Pat Summitt: The Anatomy of a Winner

I knew one reality—for sure—as I was growing up: I wanted to be a winner. That word—winner—probably stood out as the captivating and driving desire, the fundamental “value” of my life, above all other words. It didn’t much matter whether it was a big-deal athletic event, grades in school, or a board game being played on a rainy day. I wanted to win. Later on, and probably using tamer words, whether it was making a classroom presentation, writing a book, or establishing a business, I wanted to manifest “quality” and “excellent,” I wanted to have a good reputation, and I wanted to “make a difference.” Actually, all of this—in my own interpretations—was simply and profoundly about winning, being the “best” (a strong value word) that I could be.

The people who have attracted my attention the most have been winners. I grew up on Vince Lombardi, the iconic coach of the Green Bay Packers. I had a chance to see Peyton Manning play 40-50 times in person and countless times on television; that was better than seeing Elvis or The Beatles. I came to know Dan and Ned Wilford, hospital executives by trade, but leaders in the finest sense of that word. They were the finest “winners” I ever knew in business. I watched my Mother, when I was a pre-teen, fight valiantly against cancer for half a decade. I guess the cancer finally “won,” but she was a winner to me to the very end because of her dignity, her willpower, and her continued joy of living even in the face of death. These kinds of people made me want to be a winner, too. Even as a coach of my kids’ ball teams; even more as a Father.  Maybe that’s what true leaders do for us—make us want to be winners too. The best of those leaders show us directly how the process of winning works and guide us through it.

But, I’m not sure I have ever seen anyone who was any more of a winner than Pat Summitt. I watched, along with an entire State and nation—and even the world in two Olympics—as she transformed women's basketball and left an indelible standard for women in the last generation.  Pat Summitt was a coach—maybe one of the highest callings of life, a leader, and a winner of winners. She defines the very meaning of the word icon.

The question remains—especially if you believe in cause and effect—what made Pat Summitt a leader and—even more—a winner? I’ve been considering that question a long time now, and if it could begin to be answered, even in part, we might be on our way to understanding something of the “anatomy” of a winner, the power behind leadership at its best. In fact—to follow Robert S. Hartman—if we could see something of Pat Summitt’s values, we could better understand the driving forces that moved her life. Here’s what I’ve seen in my own analysis:

1.  Pat Summitt grew up in a tough, small-farming community environment where life had pretty stark and unrelenting demands. Her role-model father had no allusions about the relationship of hard work to survival, and he made no apologies to Pat or her siblings about the work that simply had to be done. Cows, he famously said, never took a day off, and they would not milk themselves. She never feared hard work and long hours. She expected them as part of a direct relationship with success. She never missed a day of school as a child and young person. There were no short cuts on the road to excellence, and she was willing to work harder than anyone else. She saw that attribute as the key to her success.

2.  In 1974, as a rookie coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team—and at age 22—she lost her first collegiate game by one point. She called her father in despair. His direct and unemotional response to her dismay was simple: “You don’t take donkeys to the Kentucky Derby.” She knew that the best leaders and the most successful work demanded the best people. She became a tireless recruiter of the best talent available. In writing a personal note to Candace Parker, one of her greatest players, she unabashedly stated: “I want to be your Coach!  I can help you on the floor and off the floor, as a basketball player and in your personal life. I want to be your Coach!” She knew that the best required the best. She looked for, not just good athletes, but young women who had learned that they would have to fight for a better life; she would always meet them half-way in that fight and show them a way to be victorious.

3.  Pat Summitt had a kind of odd relationship with competition. Unlike so many people who avoid or fear competition, she actually—really and truly—embraced it and actively sought it out.  She saw the highest competition as the only way to continue to improve. Ironically, the competition that could beat her actually inspired her to greater mountaintops of success. She learned from her competition. She studied what the competition was doing to beat her, and that made her better. We saw growth and development—getting better—as a life-long pursuit. Even when she lost, the losses were simply “setbacks.” She hated losing, but would be back for another day with even greater passion. Across her tenure as Coach at UT, 47% of her games were purposely scheduled against ranked opponents. She never took any easy road.

4.  Her won-loss record speaks for itself, as does the fact that at the time of her death, she had won more games than any collegiate basketball coach—man or woman—1,098. Yet, when she talked about records, she most quickly talked about her “100%”—the record established across the years reflecting the way in which every player who finished her program in basketball also graduated with at least a Bachelor’s Degree from UT. She didn’t “win” if her players didn’t “win” with victories that would follow them across the entirety of their lives, with victories that were even bigger than basketball.

5.  Pat Summitt’s presence filled the room. When her teams took the floor, every eye was on her.  She could have the steeliest “eye of the tiger,” and then wrap people in warmth and love.  My Mother-in-law, not much for traveling away from home, would drive over an hour when she was in her eighties to see “Pat’s” teams play. She always felt comfortable enough to call her “Pat,” even though they never met. The intangible of “authenticity” was her signature calling card. There have been only a bare few people whose character has infused work like hers did.

So, if you want to talk about winning “leadership,” the whole concept is role modeled with Pat Summitt: the value of hard work, finding the very best people, seeking the toughest competition, helping others achieve the goal of highest potential, and exuding character. Put these kinds of assets together, and you will have a Winner!! You see, Pat’s values drove her to achieve the level of success that she did.

My two favorite Pat Summitt stories describe perfectly to me what kind of person she was and why she transcended mere coaching greatness. The first story involves a party held in her honor when she retired from active coaching. A social time and then a meal were followed by a time when she was to be celebrated by several important people at the gathering. She could not be found. Then, after a few minutes of searching, she was discovered in the kitchen with the sleeves of her finest eveningwear dress rolled up—washing dishes.

The second story is pretty famous, but rings a note of awe and wonder for me. She was in Pennsylvania on a recruiting visit, and began to experience the birth contractions that preceded her son, Tyler, being born. She rushed everyone in her group quickly back to the UT airplane, and insisted that the pilot fly immediately back to Knoxville. Over everyone’s objections, she would have it no other way—her son would be born in Tennessee!! 

Once in a lifetime, we have a chance to see a Peyton Manning or a Bear Bryant. They stand far beyond simply being players and coaches. We may never see another person quite like Pat Summitt. All of us should be better at what we do because she was so good at what she did. The meaning of the word winner is exponentially fulfilled by its having any association with her name.

            

Being Human IS a Choice

Flanders Field, 1914

            In Jeremy Rifkin’s important new book, The Empathic Civilization, he recalls an event from 1914 he believes still has great potential meaning and insight for our lives. At Christmas in 1914, great armies of Germany and France were engaged in some of the most awful battle experiences ever known to mankind. This was the time of trench warfare, no-man’s lands, and poison gas warfare. Never had pure horror on this level ever existed.

            Yet, Rifkin recalls how on Christmas morning of that year, white flags of truce began to appear on the edges of the trenches, and fighting men began to tentatively edge their way toward each other’s battle lines. This time however, there were no weapons—only various items of food and drink, and a few soccer balls. Throughout the day, archenemies sang, ate, and played games together. They shared pictures of loved ones, and talked about plans for war’s end. It was a remarkable and exceptional moment in time. 

            Rifkin says this glorious moment took place because these heroic soldiers—in spite of what their commanders were ordering—chose to be human! I believe Rifkin is seeing a distinctly important and vital element of our existence. Being human is a choice, a consequence of judgment. Being human is not something that simply occurs because we are homo sapiens. We enter into a situation, see the dynamics of the situation, determine what is the best we can do in the situation, and then make judgments. The virtue of these soldiers is seen in the goodness of their judgments. True heroism appears when they defy commanders, and step out onto battlefields with entirely new and different intent.

            In Rifkin’s concepts, he makes a distinction between “sympathy” and “empathy.” When we are “sympathetic,” we are having a conceptual engagement with other people where we rationally attempt to understand what is going on in their lives. Then, when we are “empathetic,” we actualize in reality what we have conceived in our minds. Many people are capable of conceptualization, but moving to actualization is where the real differences of life are made.  Within the context of the Judgment Index, we can actually measure a person’s capacity for both conceptualization and actualization regarding three important areas of judgement – people/relationships, tasks, and the big picture. A study of the people/relationship component will show a precise measure of the movement from “sympathy” to “empathy” that Rifkin is describing. The soldiers moved from “sympathy” to “empathy” and created a moment of true humanity in the midst of an awful battlefield. We find that many people are much better at conceptualization than they are actualization.

            In one of the most important statements in his book, Rifken states: “Without a well-developed concept of selfhood, however, mature empathic expression would be impossible.” Contemplate this statement for a few minutes. Its insight is remarkable. Here, we see the essential insight of Robert S. Hartman that the work-side of what we do always stands on the pedestal of the self-side of who we are. We will never be as good at what we do until the potential of who we are is realized at its highest level.

            Across decades of our work, we have consistently seen that the work-side tends to be stronger—even significantly stronger—than the self-side. Our greater work is not to build people who are stronger in the judgment needed to advance task performance, although advancing task performance is always important. Our greater work is to build people who are stronger in the judgment needed to advance personal understanding, self-awareness, and personal growth and development.

            The critical issue is that the relationship between work and self is often discounted in importance. Leaders in business and industry see a strong self-side as something nice to have, but that it is a “soft side” issue to be taken care of at home or in church. Truly enlightened leaders will see self-side development as both the right thing to do, and as a strategic endeavor that can do nothing but bring positive strength to any work agenda. 

            Work is always done by human beings. The best work will rise in the context of work cultures that advance human life. Fully human individuals will advance accomplishment and contribution at the highest levels. Even in the midst of awful battle, people can stop a war for a moment and celebrate each other. People can choose to be human, and a world can begin to show a potential for change. Yes, the soldiers would go back to battle, but their lives would never be the same.