This weekend, my 7 and 8 year old girl’s basketball team played a team that had destroyed us in our two prior meetings.

Their team has two girls that are both at least 3 inches taller than any of our players and both pretty talented (and can be dominant). But the rest of the girls on their team don’t add that much and are pretty reliant on their two stellar players.

Meanwhile, the way our head coach and I have separated the duties is that he coaches and directs the team in practices and games while I work with each player individually on their strengths and weaknesses.

I prefer to work this way because I believe everyone brings something important to the table, and if you’re coaching or managing well, you put each person in a position in which they can be successful and contribute in a meaningful way to the team.

So, while no one of our girls could really single-handedly stop their two dominant girls, our entire team was better than their entire team. And in this match-up, our girls really started helping each other on defense and relying on each other’s skills.

Our rebounding specialists rebounded. Our best ball stealer stole the ball (or gave them fits trying to). Our best shooters made their shots. Our most aggressive players were aggressive while our most controlled players made no mistakes.

I love having a team of specialists who understand and believe in each other’s strengths.

Give me a solid team with no stars over a team with one or two stars and not much more any day of the week. There’s nothing more satisfying than when every member of team understands their role and why it’s important. It’s one of my favorite parts about coaching this team and managing a team in the workplace.

– My name is Jon Friesch, and I love getting the best out of people.