This week I found myself thinking about the power of making connections with people. In last week’s blog, I mentioned creating your own support system, the people you want on your side for guidance in your career journey. Hopefully, you are starting to see who should be on your side to help you through all the tough decisions. You also need to find the partners who can redirect the curveball that’s been thrown at your latest career endeavor.

     I was reminded of this when I saw an interview with the two founders of a technology company. They were joking about how they work so well together because they are opposites. The one partner is an idea guy with tons of ideas, but no clue of how to implement them. The other partner is the moneyman who can come up with strategies and the funds needed to make the ideas a reality. The company could not exist without these two partners and they could not work without each other, why?

    It all has to do with your conative skills. A conative skill is a term used by Kathy Kolbe to describe “human instincts in creative problem solving”. There are 4 types: a quick start (tends to jump into projects immediately), a follow through (creates systems for things), a fact finder (gathers and shares information), and an implementer (works with the hands on aspects of projects). You may have a tendency towards one area, but need influence from one of the other areas. Some people may be blessed to have a little of each area, allowing them to call on each skill as needed for a project. If you have a resistance or difficulty in a certain area, this could cause problems when trying to complete a project or achieve a goal.

     So what do you do? Abandon ship? No, you find a person who has the working style that you need and form a partnership with them. Depending on their level of involvement, you can repay them with barter for a service that you can provide for them. For example, a quick start advertises a service and gets a lot of clients right away. They become overwhelmed. Instead of panicking, find a follow through who can help create a system to handle all of the new clients. The quick start can return the favor by sharing how they marketed themselves to get so many clients so quickly. You are able to receive information and pay back the favor immediately. Many successful businesses will tell you that paying it forward and sharing creates more opportunities, not less. So when you find yourself in a bind, instead of retreating and announcing defeat, look to the people around you and see how you can turn your mistake into a new achievement. 

      Doubtful? Trust me, it works! I am a fact finder. For a particular project, I researched all the facts, put a plan together and sent it out into the world. I didn’t get a response I was expecting. My initial response was to call it a failure and move on. Then I realized maybe I needed another pair of eyes. I found a follow through who saw what I missed in my fact finding planning. This element was reorganized and implemented differently. Then, viola! the initial failure became a success.

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