One Team – Five Promises

I was very impressed with coach Pat Summit’s simple formula that enabled her Lady Vols to easily prevail over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for the Women’s National Basketball Championship.  Coach Summit focused each player’s attention on one thing – one quality that happened to be their unique contribution to the success of the team.  She didn’t have them focus on the obvious – on scoring, or defense or the logical aspects of winning the game —  but on one subtle, yet uniquely valuable quality that each player brings to the mix.   While I cannot recall the complete list that was briefly flashed on ESPN last night, one player was  asked to be the ‘voice’ of the team during the competition.

Why is this concept so effective?  It honors the true nature of each player as a unique contributor first, and a team member second.  Each player is accountable first to themselves to express their talents to the the limit of their capabilities.  Then the result is a team that is almost certain of being a success.  You can’t have a unified effort  – one in which everyone succeeds together, if the contributors aren’t being congruent with who they are.  Pat Summit made her five starters aware of that.  The result was a uniquely and synergistically balanced effort that happened to result in a national championship.      

 

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