Where Partnerships Actually Break

If you've ever had a partnership that should have worked, the right people, the right capability, the right ambition, but somehow it slipped into frustration or friction, you're not alone.

One of the most eye-opening sections in my new report, It Takes Two, looked at exactly this:

Where relationships actually break down.

And here's the thing… it's rarely the big moments that cause the damage.

It's the small, everyday behaviours.

• The missed context.
• The shifting expectations.
• The delayed feedback that leaves a team second-guessing what "good" looks like.

Agencies told me, over and over, that the cracks usually begin long before anyone notices them. A lack of clarity here. A bit of micromanagement there. A silence that slows momentum and leaves the agency unsure where they stand.

None of it is intentional.

But it is cumulative.

And that's the reality of partnership needing to be a two-way street: both sides can unintentionally make the work harder without realising it.

One agency leader put it perfectly:

"We can deal with tight timelines. We can deal with tough feedback. What's harder is silence, shifting priorities, or not being trusted to do the job we were hired for."

These small moments matter because they chip away at the very thing partnerships depend on: clarity and trust.

When expectations are aligned, partnership feels effortless.

When they're not, even simple projects feel heavy.

The real question

So the real question for us as leaders is this:

How do we notice the cracks early, before they become faults?

And how do we build relationships where both sides feel confident, informed, and able to do their best work?

If you want to dive deeper into what really breaks partnerships, and how to strengthen yours, you can download the full report: It Takes Two, What Agencies Need from Clients to Build Brilliant Partnerships.

This is just the first topic I'll be pulling from the report in the coming weeks. There's a lot more to explore, including what really builds trust and why long-term relationships outperform short-term ones every single time.

Jo x