Be A Great Teammate

Recently, Tara Vanderveer retired as the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history.

She amassed 1,216 wins across 45 seasons as a head coach, winning three national championships with Stanford, as well as coaching Team USA to Olympic gold in Atlanta.

Over the last year, I’ve watched dozens of interviews where Vanderveer has been asked to outline the leadership principles that helped her achieve such startling success.

With remarkable consistency, Vanderveer credits one principle that she values above all others: be a great teammate.

“Very few teams have players that are really excited for someone else doing well,” Vanderveer suggests.

This is particularly true of elite-level basketball, where individualism is an addiction that runs through the players right the way up to how the game markets itself.

“The number one lesson I want to get across to our players is be a great teammate. It’s not about your individual success,” Vanderveer says. “I think helping players be more successful on the court and more successful in their life go hand-in-hand. They are not two opposite things at all. And many of my biggest success stories have been helping young women mature and be great teammates.”

To support this principle, Vanderveer has defined what a great teammate is, whether in sports or in life:

• Unselfish

• Disciplined

• Hard-working

• Encouraging

• Happy for other people’s success

To further bring her idea to life, Vanderveer uses the analogy of an orchestra:

“We’re all playing instruments, and sometimes you’re just keeping the beat, but sometimes it’s going to be your solo. And you’re happy for someone else when they have a solo, too.”

But using definitions and analogies are only part of the battle. To truly change habits, we must change the mindsets that gave rise to the old behaviour in the first place. In this case: individualism.

It’s here where Vanderveer offers a perspective that I find extraordinary:

“The biggest reward is to play on a team. It’s not to have someone go out and individually have a great game.”

The team is the reward.

Vanderveer says that she’s had players miss make-or-break free throws only to hear someone yell from the bench, “We love you!”

Great teammates are encouraging, want you to be successful, and are there to encourage you when you flub your solo.

But that type of behaviour only emerges when the biggest reward is play on a team in the first place.