Your Trusted Partner

A Strategy for Helping You See the Forest as Well as the Trees for Accelerated Goal Achievement

Goals, promises, intentions—often easily made and then just as easily broken. What is the different between a goal conceived and a goal achieved? Well, it just might be the accountability that is so often missing as we seek to complete the steps for accomplishing our goals.

A valuable strategy for holding yourself accountable to your commitments, whether to yourself or to others who are counting on you, is to discover a compatible “trusted partner” who will hold your feet to the fire once you set your goals.

With which of the following do you have the most in common?

a pack of wolves
cirrus clouds
giant redwood trees
the Mickey Mouse statue at Disneyworld

If you guessed c. giant redwood trees, you are correct (at least for the purpose of this article!) Read on to discover what you (and most of us) have in common with these uncommonly beautiful trees. Then make your commitment to build the trusted partner relationship that invites accelerated goal achievement in your life!

"We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more."
- The Writings of Madame Swetchine.

There are forests that are home to some of the most magnificent trees are earth—giant redwood trees.*

These giants can live up to 2000 years, weigh up to 500 tons, and grow more than 350 feet tall. However, they hide a secret. Their root system is surprisingly shallow with their root systems often a mere six to ten feet deep. How is their longevity and growth possible? Why don’t they succumb to the weakness of their root system?

Their shallow roots intertwine with each other for life. Their interwoven shallow roots provide a web of strength that help trees clump together for enduring stormy weather. Their shallow roots interlock to sustain and feed groups of trees as they grow taller and stronger and more durable.

What a great analogy for our discussion of trusted partners as we look at this strategy for achieving our goals with greater clarity, more quickly, and with greater outcomes.

Look up the word partner and you’ll see references to “players” who work from the same side and to people who act as agents for another. Look up the word trust and you’ll see the reference to responsibility. I like these ideas---- people who are willing to accept responsibility to pull together on each other’s behalf.

“Two heads are better than one”. “Many hands make light work”. “Together we can do so much”. These are more than enduring quotes. Trusted partners can identify the best, bring out the best, and applaud the best in each other.

Trusted partners--- people who are willing to accept responsibility to pull together on each other’s behalf. Let’s consider key ideas for making this strategy work for your goal achievement.

Decide whether a trusted partner is a blessing or a hindrance to your time management as well as to the quality of your goal achievement. Consider specific benefits of a trusted partner and the extent to which you want these benefits. Specific value includes a listening ear who can offer a different perspective, feedback that can address your “blind” spots, shared troubleshooting, shared learning, affirmation of your efforts, and focused questioning to assure progress towards your goals.
Decide on guidelines that are important to you in developing a trusted relationship. Guidelines to be considered include a commitment to confidentiality, a willingness to be open and honest, availability that works for those involved, a comfort with the style of giving feedback, a willingness for providing encouragement, and respect for each other’s intelligence.
Determine a process for working together as trusted partners. One variation on 40 minutes use of time is to share it in this way with 15 minutes dedicated to each person:

5 min. —Greet one another, reminder of objectives of meeting together and a reminder of the guidelines for conversations.

5 min. —Express progress on goal(s) and express challenges for which feedback would be helpful.

10 min. —Invite your partner to provide ideas/input on your progress and/or challenges.

5 min. Affirm progress; set a next meeting time.
Consider content that helps you evaluate planning and progress on your goals. One area of conversation that may emerge for you and your partner are obstacles to your goals. You may think of others. In fact, the more specific you can be in expressing your obstacles, the better your conversations will be for identifying specific strategies to resolve them. Five areas of potential concern include: fear of risk, fear of change, fear of failure, lack of confidence, and too many things to do. Which one(s) of these are troubling to you? Can you be specific about your concern in relation to achieving your goals? What commitment are you willing to make to ideas that can help resolve this concern as an obstacle?

Another area of conversation to consider is sharing ideas for the kinds of strategies that help each of you achieve your goals more quickly and richly. Again, you may think of others, but here are nine to start your progress.

I know the resources needed to achieve my goals.
I can easily ask for help when needed.
I accept the ownership of achieving my goals.
I minimize interruptions that block my progress.
I am flexible to changes that may affect my progress towards goals.
I am clear about the benefits of achieving my goals.
I am disciplined and persistent about working toward my goals.
I review my progress on a regular basis.
I only pursue the activities that are related to achieving my goals.

Make the trusted partner commitment for a specific period of time. Determine a set time for beginning and ending the commitment. This provides a graceful way to experience, evaluate, and then change the process to be even more meaningful to you and those with whom you work.

Redwood trees survive and thrive because they have other trees for strength and sustenance. Strength and sustenance is also enjoyed between trusted partners who encourage, motivate and even insist on each other’s success. Make the decision to be the kind of trusted partner that you seek.

*Thank you to Chris Adsit who gave the idea for this analogy in his article Partners in Pursuit in the online publication of Worldwide Challenge, July/August 1998, Vol. 25, #4.

By Susan B. Wilson, President, Executive Strategies