Skills and Abilities for Successful Partnerships

Working in successful partnerships does take certain skills and abilities. Partnerships work when two or more parties can come to an agreement on a clear and mutually beneficial vision. Partnerships require those involved to find creative solutions, accept diversity of people and ideas, explore different approaches and build upon shared interests.

Partnerships work when two or more parties can come to an agreement on a clear and mutually beneficial vision.

Some key skills and abilities for partnership include:

• Negotiation Skills: The desire to create a situation in which all members are satisfied with the decision. Partners who perceive that they have been forced to concede generally do not serve the partnership well.
   
• Group processes and team building: Team building is inclusive and makes people feel comfortable and as though they belong. Being able to “read’ the group is a skill that comes with experience and is essential to balding healthy relationships.
   
• Planning skills: Planning assists in management and directing change and helps move the group from intent to action. Remember to use planning as tool, not a straitjacket that prevents action.
   
• Evaluation skills: Evolution determines what success should look like, what information is required to measure success, what process is needed to collect and analyze the information and how to present it in a useful way.
   
• Problem-solving and conflict resolution: Understand these techniques are important to group dynamics and should be included in the training plan for the partnership. Conflict typically arises from power struggles, low trust, and loss of focus and lack of leadership.
   
• Time management: This is a critical skill in a partnership because it involves balancing different schedules and levels of involvement. Partners don’t want to feel that their time is being wasted.
   
• Financial management: Partnerships have a responsibility to set a budget, live within it and be able to demonstrate that resources are being used both effectively and efficiently.
   
• Managing outside help: Outside assistance may be required when knowledge or expertise is not available from within the group. It is important to know what you want done and what the work should look like when it is finished.
   
• Working with volunteers: Some of the most common skills include sensitivity, respect for time, the ability to value skills developed outside the workforce, appreciation for different motivations, and retaining interest and enthusiasm.
   
• Stress management: Assess what is causing the stress and determine what part of the stress is related to the partnership. Talk openly about stress and recognize its potential impact. Handle stressful situations as they happen – they only get worse a time goes on.

*Excerpt from The Partnership handbook by Flo Frank and Anne Smith, Caledon Institute of Social Policy.