Are you an asset or a responsibility?

Make yourself a partner and offer value

and

Feb 18, 2025

Hello, it’s Ethan & Jason. Welcome to today’s article of Level Up: Your source for executive insights, high performance habits, and specific career growth actions.

Four FYIs:

Watch Ethan’s interview with Peter Yang. How to get unstuck in your career in 5 steps, building trust at your company, and life after Amazon. Watch here.
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A client once asked me: "How can I get more of you and connect more with you?"

We all want our managers or advisors to invest in us, and there is one way to get them to do that—here’s the rule:

"Do something that turns you into a partner. Become an asset not a responsibility."

This is how you can increase your connection with and the investment from your manager, coach, mentor, from what they "must" do for you as a job responsibility to what you *want* them to do as an investment in you.

At Amazon, I would do things for my partners that I would not do for anyone else. I would stay late or take away from family time to help them, and they would do the same for me. This was more than my normal employees or managers would get from me.

The same is true of my clients today. I give every client 100% value, but if they want 120% value they need to become a partner. They can't buy more of my time, nor can they guilt me into it.

The only way out of the client bucket is to become a partner.

So, what is a partner?

A partner is someone you work with—you don’t work “for” them or them for you.

It is a collaborative relationship, even if there is a reporting dynamic involved. The way to build a partnership is to find a way to bring the other person value that they need and cannot get better or cheaper somewhere else.

You can do this by helping them with tasks that they struggle with due to personality or skill reasons, or by providing them with bright ideas, stimulating conversation, or even emotional support. And, as a partner you are not interested simply in what you will get but instead in what you both will get out of a successful relationship.

Most importantly, partnership begins with a mindset, not a specific action.

To get more out of your manager/coach, start by asking yourself this:

Are you mentally ready to commit to the manager's well being both as a person and a professional?
If you are not ready to make that commitment to them, why should they make it to you? After all, they pay you to do your job. So if all you are going to do is your job and nothing deeper, just cash your paycheck.

The best managers extend the offer of partnership first; they know the value of partnership so they try to create it. But…only superhuman managers might extend the offer to you while you do nothing to help. Take the opportunity if it is offered, but if it isn’t, commit to going first and creating it. Read my Magic Loop for a 5-step framework on how to do this effectively (or if you prefer a one hour video on-demand course, check it out here).

Offer value and make yourself a partner.

Each creates their reputation, choose the one you want.