Becoming an Expert Business Partner
The Challenge
Have you recently restructured to enable your support functions to work as business partners across different areas of the business? Do you work in a function that needs to work collaboratively with the business, such as HR, Learning & Development, Organisational Development, Finance, Marketing, Quality, Information Services, Internal Communications & Media, Data Analytics, or Supply Chain? Or perhaps you are a Learning and Development specialist who needs to support people making this transition?
How do you build your confidence and skill set to be able to build trusting relationships with senior colleagues? How do you manage effective conversations with them about business strategy, business change or overcoming complex or deep-seated problems? Above all, how do you position yourself as someone worth talking to?
We can develop your skills to enable you to help others: make effective business decisions, facilitate change, develop credibility and manage successful business partnerships, both internally and externally.
How We Can Help
We work with organisations to build the capability and confidence of Business Partners to establish and facilitate partnerships. These skills will include: stakeholder involvement, influencing skills, analysing problems and needs, as well as collaborating on solutions.
We run workshops that are geared to the level of seniority and experience of the audience and provide opportunities for them to practise with case study situations drawn from their own context. We are trained to use the ‘Verbalise’ observation and feedback system to identify specific areas of strength and areas for targeted improvement for each individual.
We provide easy to use tools and frameworks to equip business partners to effectively manage any business conversation. We encourage the use of alternative ways of thinking within the business, which make it easier for individuals to talk to each other about their requirements and feel comfortable digging beneath the surface of issues, to find sustainable solutions.
Our Business Partnering Programme
Our business partnering programme includes:
- Skills development in how to operate in ‘business partner’ rather than ‘expert’ mode
- Gathering important information at the outset of a discussion that will enable the business partner to question and challenge the client’s perspective, where necessary
- Analytical frameworks to understand their business situation and needs
- Measuring the impact and costs of current problems, as well as the full extent of the benefit to the business of solving the problem
- Tools and techniques to get closer to the client and develop effective ongoing relationships
- Managing the progression around the different phases of the Business Partnering Cycle
- Using diagnosis techniques and skills to identify, develop understanding of and clarify problems and needs
- Influencing others, if necessary, through expanding perception of their problems and needs
- Working in partnership to create practical and appropriate solutions
- Generating ownership and commitment to quality solutions
- Identifying additional areas of work that are needed for the solution to be successful
Contact us to talk through how we can support you in this area and how we can help develop your people’s capability.
Who We Work With
We have run these courses for clients from the following sectors:
- Bio-technology
- Business Services
- Consumer Goods
- Distilleries and Wineries
- Finance
- Food Services
- Telecommunications
- Technology Services
- Utilities