Dale A. Dauten - Better Than Perfect: How Gifted Bosses and Great Employees Can Lift the Performance of Those Around Them

Better than Perfect

by

Dale Dauten

How Gifted Bosses and Great Employees
Can Lift the Performance of
Those Around Them

Blank Page

Better than Perfect

by

Dale Dauten

How Gifted Bosses and Great Employees
Can Lift the Performance of
Those Around Them

For Joel and Jeri

Blank Page

May you live all the days of your life.-Jonathan Swift

Blank Page

Contents

"You Make Me Want to Be a Better Man"

The Company jewels

The Face of Creativity or "How Wonderful Could It Be?"

How Better-than-Perfect Colleagues Think Differently or In Praise of Lovably Unreasonable People

How Better-than-Perfect Colleagues Learn Differently or The Sexy Brain

How Better-than-Perfect Colleagues Communicate Differently or Growing an Organizational Third Eye

Max's Speech

Preface

"You make me want to be a better man." That grand compliment, spoken by Jack Nicholson in the film As Good As It Gets, echoed in my mind as I searched organizations for people who are as good as it gets, for the men and women at every level who are so good at improving their own performance that they end up elevating those around them.

I eventually came to think of these people as `better than perfect.' Why such an odd and seemingly illogical appellation? To explain, I need to tell you about the time I met the world's greatest flute player, the late Jean-Pierre Rampal. I was living outside Los Angeles when I heard that he would be giving a master class at a college across town. Although I don't play the flute, I decided to attend. So it was that I got to sit in as a dozen prodigies played for the master and listened to his counsel and interpretations of the musical passages. Rampal's versions were sometimes so strikingly different that I asked him how far he was willing to go in experimenting with what the composer had written. He thought for a moment, scowling, and then replied, "There are nights I go out and play a piece perfectly. Then-the next night-I play it better."

From that day on I began to think of exceptional performance as `better than perfect.' Moreover, the great ones, the masters, aren't just perfecting their assignments, they are experimenting with their craft, so that just when you thought they were perfect, they surprise you with something even better. Isn't that the essence of genius?

What does it take to be a workplace genius? Having studied hundreds of them, I believe that better-than-perfect colleagues have traits we all have-they simply live them more vividly. That's why I believe it is important to tell their stories and celebrate their work lives-to remind us of the best of ourselves.

We come into the workplace determined to make a difference, to be special, to contribute our talents and be recognized for them. Slowly, those grand aspirations get worn away by what Shakespeare called "the rough torrent of occasion." We work hard, we fit in; somewhere we forget that each of us goes to work entrusted with the jewels of humanity.

So, with this book I invite you to join me in celebrating great executives, employees, suppliers, and customers. Doing so, let us not only learn from them, but also to remember the best of ourselves.

To convey the lessons in a format that I hope is readable and memorable, I have once again called upon business genius Max Elmore to be our guide, this time inviting his nephew to be our narrator for a three-way conversation.

Blank Page

Introduction

The Company jewels

What I'm looking for is a blessing that's not in disguise.

-Kitty O'Neill Collins

Before I was a genius, I was a drudge.

-Ignace )an Paderewski

"Oh, just come on," I insisted. "It'll cheer you up. And I'll buy."

Angelina, my girlfriend and semi-fiancee, hesitated but didn't bite. "If you buy dinner, that'll just make things worse," she countered. "You'll be Mr. Peppy and I'll be lousy company and eventually I'll feel so guilty I'll have to pretend to laugh at your stories."

Next page