The adventure of excellence

THE ADVENTURE OF EXCELLENCE

Nathalie Chee

Jürgen Klinsmann

Schahriar Salehi-Gilani, M.D.

Excellence begins with the desire to inspire and to strive for perfection.

The desire to be successful is my main motivation. I was always a striker but not necessarily the most talented one on the pitch. As a coach, this is why I also try to tackle every challenge head on and with optimism, and in particular with a genuine will to win. Getting your team to the top of the table is certainly important to me as a coach but continuous development also plays its part. Definitely the other most important component: We work and we train to improve our performance. It gives meaning to everything we do, even when training does not always lead directly to instantaneous results. Of course, my job as a coach is to always find the right balance between development and results.

Errors can have particularly serious consequences when performing heart surgery on children. There is no choice but to deliver your best performance every time. I tend to take the approach that less is more. This is absolutely essential in surgery, especially for pediatric heart surgeons. Simply focusing on performing the “perfect” operation is the wrong approach; you have to consider the consequences for the patient too.

Seeing how my music moves the audience is what motivates me to become even better. There are so many good musicians out there and all of them are technically excellent. But the skill that really brings music to life and that moves an audience is not the technique but the love and passion that you put into a piece of music.

Excellence is about continuously improving, and inevitably involves willingness to work hard, discipline and the patience to continue practicing specialist skills.

I’ve performed over 6,000 heart operations during my career so far. The challenge is not allowing the work to just become routine and always maintaining the desire to keep improving.

You can do everything right – introducing new processes, taking new approaches – and yet still lose the game because of shortcomings that you simply can’t plan for. But I truly believe that without these processes and without continuous improvement, it’s not possible to achieve long-term success.

The best musicians who genuinely reach the pinnacle of their careers are those who never stop analyzing their performance and who always keep their feet on the ground.

Gathering experience is essential for improvement: Experience can provide guidance in critical situations.

People generally perfect their particular technical skill between the ages of 20 and 40. But music is more than just a skill; it’s also about feelings and the ability to express yourself and to touch other people – this is why musicians have infinite potential to improve.

The days when you could justify your actions by saying ‘we’ve always done it that way’ are long gone. Improvements are not possible without innovation and new approaches. One of the key tasks assigned to any manager is to identify the best options from a wealth of new possibilities. You will be overwhelmed with data, estimates, comparisons – but it’s your job to choose the options that will be most effective for the team and the objective.

Excellence depends on trailblazers; it depends on people who can offer guidance and who encourage others to grow.

There is no perfect teacher. Everyone has to find their own ideal teacher. I was lucky to find a teacher who saw teaching as his vocation – it was his passion.

I don’t think a role model is necessarily what’s required here. I would even say the term “role model” is perhaps no longer relevant when applied to a person; instead it should be understood in the sense of actions. I think it’s important to go through life with your eyes open and to evaluate ideas and implement new things when you believe it’s appropriate. I’ve played for world-class coaches like César Luis Menotti, Franz Beckenbauer, Giovanni Trapattoni, Osvaldo Ardiles, Otto Rehhagel and Arsène Wenger. I’ve adopted something from every one of them, as well as thinking to myself at times ‘If I become a coach I will do that differently‘.

You need a never-ending supply of different trainers who can teach you different operating techniques and approaches. You can then choose the techniques that suit you best and develop your own style.

Excellence requires a willingness to dedicate yourself to a project and remain faithful to it in the face of all obstacles. We cannot achieve continuous improvements without moving away from the easy, straight path – and it’s unlikely to be a fast process either. Merely optimizing is not actually the optimum outcome. On the contrary, excellence is reflected precisely in the fact that it’s necessary to take detours, to strike a fine balance, to push the limits and to overcome setbacks. True learning processes represent a balancing act that confronts us with the possibility of failure while demanding the best from us.

In sport, you have to completely overcome any number of defeats. But you also can’t just change everything you are doing after a couple of setbacks. If you are certain that you have made the right decision, you shouldn’t let go of that conviction too readily. You have to convince the players to buy into what you are trying to achieve – if a coach gives in after an initial failure or criticism it quickly leads to a lack of leadership.

You have to learn to deal with failure as a musician; you can then learn from your mistakes to grow. At the same time, the fear of making mistakes – the fear of fear itself in fact – is the greatest challenge that you have to learn to overcome.

Excellence is a balancing act between perfecting specific technical skills and the necessity of keeping the bigger picture in view.

The essential prerequisite for excellence is definitely the ability to utilize all possibilities. If you need to push the limits in order to do this, doing so must not become an obstacle; whatever happens, a lack of courage must never become the reason for failure.

Sometimes it’s necessary to push the limits to seek out better solutions. But this is not something that you can actively decide to do; it’s just what happens as a result of your actions.

Excellent results are only possible with teamwork.

In an orchestra, several great musicians play together, all of whom have mastered their instrument. And yet the collaboration only works well when everyone in the group pulls together and when a feeling of mutual appreciation prevails. This feeling is actually audible. It is also the only way to take ‘very good’ to the next level.

”It takes a team to build a dream.“ – this was one of the guiding principles that we put up on posters in the cabins and the hotels that we used as accommodation when the 2006 World Cup was held in Germany. Obviously there are plenty of successful soloists and individual athletes out there, like track and field athletes – but they also need a team behind them to support them in achieving their goals. Being in a team actually makes it much more fun when you celebrate success – and much more bearable when you have to deal with defeat.

I’ve played soccer in Germany, Italy, France and England and I’ve been living in the USA since 1998. It’s always been important to me to understand the mentality of the residents of these countries in order to anticipate their actions. As a soccer player and as a coach, you are never alone on the pitch or in how you decide to handle things.

Team members who think independently are a great asset. But they also pose a challenge in the sense that as the surgeon in charge you need to find a way to deal with objections – and you need to do this in a situation where there is no room for doubt. Teamwork is essential to excellence during an operation but having a leader is also necessary!

Despite the required sincerity and determination, the concept of excellence retains the lightness and freshness of youth – it exists in the interplay between ground-breaking innovation and calm, focused work; between enthusiasm and equanimity. Excellence is about taking pleasure in what you do.

Enjoying what you do is the deciding factor. Without it, excellence is impossible.

A positive approach is the only way to free up the resources you need to be successful in achieving excellence.

When I was four years old, I repeatedly told my mother for over a year that I wanted to play the violin – until she finally let me have my way. Then I practiced every day. Playing the violin never felt like an effort for me – on the contrary, it has sustained me ever since.

The challenges of a new era can be mastered only when you can continue to take pleasure in starting from scratch and consistently following your own path. True excellence comes down to recognizing that the adventure never ends.