Finding Balance in Business Partnerships
2024.05.09.

Lately, I’ve been grappling more intensely with a question: How can I effectively work with others, or more precisely, how should I collaborate to ensure the process is effective? Where do the boundaries lie between when I need to be actively involved and when I should step back and let others take the lead, let others make the decisions? And I’m not talking about the traditional boss-subordinate hierarchical relationship here.

For nearly 25 years, I ran companies as an owner. The business was always mine (entirely, or almost entirely), I financed it, and I made all the critical decisions. Even when I transitioned from an autocratic system to a collaborative (but not democratic) corporate structure, I still retained control. However, since 2022, I’ve been operating in completely different systems. In some, I’m an investor; in others, a silent partner; and in some, I just finance the project without necessarily overseeing all the details because it’s not my idea. I’m involved in various models, but the common thread is that my partner is the expert in the professional part and is the one executing the project.

In these collaborations, I’ve often found myself seeing business issues differently, structuring strategy differently, and sometimes even having a different opinion on professional matters. Besides the professional and business points, there’s also the question of how to handle each issue humanely. When should I push my opinion and be firm, not yielding in the debate? When should I step back and let my partner make the decision, or allow them to struggle with the challenges?

Sometimes this whole thing reminds me of parenting, where I have similar questions :) and perhaps, just as with my kids, I should trust my instincts in these business projects, not overthink them, and move forward by taking on the risks. Life will show whether I’m doing it right.

And I do let go, but still, Excel is Excel :) It’s good to have principles by which I examine my decisions. From the intense experiences of the past two years, I’ve drawn these conclusions:

Decision-Making Dynamics

Transitioning from the primary decision-maker role to a supportive role was a significant shift. It’s a path where I’ve had to learn to trust others' expertise and visions. Although I have two and a half decades of experience, a few notable successes, and perhaps deep business insights, my partners bring fresh perspectives and specialized knowledge that are invaluable to the projects. Alongside this, finding the right balance between offering helpful advice and ensuring autonomy is critical. Here’s how I try to handle these situations:

When I Step into Decisions (something I didn’t always do in the past):

Critical Decisions: If a particular decision significantly impacts the overall operation of the company or the financial "health" of the project, it’s important for me to strongly express my viewpoint.
Experience-Based Insights: Using my experience as a business leader and entrepreneur to highlight potential pitfalls or opportunities that may not be immediately apparent to others. At the very least, ensuring that the other party clearly understands what I’m conveying.
Alignment with Core Values: Ensuring that decisions align with the project’s core values and long-term vision. We often make decisions that are advantageous in the short term but steer us away from our original goals.

When I Let Go and Allow Others to Decide and Act:

Professional Matters: Trusting the experts to make the best decisions in their field. I’ve never questioned whether my dentist is drilling my tooth correctly. If I didn’t trust that, I’d switch immediately.
Creative Freedom: When I was building my own company, I had a bunch of ideas that others found odd. But they worked. I love things that are different from conventional models, so I let these ideas flow freely with my partners as well.
Experiential Learning: There are times when you have to let others walk into a "trap." Some things need to be experienced early on so that they hurt on a small scale—because if someone experiences them on a larger scale, they might never recover.

Parallels with Parenting

Interestingly, this balancing act often reminds me of parenting. Just like with my kids, there are moments in business partnerships where I have to decide whether to intervene or let the other person face their challenges. What do I need for both:

Trust and Patience: Believing in my partners' abilities and being patient while they overcome their challenges on their own.
Supportive Presence: Being available to offer support without overshadowing their efforts or ideas.
Encouraging Independence: Fostering a sense of responsibility and ownership in my partners, much like how I encourage my kids to make their own decisions.

In summary, this can be incredibly difficult... Sometimes I think I should just drop it all and go back to doing something on my own. But I love this—I love experiencing this new situation, I love watching people walk their own paths in their own ways and at their own pace. Just like I deeply love my kids, even if they sometimes drive me up the wall.

The article was translated from Hungarian to English by ChatGPT. Thank you, ChatGPT, for being here.

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