In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick explores the core drivers behind successful and failing partnerships across business, personal, and collaborative contexts. He argues that two foundational elements—clear, mutually understood expectations and strong, consistent communication—are essential; when either is mismanaged, partnerships tend to break down. Gubernick details how expectations should cover roles, responsibilities, short‑ and long‑term visions, and contingency plans, and stresses that these expectations must be revisited continuously. He emphasizes communication frequency, transparency, and the sharing of both objective data and emotions as the conduit for trust. Additional variables such as personality fit, commitment level, and external forces (e.g., market shifts) are acknowledged, but he maintains they can be mitigated through the primary two pillars. The episode concludes with reflective questions for listeners to assess past partnership failures and current partnership considerations, and offers concrete advice: document expectations, outline communication rhythms, and create objective if‑then response plans for potential challenges.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today we're going to be talking about partnerships, specifically what makes for a great partnership and why partnerships go awry, why they go sideways, why they fail. I've had an opportunity to be in a number of partnerships, not just in business, but outside of the office as well. Friendships, my marriage, collaboration with others, but within business, I've done different joint ventures. I partnered on different business endeavors. I partnered in teaching and coaching and doing all sorts of things. I think many of our listeners You've all partnered in something at some time. And there's reasons why partnerships flourish. And they do so for an extended period of time, if not indefinitely. And then there's reasons why they in fact fall apart. Having had the opportunity to be in so many partnerships, many good ones and some not so good ones, as well as conversing with so many of you in business and just friends in life, I've got a pretty good read, I think, on what drives for great partnerships and those that, that don't succeed. So I want to dive into that. Okay. I'm a firm believer there are two primary things that must exist in order for a partnership to flourish, to, to be a successful one. And these two things, if in fact they're not honored or they don't show up in the partnership, they are the exact reason why partnerships fail. These two things. Number one, expectations. Expectations must be managed. Maybe better said, when expectations are mismanaged, partnerships fail. Now, when I talk around expectations, it applies to various aspects of the partnership, but probably the most important part of expectations, like where it most uh, where expectations most have to be understood is in expectations for one another, expectations for each of the partners. In other words, if I have a partner, I need to know exactly what to expect of him or her, and she or he needs to know exactly what to expect of me. When we are unclear as to one another's roles and responsibilities, objectives, You know, what makes for a successful partnership or being a partner. If we're unclear on those things, then it is the recipe for disaster. So the most successful partnerships that I've ever been part of in business and in life, they start with very clear expectations, expectations for one another, as well as clear expectations for the partnership in general. Where do we want to go? What is our common vision? What is the overall objective? Not just in 3 months or 6 months or 1 year, but for 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and indefinitely. Now, clearly projecting a vision for decades is a difficult thing to do, but at the very least, we have to have a short-term vision that we agree upon. We've got to have a long-term vision that we agree upon, and we certainly have to have a vision for one another in terms of what our roles and responsibilities and objectives are. So when these things are missing, when I'm unclear with respect to what you can expect, with respect to what you could expect from me, and you're unclear around what I could expect from you, things without a, without question can go sideways. Now, this is not just a conversation that is had at the very start of the partnership or just prior to starting the partnership. This is an ongoing dialogue, which kind of leads to part 2 or number 2. The second reason, the second thing that makes or breaks a partnership is communication. Communication. Great communication is one of the biggest drivers, one of the most significant factors to a successful partnership. And poor communication is one of the most significant factors in partnership failures. Understanding one another, having clarity, having frequency of interaction, having consistency of interaction, Constantly communicating, disclosing all things to one another, both objective and subjective matters, like, like objective data, but even emotions. Having clear communication leads to transparency, leads to trust. But having the opposite, having poor communication, leads to discouragement, confusion, lack of clarity, and, and sometimes even a feeling of resentment towards the other partner. So the two things again, we need to have very clear expectations and we need to be very, very strong communicators. If you can in fact outline expectations and you align on them and you can communicate effectively, odds are you will have a great partnership. If these things go off the rails, if they, if they get off, if they get lost, right, in the, in the, the hectic business that you're creating or whatever it may be, you better bring it back. You better bring focus back to these things because the momentum can be created in the wrong direction and miscommunication and misunderstanding around expectations can amount. There are other things that impact partnerships. Things like personality, how we fit with one another. Things like commitment. How committed are you to, you know, the, the, the partnership and the objective? Maybe it's other external factors that can impact the partnership, like economic downturns or changes in the industry. Maybe it's changes in your skillset. Maybe it's, you know, energy. There's lots of variables, but I do believe that all of these variables that I just mentioned and others that I did not mention, they could all be addressed by having very clear expectations of the partnership and communicating. So the focusing questions for you today. Number 1, if you look back over your business and your life, where have you had partnerships that did not go in the direction you hoped they would? Maybe they started off strong but fell apart. Reflect on those partnerships. Now, in reflecting on those partnerships, was it possible that there was mismanaged expectations for one another? Was there confusion around expectations? Is it possible that if it wasn't expectations, maybe it was a breakdown in communication? Maybe we were just not effective in the way we were communicating with one another. Maybe frequency was off. Maybe message was lost. Maybe we just never had a great rhythm. Maybe it was a combination of both expectations and communication, but do you see the breakdown? Now the next focusing question would be, where are you currently in your world considering a partnership? And in that consideration, in that partnership you're considering, how do you feel about the expectations that you've set for one another as well as the communication methods or patterns that you have put in place or considering putting in place? If you haven't thought about expectations and communication, how can you address that right now? Get super clear, outline it, literally outline it, write it down, document it. Here's what I expect of you. Here's what you could expect of me. Here's how we're going to communicate. Here's what it looks like. Here's our schedule of communication. I know this sounds maybe over the top in, in, in, in life, And it is to some extent, but in business, I think it's so clear, or so important, I should say, to outline not what works when times are good, but outline a plan for the opposite. If things go sideways, right? To me, that is managing expectations. Expectations, not just in good times, but expectations in times of struggle. How are we going to react? I want to get super clear. I want to objectively put it all out on the table now. Draft these if-then sort of statements, again, setting expectations around if this happens, then we're going to react in that way. Make it objective and unemotional so that if and when something does occur, we are super clear with one another. We've communicated already around our action steps. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day, brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
