Invest in Key Relationships

At Intertech, we don’t believe “nice guys finish last.” What we do believe is that trust is absolutely fundamental. Not surprisingly, we are intentional about building strong trusting relationships among partners. A weekly lunch and an annual ski trip takes the leadership away from the daily press of business and helps us reconnect on a more fundamental level. We also get together with our spouses a couple of times a year for dinner and conversation.

And to keep us from driving each other crazy in those little annoying everyday ways that can creep up when people are working in close proximity over a long time, we have personality profiles of each other. It’s a “cheat sheet” that we carry around in our binders to remind us who hates long winded descriptions and who struggles to make a decision that involves something unpleasant. The profiles are the result of personality testing similar to a Meyers Briggs test. I highly recommend it for any group of partners or managers who work closely together.

Tom's Takeaway: Understanding how we're all wired helps us work together in the most effective way possible…it’s also a lot more fun. Partners (or fellow managers or executives) should find ways to connect and look at the big picture as a team several times a year.