Amazon.com Review
In today's increasingly complex business world, partnerships are continually becoming more important and more ubiquitous. Along with those traditional relationships customarily forged between colleagues working for the same company, however, the associations crafted between customers, vendors, unions, and even competitors may actually be the ones that ultimately make or break a business venture. And Chip R. Bell and Heather Shea, consultants as well as top-level executives, believe that the usually neglected "irrational, illogical and emotional" aspects of such coalitions are the real keys to their success. They dissect the heart and soul of these critical alliances in
Dance Lessons: Six Steps to Great Partnerships in Business & Life, and in the process offer pragmatic suggestions for forming, maintaining, and, when necessary, dissolving them. Building on the metaphor identified in their title, prolific author Bell and former dancer-actor Shea convincingly point out the unexpected similarities that exist between partnerships in the boardroom and partnerships on the dance floor--and persuasively outline the benefits that can be derived from proficiency at each. "Partnerships are forever becoming and never complete," they write. "Like great dances, great partnerships are never perfect; there is always another lesson to be learned, another routine to be practiced."
--Howard Rothman
From the Back Cover
Build Great Partnerships and Dance Your Way to Success In today's business world, partnerships have become increasingly essential to success. In this comprehensive guide, authors Chip Bell and Heather Shea offer an in-depth look at how you can successfully manage partnerships and build them with substance-passion, quality, heart, and soul. Dance Lessons features:
- New perspectives to help you decide if partnership is right for you
- Exciting tools for selecting the right form of partnership
- Important techniques to help you get emotionally prepared to partner
- Smart ways to accurately pick good partners
- Engaging activities to help you practice your partnership skills
- Effective methods for dealing with difficult partners and partnerships
- Vital cues that tell you when a partnership is ready to end, and helpful tips on how to end it
- Insights on how to manage external factors that effect partnership success
- Practical resources to help you continue to learn about effective partnering Dance Lessons shows how to develop meaningful, ethical, and soulful partnerships in every interaction throughout your work and your life. "Successful partnerships are not built on deals and contracts. They work because of the heart and soul of the relationships. Dance Lessons is a terrific instruction guide for making all your partnerships successful."
-J. W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO, Marriott International, Inc. "Winning football, a crowd-pleasing dance, and great partnerships share many of the same secrets. Dance Lessons is a must-read for anyone wanting a championship partnership."
-Joe Theismann, former Quarterback for the Super Bowl Champion Washington Redskins "Partnership! It's what makes marriages, friendships, and businesses work. Always has... always will. As long-time life and business partners, we found Dance Lessons confirming, compelling, and cutting edge."
-Marjorie and Ken Blanchard, Co-Founders, Blanchard Training & Development "Dance Lessons is a concise and practical guide to building personal and business relationships that are as fun and profitable as Rogers and Astaire."
-Larry Wilson, Founder, Pecos River Learning, and author of Stop Selling, Start Partnering!
