Red Flags in Potential Partners
Every potential relationship – personal or professional – has signs that can alert you of things to come… some pointing to a good future and some to a bad future. When it comes to business partners, for example, you might find yourself working with an open-minded thinker who wants to brainstorm with you and doesn’t care about who gets credit for ideas, but you might also find yourself working with someone who thinks your personal experience is a liability and would prefer to bend your ideas into their own pre-existing narrative.
Never fear, dear reader – you’ve come to an oracle of red flags to keep an eye out for in all of your potential business relationships. Below, you’ll find a list of danger signs you can keep in the back of your mind the next time you’re pitching to an investor, meeting with a potential collaborator, or getting ready to kick off a new partnership. Some of these warning signs are small and seemingly innocuous and some are larger and, one would think, blaring danger calls – the figurative rattlesnake rattle of the professional world. In our experience, it can be easy to overlook these warning signs, explaining them away to ourselves or choosing to ignore them in the hopes things will change. We hope this helps you identify red flags more effectively so you can avoid the heartache of a business relationship gone sour… which, to be honest, can sometimes be just as challenging to navigate as a romantic relationship gone sour.
What to look out for in a business partner
Says ‘always be selling’ or anything from the movie Boiler Room
We’re not sure when this started, but it’s become popular to use the Glengarry Glen Ross quote “always be closing” in business contexts… displaying a complete misreading of the source material and also potentially creating a toxic, bro-ish atmosphere. Unless you’re Alex Baldwin – young Alex Baldwin, actually – you should never utter this phrase as a motivator and you should be hesitant to work with anyone who would. A similar warning applies to anyone who lists Boiler Room as one of their favorite movies and doesn’t realize that everyone in that movie is a villain.
A secondary red flag when it comes to quotes: anyone who uses the Glengarry Glen Ross quote “coffee is for closers.” People who say this will ruin your morning and probably be a jerk in weekly updates.
Questions the logistics of a business pitch, not the pitch itself
When you’re building a partnership with someone, in business or your personal life, it’s important to find someone who will be a creative and intellectual collaborator. If your prospective partner only wants to talk about the format of your slides, why you’re pitching a business solo, or whether you know the right people – pretty much anything but the ideas at hand – they’re probably only going to weigh you down and you should just turn around and walk out the door.
Can’t understand any problems they don’t have
Honestly this can be a tough mental hurdle to get over, but being unable to recognize problems that you haven’t directly experienced will make someone a limited asset in problem solving. Recognizing problems that one doesn’t suffer from directly requires a sense of compassion for, and interest in, other people. You want someone who can be nimble, thoughtful, and capable of empathizing with others’ perspectives in order to problem solve creatively. All of this is impossible if they can’t even recognize a problem exists.
Unable to see things can be different from how they are
We can never fully understand all of the problems we could possibly solve, but you should be wary of the person who thinks a problem doesn’t exist or isn’t serious just because they don’t fully understand a problem or haven’t personally experienced it. These people are the opposite of Chicken Little – they don’t believe the sky is falling but that’s because they’ve never bothered to look up.
Sees a woman and immediately feels doubt
Doubting the potential of an idea or a partnership because it is spearheaded by a woman is the red wedding of warning signs - don’t linger any longer, just turn around and leave. Women are frequently given fewer opportunities and second guessed more often than their male counterparts due to inherent biases against women.
Don’t work with people who doubt others based on immutable characteristics like gender, race, or ethnicity… You can do better and they should be better.
We hope this guide helps you avoid problematic relationships. It isn’t a complete list of red flags (of course, also look out for men with beards and hats, dogs whose eyes shift back and forth, and people who like Hawaiian pizza), but it should help you think through what types of behaviors and personalities you’re looking for in productive partnerships.
