Creating a Dream Team and Being the Best

During my recent visit to Chapel Hill, N.C., on Wednesday, I ventured over to the school’s bookstore and bought a book on North Carolina head women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance.

I knew very little of Dorrance other than what the numbers tell – 21 NCAA Championships, numerous All-Americans, countless student-athletes who have become mainstays on the U.S. Olympic Team. But I bought the book because I love reading about leaders, especially those who have proven themselves to be among the best.

Sometimes success is dumb luck, a fortune of one’s environment or circumstances. But when success is maintained for a long period of time, there’s often numerous intangible elements that separate those who succeed and those who don’t. Following a successful plan that someone else has used is not going to work for you, necessarily, but by extended study into the lives of a number of leaders, I believe it’s possible to acquire the various elements of success that will make you successful.

One of the stories in the book – The Man Watching by Tim Crothers – that most hit home with me was one of Dorrance’s player conferences with superstar Mia Hamm before her sophomore season. He asked her what she really wanted out of her career and, though it took some time, she eventually blurted out “To be the best.” Dorrance then tells of how he flipped the light switch off and the two sat in darkness for a minute. The then flipped the light back on and said “It’s just a light-switch decision. That’s all it takes, but you have to make that decision every single day.”

I think there’s many great people in the athletics communications profession who have the potential and talent to be the best, but aren’t turning on that light-switch because they haven’t been empowered to. For many, the effort to turn that switch on day after day without the encouragement or empowerment to do so, becomes too much.

Dorrance stresses the importance of making “being the best … something tangible, no longer abstract.” That’s what should be happening in the athletics communications profession. I feel confident in what I’m about to say: If an athletics communications professional walks into a job interview for his or her first full-time (assistant SID) job and when his or her goals are asked, he/she responds “I desire to be the best,” I can say that 75 percent of the time, that person is NOT going to get the job.

It’s too much work. If you hire someone who wants to be the best, they’re going to be needy. They’re going to want added responsibility, they’re going to want constant feedback on how to improve their skill sets. But, most importantly, they’re going to cause problems. Here’s why: In their quest to become the best, that SID will start providing services for their coaching staffs or the media and then – EVERYONE else will want it.

EVERYONE ELSE WILL WANT IT.

That is the phrase of disempowerment in college athletics. You can’t create this Web page for your softball coach, because then the volleyball coach will want it. You can’t travel with the golf team because the tennis coach is then going to want his/her SID to travel with their squad.

That kind of mindset – prevalent at many schools in college athletics – is what limits our programs and limits ourselves as professionals. In reality, each of us should only be limited by the reach of our own imaginations.

When I run my own office one day, it is my aspiration to create the athletics communications version of the “Dream Team.” To create a championship culture to provide first-class media services. We will be regularly recognized as the best within our conference and in the nation.

I want the best women’s basketball SID, the best baseball SID, the best golf SID, the best water polo SID and on and on to be on my staff. My last post was about identifying the best in each respective sport. I want my entire staff to consist of the best, both individually, and collectively as a team.

Here are the key factors I look for in identifying personnel talent to fit into the “Dream Team” environment:

1. Desire to be the best: This is the defining factor in creating an effective athletics communicator. This can’t really be taught and it can’t be faked. Each person has to want to be the best. I know with some of the workplace environment that some SIDs are in, it’s difficult to flip on that light switch every day, but the key is – In the right environment, is this a person who is willing to flip on the light switch to be the best on a daily basis? I want people who are willing to clearly define their goals and evaluate their progress towards those goals. I also want people who are committed to professional development – active in CoSIDA, active in PRSA, pursing an advanced education. As a leader, I want to know – where do you want to go, how can I help you get there, and how does it support the group mission?

2. Desire to push others to be the best: So, everyone else will want it? Great! I want a staff that pushes each other to be the best. You’re doing it, so I now I need to be doing it. Let’s create an environment with a free-flow of ideas – how can we get better? What did you see another school doing that we can adopt in our department? What did you see in my work that I can improve on? We all bring different talents and different perspectives to the table. Why not benefit from that instead of shunning it? If one person is doing it, let’s all do it. And let’s help each other accomplish that goals.

3. Ability to fit into championship culture: It’s all about getting the right people in place in order to be successful. It doesn’t mean having a staff full of best friends (although that would be nice), it means having a staff that works incredibly well together and all supports the mission. I have seen staffs where everyone alone is an All-Star, but no one works well together and it doesn’t work. You can’t create a championship culture with a staff full of individuals, you have to do it as a team. It doesn’t mean hiring all your friends either – the most important goal is that everyone works well together. I have plenty of friends out there who I might not hire. I have some friends who are great SIDs, who I might not hire. The culture I propose does not fit everyone and that’s okay. It’s not a criticism of anyone – it’s perfectly fine. We all have expectations of what we want and they’re not all the same.

4. Willingness to be a 24/7 SID: I don’t care when you come in the office. I don’t care what your hours are. I don’t care if you aren’t at work and don’t take leave. Just get the job done and do it better than anyone else in the nation. In fact, I don’t want you in the office all day. As a communicator, you should be out building and strengthening the relationships with the media, your coaches, your student-athletes and your colleagues, attending meetings in your local PRSA chapter or doing committee work for CoSIDA. But what I do expect is that when your coaches call you, you answer and attend to their requests no matter what time of day it is. If the student newspaper requests a photo at 11 p.m., send it to them. If your coach wants stats at 7 p.m., send it to them. When I call, answer. Don’t want to get into the office until 1 p.m.? Fine with me.

5. Talent: How good is your skill set? Are you a good designer, a good writer, a good communicator? This is critically important, but this is the one thing that can be learned. Notice, I mention this last. While top-notch talent is important to the success of a championship communications office, the other four factors are what define members of a “Dream Team.”

The question then becomes, how does the athletics communications profession morph into one in which its professionals want daily to flip on that light switch and be the best. I think many of us have that potential deep within us – it is for us, as a profession, to determine what is causing the gap between that ability and its reality.

Maybe during these summer months, we would all be well to sit down and determine what holds us back from being the best.

Which of these things can we change and which can’t we? Some things aren’t even directly related to our profession, but hinder us. Do we need to get our finances in order? Do we need to drop a few pounds to give us more energy? Do we need to be more organized? Are we taking enough time for ourselves? How can we recapture our competitive bite to become the best in the business?

It’s hard to evaluate these things and make slight adjustments, but I hope each of you will join me in making these evaluations and tweaks during your offseason. Maybe you too will find yourself blurting out your desire to be the best.