I’ve met a lot of business partners who work diligently in their business: focused on sales, the bottom line, customer service, business expansion, or just keeping up with the challenges of this economy.

While these partners work “in” the business, they rarely work “on” the business. They face daily challenges together, but rarely work on their own relationship.

In other words, they keep running their car on bald tires and oil that hasn’t been changed for 100,000 miles.

We all know that cars break down. But with regular maintenance the breakdowns are less frequent and easier to fix. For example, a badly worn tire can burst and take the vehicle off the road — whereas regular maintenance can identify and resolve a slow leak in its early stages.

What happens if we don’t pay attention to business relationships in the same way? Small problems get worse and more challenging to fix. Untended, business relationships can go from a slow downward spiral into a drastic spin, or even free-fall.

How to maintain your business partnership:

1. Schedule working sessions to focus on your relationship with your partner(s), and then diligently adhere to the schedule.
2. Schedule these sessions at a specific time and place, weekly or bi-weekly. The meetings don’t need to be formal; in fact, the more relaxed they are, the better. Pressing business or tensions may cloud the atmosphere; so avoid a heart-to-heart talk when you’re extremely angry and want to really let your partner have it.
3. Don’t let seemingly more important issues get in the way.
4. Go off-site and turn off all mobile devices.
5. Let the discussion be about your relationship: how you work with each other, what’s working and what isn’t, which of your needs are being met and which are not.
6. Truly listen. Pay attention to what’s being said as well as what’s not being said.
7. If necessary, or helpful, ask an outside expert to sit in on the discussion. The expert will likely notice things that you don’t, and can facilitate conversation.
8. If your relationship is strained or challenged, it’s even more important to include an impartial outside expert. The sooner you do this, the better. Problems tend to fester and expand. If unattended, they may require a radical reorganization or become “beyond repair”.

For any relationship, at any stage, there is hope for improvement. With good will, good intentions and good skills, any relationship can be improved.

What are the benefits?

The work “in” the business becomes less draining, and more productive, fun, joyful and peaceful. And the more often you work “on” the business, the easier it becomes.

What gets modeled at the top gets copied down the ranks. Trust increases and renews. The work atmosphere becomes lighter, more enjoyable, and joy trickles down throughout the organization.

A little regular maintenance goes a long way – and your most important business relationship is definitely worth it!