Chapter 8
Partnering for Success
Anyone who has been in a leadership position for more than a day knows that it's impossible to accomplish much as an individual. This chapter discusses the importance of partnerships in creating success. Specifically, we will focus on the following concepts:
- Defining partnership
- Creating an empowered, team-oriented environment
- Adjusting to the workforce of the twenty-first century
- Partnering with your team
- Partnering with your clients
- Partnering with your executive management and board
- Outsourcing to expand your team
- Networking to build industry partnerships
Partnerships are especially important in the world of IT, where there are sub-specialties of specialties requiring great depth of knowledge. The last time I wrote code, it was in Cobol. The last time I designed a network, we deployed intelligent hubs into a new technology that had just come out known as a Cisco AGS router. Needless to say, if you are counting on me to be your technical expert in installing and operating technology, you are in deep trouble. I often smile when I am in the boardroom and when an AV issue occurs, everyone turns to me as if I were the AV geek in high school (no disrespect to those of you who were the AV geek in high school!). In any area of endeavor, it takes a team to accomplish any substantial undertaking.
