SMART LEADERS, SMART PARTNERS

In the emerging information and connection economy, interpersonal relationships act as transmission conduits, as connectors. Computers regularly send digital messages back and forth, but humans convert those bytes and bits into something of value: a new product, market, or service. That value grows exponentially when two or more people get together and in a creative blitz turn something ordinary into something extraordinary. The genius at work does not reside in any one person; it resides in a culture that enables people to do what they do.

People add value whether by serving customers, building or selling products, or running the business. When employees are treated as trusted partners in an enterprise, they are freed up to pool their collective creative energies for the benefit of the business as a whole. Smart partners enable robust creativity by building an organization culture that encourages as many connections as possible. More connections produce more good ideas; more good ideas result in more great ideas; and more great ideas deliver extraordinary innovation. Paradoxically, an abundance view of the world stimulates creativity, and creativity in turn fuels abundance.

In short, smart partners drive creativity by increasing the frequency, the frankness, and the fruitfulness of interpersonal connections, dialogue, and collaboration. An organization's leaders can take three steps to keep and grow smart partners:

• Build loyalty and a sense of duty

• Coach people to grow informal communication networks (pathways)

• Strengthen relationship skills: (1) the diversity management skills of leaders and (2) the partnering skills of employees

Leaders in Paul's position, or leaders who don't want to end up in Paul's position, would profit from understanding the concrete ways in which they can implement this three-pronged approach for keeping and growing smart partners. Growing loyalty is no longer just an option, and top managers must understand that they contribute greatly to their organization's culture. Informal networks serve as the hidden pathways over which information, ideas, and resources can continue to be exchanged in an elusive, fast-moving marketplace. Inbreeding of ideas leads to groupthink and the risk of missing the obvious. Leaders are required to manage a new kind of diversity, and employees require partnering skills to get others not only to tolerate such diversity, but also to cherish it as the fuel of creativity. Together, these three key action steps will help you keep and grow the people who make your business a success.

We begin this chapter by addressing the first two: building loyalty and a sense of duty, and coaching people on how to grow informal communication networks. Later we discuss strengthening leaders' relationship skills. The partnering skills of employees, as informed by a thorough understanding of the Six Partnering Attributes, are covered in more detail in Chapters 8–10.