5 Leadership Lessons from Basketball Coaching Legend Pat Summitt

In 2012, President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom, the USA's highest civilian honor, to Pat Summitt, with this description of her merit: "In addition to accomplishing an outstanding career as the all-time winningest leader among all NCAA basketball coaches, Summitt has taken the University of Tennessee to more Final Four appearances than any other coach and has the second best record of NCAA Championships in basketball. She has received numerous awards, including being named Naismith Women’s Collegiate Coach of the Century. Off the court, she has been a spokesperson against Alzheimer's. The Pat Summitt Foundation will make grants to nonprofits to provide education and awareness, support to patients and families, and research to prevent, cure and ultimately eradicate early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type."

Summitt, who died in 2016 from early onset Alzheimer's at age 64, was a college basketball coaching legend. Here are some leadership lessons from Coach Summitt that can help leaders today in any field.

1 - Have Hands-on Experience - Summitt knew how to coach her players to perform at the highest level on the basketball court because she had done so herself. She was a star player through college. She also co-captained the US Olympic team to a Silver Medal in 1976 (the first year women's basketball was in the Olympics). When she made decisions during the game or on the practice court, her teams knew that she was speaking from experience.

LEADERSHIP LESSON -> To build credibility, leaders should have experience doing the core work of the front-line people on their team. Some leaders work their way up the ranks and gain the experience that way. Leaders coming in without hands-on experience should find a way to get at least some experience doing that. McDonalds, for example, requires new executives to work at a restaurant before moving to the executive suite.

2 - Invest Early / Get in on the Ground Floor - Summitt started her coaching career in 1974 before women's basketball was even an NCAA-sanctioned sport. She started at the University of Tennessee as a graduate assistant coach and was promoted to head coach that season when the coach left unexpectedly. Summitt earned $250 a month, had to drive the team van, and had to wash the team uniforms. The uniforms themselves had been funded through a team donut sale.

LEADERSHIP LESSON -> Summitt did not go into basketball coaching for money and fame, because it didn't exist for women's coaches then. She went into coaching because she loved the job and believed in her ability to do it well. She probably saw the potential growth in women's basketball given her Olympics experience as a player. She was brave enough to invest her early career in an area that wasn't recognized as a big deal, but where she knew she had a passion and she saw unrecognized value. In many ways she was like a business entrepreneur.

3 - Recruit Talent - Recruiting was a key to Summitt's success. Because players graduated after four years, she had to replace about 1/4 of her team every year. It must have taken a lot of her time to scout, meet, and persuade star high school players to choose her program over other schools. She realized this was a necessary investment to keep her program at the top.

LEADERSHIP LESSON -> Great leaders realize their long term success is only as good as the talent they recruit to work with them. Leaders need to invest their time and effort in attracting and recruiting new talent.

4 - Manage Talent - Recruiting stars was only part of Summitt's success. She had to make sure these star players could work together as a team. For example, her 1998-99 team had three All-Americans on it (Chamique Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings, and Semeka Randall). Summitt also had to make sure she was developing her second team players so they could step in when the inevitable injuries happened.

LEADERSHIP LESSON -> Great leaders help keep individuals focused on a shared team goal. Many of the players that Summitt recruited had always been the superstar player on every team they had played for before. With poor leadership, these players could have focused more on their individual statistics than the team outcomes. Summitt melded these star players into teammates first, individual performers second.

5 - Groom Successors - A basketball coach's legacy is often measured by how many of their players or assistant coaches go onto become coaches themselves after their playing days are over. Forty-five of Summitt's players have gone onto become coaches - a remarkable number. Summitt also groomed her own successor - Holly Warlick - to take over from her when she received her early onset Alzheimers diagnosis.

LEADERSHIP LESSON -> Finding your own replacement can be an uncomfortable experience for leaders. Leaders often want to hold on to positions of power forever and can't imagine others doing the job as well as they do it. But great leaders get beyond their own self-interest and egos and groom the next generation of leaders. They know they owe it to their organization to have a replacement leader ready to go in case something happens to them. Like everything she did, Summitt excelled at that too.

Early onset Alzheimer's took Pat Summitt from us way too soon. Her legacy lives on beyond her amazing record of success in wins on the court - it lives on in the people she helped develop and the leadership lessons she left behind.

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About the Author: Victor Prince is a corporate trainer, executive coach, and an Amazon Top 20 best-selling leadership author who helps organizations build leadership, strategy, communications, and critical thinking skills. Follow Victor on LinkedIN to access his 100+ articles on leadership, strategy, learning & development, and more.

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Facts sourced from Wikipedia.