4/15/08 2:00 PM

Summitt: ‘There Are No Shortcuts to Success’

By Theresa Minton-Eversole

NASHVILLE, TENN.—What better way to infuse a conference here with Southern hospitality than to sing a verse of the song “Rocky Top” with approximately 1,500 of your closest friends? How about singing it under the direction of local favorite and sports icon Pat Summitt, head basketball coach of the University of Tennessee’s Lady Volunteers?

Summitt, who is still celebrating her team’s recent capture of its eighth NCAA national basketball championship, kicked off the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 2008 Staffing Management Conference & Exposition with the sing-along but quickly told the audience to be happy she was speaking to rather than serenading them during the April 14 keynote address.

And speak she did: About leadership. About competition. About passion. About love. Summitt, pacing the stage much as she does the court sidelines during games, shared her formula for success, peppering her advice with some good, old-fashioned horse sense she garnered from others over the year. The result? A slam dunk, of course.

The ‘Definite Dozen’

Summitt acknowledged that her family, including her three younger brothers, are a major influence in her life, helping to shape her obsessive work ethic and furiously competitive spirit. And, she said, “hanging with the right people” continues to help her succeed.

“Your team is not going to be for everyone, so always try to select people you think will be the most powerful contributors.”

Summitt shared her key tenets of success, or the “definite dozen,” which she also describes in her book Reach for the Summitt. Following is a sampling of her advice:

Respect yourself and others. “What kind of leader are you? What kind of teammate are you? Think about it. Could you work for you?”

Take full responsibility. “There are no shortcuts to success. Don’t drop new employees off at the door and say ‘See ya.’ You can’t give them too much information.” Summitt said each new recruit at Tennessee is assigned a buddy who helps them learn the system and run through a checklist of everything and everyone they need to know.

Develop and demonstrate loyalty. “How many of you have what it takes to support your company? Your team? Loyalty develops trust, and you have to have trust to be successful.”

Learn to be a great communicator. “People don’t care what you know until they know how much you care. Give great feedback, and let people know how you feel. Always find a way to pull out the best in people, then let them take the lead.”

Discipline yourself so no one else has to. “This is the signature of our program; it motivates you to get out of bed and get through the day. I pop up [out of bed] like toast every morning!”

Make hard work your passion. “I want people around me to perform at a certain level, and when they don’t, I’m not happy. And when I ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” Summitt shared a story of how her son was cut from a basketball team. Rather than give in to her maternal instinct to show anger about the situation to her son, she said she told him he didn’t work hard enough to get on the team. She agreed to help him prep for the next year’s tryouts, but she told him that she “wouldn’t start his engine for him.”

Don’t just work hard, work smart. Summitt said she relies on a predictive index to screen people.

Put the team before yourself. “Create an environment where no one cares who gets credit for the successes. It’s not always about you.”

Be a competitor and make winning an attitude. “If you don’t like your role, change your performance.” Summitt said that more than once her teams have won “potluck style. People take their best dish to potluck dinners,” she said, noting that her teams have won games they shouldn’t have because “everyone committed to their teammates to bring the best part of their game” to the competition.

Change is a must. Summitt said she’s learned over the course of the 34 years she’s been a head coach that if she wanted to continue to do it, she couldn’t do it the same way all the time. She encouraged attendees to embrace change and make it work for them. “Here I am during recruiting season texting with 18-year-olds for hours!”

Handle success like you handle failure. “You just don’t know how much you can impact someone. Life goes by so fast, so give it your absolute best. And take care of yourself, too.”

The SHRM Staffing Management Conference & Exposition closes Wednesday, April 16.

Theresa Minton-Eversole is manager of SHRM Online’s Staffing Management Focus Area.