One of the independent experts who supports me in my business is my programmer, who has been working with me for about three years now. My tech guy (as I like to call him) and I are in the midst of several big projects. In working together, it reminds me about how awesome the dynamic is when you work with someone with whom you have an ongoing relationship. Not to mention just being able to delegate work so that my brain stays free for ideating (to borrow the term from the IBM commercial)!
That’s not to say that I just throw work at him and forget it. It’s a participatory process. I need to pay attention to his questions as they come up, and respond in a timely manner. I appreciate his skills and attention and responsiveness, and I give him the respect of responding quickly to him when he needs feedback from me. He is doing work that is important to me, after all, and it would be both rude and wasteful to make him wait on me for an undue amount of time. The wonderful thing is that there’s a mutual respect that occurs in this dynamic, one that creates a whole other creative level for brainstorming and innovation to occur.
And you know, it’s like this with Administrative Consultants as well. The participatory process that is inherent in the collaborative partnership is why clients are able to accomplish so much more with an Administrative Consultant. The back-and-forth give-and-take creates a synergy that allows you to work together at a higher, more productive level. And the longer you work together and get to know each other, the easier all of that gets.
You can’t get that kind of dynamic working with someone impersonally or only occasionally on a transactional basis. It’s something that only comes by working in close, one-to-one partnership with someone over a period of time. The longer you work together, the more your shared body of knowledge grows and the more cohesively and intuitively you are able to mesh, think and work in sync.
Thanks for commenting. Yeah, the virtual assistant term is really completely idiotic to...
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[...] Get Your Synergy On – I really like this article. It talks about the author’s (Danielle Keister) relationship with her IT Guy. Wait – not that kind of relationship! It talks about her professional relationship and how well they mesh with one another. The importance of being able to work with another person closely and fluidly on projects is the key to success. Danielle really did a good job by stating, ” You can’t get that kind of dynamic working with someone impersonally or only occasionally on a transactional basis. It’s something that only comes by working in close, one-to-one partnership with someone over a period of time.” [...]