Dance Lessons

3

What Makes a

Great Partner?

O

his way to the front of the room to congratulate

Heather on her presentation on partnership fun-

damentals: “You have the makings of a powerful

book in that speech—and you should call it Dance

Lessons.” “Yes, we do,” she said, “and we will!”

Complying with Heather’s Partnership Funda -

mental #12—“Skip coffee or a drink and go for

food!”—they went to dinner to explore writing a

book together. Over the next few weeks, the

process of forming and nurturing their book-

writing partnership crystallized the wisdom and

warnings they wanted to share with their readers.

Twelve months later, the book you’re holding was

ready to go to press, and now the author-partners

appreciate even more how important it is to a

great partnership to choose a great partner.

53

ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE WAS CHIP. HEMADE

LESSON

54 STEP TWO: AUDITIONING

Heather on Chip

My company is named Inspiritrix. The word is derived

from a Latin word that means “one who inspires

another” or “dream carrier.” Chip is a dream carrier.

He pushes, pulls, and promotes me to live my dreams.

He’s also there when I need a friend, a good laugh, or

even an ear to help sort out life’s lessons. An extraordi-

narily talented teacher, he always treats me with the

utmost respect, acknowledging my value both to him

and to our partnership.

Chip on Heather

Heather is pure creativity. She looks at the world in a

refreshing way, describing it with passion and enthusiasm.

Her boundless energy and infectious brilliance fuel me to

reach for greater heights. She has amazing instincts and

can be bold in presenting them. When we met to work

on the book, her ideas came out so fast we only captured

some of them. We’ll need to write a sequel!

Great Partners

Fill Gaps

“S

how me the money!” was

surely the most memorable line in the box-office hit film Jerry

McGuire, but the second most memorable was the one Jerry

uttered to his wife as he sought to reconcile with her: “You

complete me.” Or, as Stallone’s title character in Rocky says

about his girlfriend to her brother, who thinks she’s homely:

“I have gaps and she has gaps. We fill in each other’s gaps.”

Great partnerships exhibit this kind of completion. Each

partner brings to the relationship capabilities and capacities the

other partner lacks: resources, competencies, co-op buying

opportunities, technologies, access. Thus, great partners seek

partners who are their superiors in some ways. Rather than

‘‘

Partnership

beginnings are all about

finding someone you can

be yourself with.

’’

—Geoff Bellman,

author of

Your Signature Path

cele brating their own remarkable talents in glorious isolation,

they choose to associate with others who surpass them in some

of the capabilities and resources they must have to achieve their

collective mission. They know that synergy is created by the

partnership rather than the individual partners.

“Partnership success is all about compatibility,” says Bob

Ellis, managing editor of the Daily American in West Frankfort,

Illinois. “If you’re compatible, it’s even possible to partner with

someone you might not particularly like.” Compatibility is

characterized by John Campbell, president of real estate man-

agement giant Brookfield Management Services, in this way: “If

[partnerships] work, it should be hard to tell where one partner

stops and the other begins. And it’s more than being ‘joined at

the hip.’ It’s about congruent values, common goals, and com-

plimentary approaches.”

Great Partners Are

Ready for Passion

Great partners are drawn to

ecstasy. They are ready for passion, capable of being swept

away—not gullibly, but in a purposeful openness to wonder-

ment. They are primed to be enamored by the possible, trea-

suring the process as much as the outcome. And though they

enjoy harmony, they take more pleasure in the energy of the

encounter. As one senior manager said of his relationship with

his counterpart in a supplier company, “Our partnership is

sometimes easygoing and sometimes feisty, but it’s always vig-

orous. I don’t think I’d want a relationship that wasn’t pretty

much wide awake all the time.”

“I’m on a mission in life to make a difference for women

and people of color,” says Eunice Azzani of New York–based

executive search firm Korn/Ferry International. “I call myself a

head farmer instead of a headhunter. I think if you really make

WHAT MAKES A GREAT PARTNER? 55

‘‘

Passionate partners

are more likely to suc-

ceed. They don’t get com-

placent, they don’t take

you for granted, and they

benefit all those around

them.

’’

—Javier Cano,

Marriott Marina Beach