How to bring your business partnerships in line with your values

“It’s not you, it’s me…”

“We’re growing in different directions…”

“We’re just not on the same path through life anymore!’

Shaking up your entire business to reflect your values can feel like having an *extremely* difficult and awkward break up, over and over again. But if we want to make good on that meaningful contribution to the world that drives us (and keeps us up at night…) — then doing whatever it takes to work in a more aligned way is essential. 

More individuals and organisations are moving their businesses and careers in the direction of purpose. How can we do this with grace and kindness, whilst ensuring our businesses stay profitable and successful?

This article is all about the lessons we’ve learned from having those difficult but oh-so-necessary conversations. And we’re happy to say that many charities, agencies, businesses and solo-preneurs in our network are on this journey alongside us too. 

To see the kind of change the world needs, in the kind of timeframe it needs to happen — it’s time to get real with ourselves, show up with integrity, and follow through with big, radical action. And sometimes that means letting go of business relationships that don’t match where you’re headed.

Lesson 1: Do your homework on everybody you’re in partnership with. EARLY.

The earlier you do your research and assess whether a supplier, partner or client is a good match for your values, the less awkward it’s going to be if you want to swerve left and avoid.

Once you’re getting into contract signing stages, it’s WAY too late, and could become quite messy to extricate yourself from. 

This is why our number one tip is to solidly review your new relationships at the very earliest stages. 

Some good ideas that help with this are:

• Ask around in your team if anyone can think of any objections, or things to consider. Crowdsourcing the instincts of your collaborators saves the burden of vouching for the relationship from being all on one person too. 

• Do your research. Google them, look them up on TrustPilot, see if any negative comments on social media might be the smoke that suggests the fire.

• Ask the hard questions that you need to in the initial meeting. If you don’t feel completely reassured by everything that is said, then it might be worth trusting your gut and digging a little deeper.

Lesson 2: Embrace the awkwardness and inevitability of how judged people can feel when you try to uphold your business values 🙃

Say you failed to do your due diligence, or a red flag comes to light later in the process of a deal that may have left you questioning whether this partnership is in alignment with your values. 

Uh oh. You’re going to have to pull out. And they’re not going to like it ONE bit. 

It’s best to be as factual and neutral in your tone as you possibly can — while still explaining your reasons, and the validity of your concerns.

And remember — sometimes people just aren’t going to like having the ethical or environmental shortcomings in their business highlighted. But unless we start taking a stand, and demanding a certain standard from our associates — the world of business will never evolve fast enough to solve the problems we face in our world that we’re trying to fix through ethical practices.

Lesson 3: There’s no such thing as perfection, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t aim high.

Exceptional standards in your suppliers and your partnerships will have huge ripple effects throughout your business. Taking the time to truly understand how your business fits into the surrounding ecosystem of commerce and consumption will give you so much more control over where you sit in the market, and your impact on the world.

Just bear in mind that perfection is not possible in this messy global structure we call Planet Earth. 

And if mistakes come to light, the best thing to do is own them fully, rectify, and move on.

Final thoughts

So while there’s a lot of awkwardness to embrace when you’re aligning your business partnerships — you’ve gotta keep going.

Everything that’s awkward at first feels better with time and practice. The more diligently you stick to your business values, the better you feel about the integrity of your organisation. And integrity is power.

Know that you’ve done your bit to not only push your business forward, but by asking for better from the businesses around you. Clearly, there’s a lot for all organisations to learn when it comes to levelling up our sustainability, social justice and work culture practices.

So while it feels hard at times, making these hard choices and having these difficult conversations ultimately takes us in the direction we actually want to go.

Before you go!

Now you’re here why not check out our purpose led work? Giving a prominent voice to the unsaid, the hidden and the marginalised, we use our creativity and compassion make sure the right messages get in front of the right people at the right time. We help clients connect with audiences in a meaningful way that challenges perspectives and changes behaviour. To see more of our purpose led campaigns, and brands we’ve created check out our project page, or just holla us at the contact page.

A full list of our services can be found here.

If you’re a charity or work in the third section why not download our free ‘‘Top 5 Freebies for Charities and NonProfits’, which covers website, branding and video creation, at the link.