Pat Head Summit The Coach of the Lady Vols

***Repost from my blog in 2016***

Anybody that knows me is very aware of where I am from. Tennessee is where I was born and raised. Growing up there were certain household names in Tennessee Volunteer Sports and one of those was Pat Head Summitt. Coach Summitt was a powerhouse in Women’s College Basketball. She led the University of Tennessee’s Lady Vols to eight NCAA Championships but even greater than that she boasted a 100% graduation rate of the players.

I met Coach Summitt a couple of times throughout the years. The last time she came to speak to a small group of leaders for one of my companies. She was an amazing motivational speaker who commanded the room as she spoke. Even though we were used to seeing her from the sidelines staring a hole through her players, she was a kind person once you spoke with her one-on-one. This week we lost our Coach to Alzheimer’s at the young age of 64. There was a great outpouring on social media for her and one of the things that caught my eye was the Definite Dozen list that you will find below. I hope that her thoughts will inspire you to be a better leader.

Coach Summitt’s Definite Dozen

1. Respect Yourself and Others – Respect should always be shown to others but the thing that jumps out at me most here is that you first need to respect yourself. It is difficult to be able to show respect to others you lead if you haven’t first learned to respect yourself.
2. Take Full Responsibility – Accepting that you are responsible for the decisions that you make will make you more careful in your decision-making skills. When you make a mistake, own that mistake and when you do something right, share the win with your team.
3. Develop and Demonstrate Loyalty – Loyalty is built from being in a constant of state over an amount of time. For some being loyal is a quick action and for others, there is trust that must be secured. Once you have become loyal to a company/wife/friend it takes more than giving lip action but through your actions are you proven to be a loyal compatriot.
4. Learn To Be a Great Communicator – Public speaking can be one of the most difficult mountains that you try to climb. Even though your ability to speak eloquently do not forget that a greater amount of communication comes through non-verbal queues. Your actions speak greater volumes than your words may ever be able to express.
5. Discipline Yourself So No One Else Has To – You have to be your most harsh critic. If you are constantly staying on yourself to be better then there will be less criticism that will come from the crowd watching you. One thing to remember is that the word discipline comes from the same root word for disciple which in a way is much like being coached.
6. Make Hard Work Your Passion – Nothing was ever said about life being easy. Working hard shows not only your commitment to a goal but also the drive to succeed in meeting that goal. When you find your passion you will fall into your sweet spot and that is where you will breed success.
7. Don’t Just Work Hard, Work Smart – If you are working in your passion you will find ways to be successful in that area. Whether you are putting processes into place or controls in your work, your ability to work harder smarter will free you up to do more of what you have as your passion.
8. Put the Team Before Yourself – Self-sacrifice speaks volumes. In a world where it is easier to throw the team under the bus, it takes a great leader to fall on the proverbial grenade. Often you find so called “Leaders” that live by the mantra of “Live to fight another day.” In the bible, John 15.13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life (Livelihood) for his friends (Coworkers).” To what extent as a leader would you be willing to go to?
9. Make Winning an Attitude – Overcoming yourself and your attitude is the biggest step in a fight. If you come into a fight self-defeated you most likely are going to walk out exactly that, defeated. If you step into the fight with the mindset that you already have won the battle, your chances of being successful is greatly increased.  
10. Be a Competitor – Viewing life as a challenge made to win keeps you coming into each day with a must-win attitude. Having that competitive edge makes it possible for you as a leader to stand in front your team ready to pull them forward.
11. Change is a Must – The only constant is change. I have heard this since I was a kid when things in my household were in constant flux. I have heard that you must be like the reed in a storm being able to flex with the winds of life’s storms but not breaking. You as a leader must be constantly learning, putting more into your toolbox so that you can pull it out at the right time to pour into your team’s lives.
12. Handle Success Like You Handle Failure – Finally, you have to learn how to handle success like you handle failure. Always keeping your head held high and accepting that a failure is only a step in the direction of getting to success. I learned that it isn’t how you fall down but how you get up in life. Fall forward with dignity and get up stronger each time.

There will probably not be another coach like Ms Pat Summitt in my lifetime and it was a pleasure to have gotten to meet her and have her pour knowledge into my life. I believe if you asked many of her students from throughout the years you would have found that her leadership was not only on the court but off as well.  Coach Summitt, you will be sorely missed.  Thank you for all the years of excitement on the court.

Resources

You can find the Definite Dozen as well as more information about the Pat Summitt Foundation here. You can find a list of books about Coach Summit here!