggage begins to float to the surface and manifest in the relationship. The goal in working with someone is to decipher through their garbage and then answer two questions. These two questions, if answered yes, supersede all of the “I’m a loyal person, I’ll never betray you, I’ll always honour our agreement and never stab you in the back seven times” verbiage that gets spewed out in an effort to impress.
Those are just words and in today’s world words seem to have lost much of the power and weight that they used to carry. These questions get to the point and the answers will help you determine if the people that you are working with should be the people that are close to you. It all comes down to “Do you have my back?”
Question 1
If, at 2am, you are driving back from a business meeting that you had in Ontario, Canada and you break down two hours from your hometown and you call Jeff, will Jeff come and pick you up?
Will he give a rat’s rear that you are out there? In my experience most people that you want to work closely with (the internal heroes that you admire) that “have your back” will make a plan, give you some advice, either get out of bed and drive to help you out or at least start being a problem solver in your personal crisis. These are people you can build with, and when business becomes personal (which it sometimes does) you can count on them.
Question two:
If Jeff is at a club/bar/party or humongous status proving event and someone brings your name up in derogatory fashion will Jeff blend in like a chameleon or will he stand by you and guard your “name” from diving into the toilet? Yes, we all make mistakes and do things that aren’t 100 percent perfect. Every single one of us at some point in time, if you’re doing anything worth glancing at, will have haters. Now in that setting will Jeff have your back? In other words will he care more about the people who are putting on their best set of clothes and covering their screwed up life with bow ties, cocktails, and wide forms of laughter, or will Jeff stand by you regardless of how important the company (for the record Jeff is a purely fictional example in this case, I’ve liked every Jeff that I’ve met so far)?
By the way a good way to handle gossip is “really, I’m pretty sure that is not true of him but why don’t we call him and you can ask him personally” then whip out your phone and start dialling.
Think of the people you’re working with, or building with. Do they have your back? If you cannot answer it, run them through the two scenario machines mentioned above.
Business is personal because it all bleeds together in the end. Loyalty is hard to find but you don’t want to work with people who will screw you.
Better to have US$10 among friends, than to have a million with enemies. Have you ever noticed how similar the words ‘friend’ and ‘fiend’ are to each other?
True colours will come out over time, and while people will happily declare their undying loyalty and love for you, at the end of the day you only want people that ‘have your back” close to you.
Actions in many cases will speak a lot louder than words. A good king is surrounded by great counsellors. A good entrepreneur or CEO is surrounded by solid partners that have his back. Work with the right people, it will save you a lot of sleepless nights and legal fights.
leeroy
Online Reporter