A Great Question To Keep At The Front Of Your Mind To Be A Better Business Partner

Business partnering in finance and other functional areas like IT, procurement and HR is seen as the big thing.

After all many of these functional professionals talk about wanting to have a wider role, make a difference, add value, provide insight and be integral to the success to an entire business or area they support.

Of course moving from being a very traditional functional professional to a business partner is much more than changing the job title.

It’s more than having access to the best IT.

In many respects being a great business partner is just as much about your thinking as it is skills.

Some functional professionals just have that knack of working as a partner.

For others it’s more of a struggle or challenge.

When I think about business partnering there’s one great question that’s really worth keeping at your front of mind.

The question is incredibly simple. 

Equally it’s the type of question that keeps you focused.  It’s the type of question that reminds you that the role is different to a traditional functional professional.

So what’s this great question?

How can I help?

If you use this question you will be keeping the service focus of business partnering front of mind.

So let’s look at this from different functional professional perspectives and see how the basic question can be expanded.

Finance Business Partner

IT Business Partner

Procurement Business Partner

HR Business Partner

As a professional in your field you will know what other questions to ask.  The important thing is to being a better business partner is to keep that focus on service.