* * *
4. "I spent the time; my partner spent the dough." Constance and Carla pitched into CafÉ Latte Stores on a half-and-half basis. As their enterprise expanded past seven figures and 20 employees, Constance bore the brunt of the work, but Carla took home the same money. "You're more skilled at management and production than I am," is how Carla dismissed the inequity. "Well, I'm not going to carry you. However much I'm willing to do, I want you to be willing to do, too," Constance shot back -- in her head. She couldn't bring herself to challenge Carla out loud. "I have to walk on eggshells around her, or her emotions will explode." Constance's conundrum: "Carla won't work more, and it's not to my benefit to work less." Her consolation: "It's the different way we value things that's the problem. My reward isn't money -- it's doing a good job."
* * *
5. "My partner was a self helper -- to what was really mine." Bob was the leading biller at one corporate-design firm, Clarence the leader at its competitor. So, leaving their respective employers in a simultaneous lurch, they started their own company. Clarence argued that as the elder, with more experience, he risked more taking on Bob than Bob did taking on him. Therefore he, Clarence, claimed a majority. Bob acceded to a 49%-51% split and to a compensation arrangement by which, after divvying up expenses, each partner directly pocketed the fruits of his own sales. As expected, the first year Clarence earned more. The next year, though, Bob shot ahead as unexpected and requested reconsideration of the terms. "I urged Clarence to regard me not as a risk anymore but as an asset." Well, no asset's going to make more than I do, was Clarence's apparent response. He hired a support team -- for himself, not for Bob -- and stopped sending Bob the figures on which their take-home pay was based. Bob coaxed copies from the accounting department's computer and discovered that his partner had siphoned off more than $10,000. He went to Clarence and Perry-Masoned him. "OK, OK, I took it," his partner confessed. "But I deserved it; I had to manage that staff."
* * *
6. "What, me worry?" One day when Charles was in his partner's office, the phone rang. His partner pushed the speaker button. "Your lawyer called," the partner's secretary announced, "and said the name for your new corporation has been approved." So. He's dropping me, Charles rightly concluded. Let him. He'll have to buy me out according to the terms. But for how much? Charles got an arbitrator, his partner got an arbitrator, and the two arbitrators got an arbitrator. After months of bickering, all five got a judgment: the partner was to repay the capital that Charles put in 10 years back, plus 50%, parceled out over five years. Charles got the first parcel, but when the second was due, he received in its stead news that the partner had both thrown the company into Chapter 7 and declared personal bankruptcy.
TWENTY-FIVE ATTRIBUTES YOUR PARTNERS SHOULD POSSESS
(They Say the Same About You)
On the theory that combative partners blame others but are unaware of their own contributions to discord, business therapists Mardy Grothe and Peter Wylie ask coworkers in a business to evaluate one another on 25 critical leadership characteristics.
The anonymous tabulations divulge self-deceptions and usually motivate the offender to amend his or her ways. But for some, the returns are a red flag. In one instance, the companywide opinion on number 6 came out so overwhelmingly negative that the partner involved fired Wylie and Grothe on the spot. He then asked his wife, kids, and bridge club to rate him. The unanimous consensus: the partner's colleagues were right. The doctors were rehired.
Here are their benchmarks:
1) Is a good team player
2) Does his or her job competently and skillfully
3) Is a genuinely likable person
4) Is good at giving feedback to others
5) Is a good listener
6) Is open and receptive to feedback from others
7) Treats people with dignity and respect
8) Looks for "win-win" solutions to disagreements
9) Is good at facing up to tough problems
10) Is a person you can trust
11) Will "go to bat" for other people
12) Gets along well with almost everybody
13) Uses time efficiently and effectively
14) Will admit it or apologize when wrong
15) Has what it takes to be a good manager
16) Is a good problem solver
17) Speaks his or her mind, even when it's unpopular
18) Is well organized
19) Treats people fairly and equitably
20) Is good at giving compliments or positive feedback
21) Is enjoyable to be around
22) Is open to other people's ideas and opinions
23) Is levelheaded, even under stress
24) Presents ideas clearly and articulately
25) Has good people skills
© Peter Wylie and Mardy Grothe. All rights reserved.
TWO WHO MADE GOOD
Partners who make it work acknowledge one another's talents . . . and don't do one another's jobs
"Don't you tell me what to do. That's what we hired him for."
Not two, not three, but four brothers cofounded high-tech Scopus Technology Inc. in 1991 -- and they haven't argued yet. Their secret? The Sasson brothers have constituted a fiscal unit of sorts since their adolescence in London, during which their parents were often traveling on business. The youngest was clever at wheedling favors from the grocer; the oldest became good at passing for their father when officials demanded to see a parent. Another unifying factor, says CEO Ori Sasson, was their agreement to leave their salaried jobs at the same time. "We arranged it so that if the company went down, we'd go down with it together. It was do or die, so we put in incredible hours." Acknowledging their strong egos, they avoided overlap by each committing to a particular functionÑone to sales and marketing, another to operations, the third to technology, the fourth to financeÑand pledging to stay with it. Three years later the company reached $8 million and had 70 employees. The brothers didn't argue, but, admits youngest brother Ori, they did have "differences of opinion." Which reveals the real secret: "We went out and got a salaried president to act as referee."
