When the University of Tennessee Volunteers beat Georgia late last week Pat Summitt became the first college coach in NCAA history to win 1,000 basketball games. Some of her other accomplishments: 8 National Championships, 18 Final Fours and 7-time Coach of the Year.
Summitt was interviewed on ESPN radio Friday. I caught the interview in passing but the excerpt I heard was excellent and I wanted to pass it along...
To be great, you have to be able to push your team to reach new heights. But teams are people. And people are different. So how do you know how far you can push each person to successfully maximize their skills?
You understand their level of competitiveness.
Summitt charts every player's degree of competitiveness. She does this through a questionnaire that all players complete. From this she knows how far she can push each player; who can take big pressure situations, and who cannot.
Agencies and marketing departments should look to screen for, and manage, the same trait. It's not just about talent and past accomplishments. Competitiveness makes you stay late, arrive early, take risks and truly push yourself until you get it right. And understanding competitiveness levels throughout an organization allows management to act like championship coaches: aligning specific talent to solve specific challenges.