Pat Summitt tells the story of a job interview that changed the course of her program.

Summitt, coaching legend at the University of Tennessee, was in the market for a recruiter.

“If I hire you,” Summitt asked the applicant, “can you get me the player I want?”

“Oh, I can get you the player,” came the reply. “That’s not the question. The question is, once you get the player, are you a good enough coach to win the national championship?”

This blunt reply nearly led Summitt to cut short the interview and send the applicant home. Instead, Summitt hired her, the recruiter got the player, and the team won the national championship.

This comes to mind with the appearance of an article called “Are You the Smartest Person in the Room? Let’s Hope Not,” by Jack and Suzy Welch.

The article says that hiring strong people doesn’t make you look small by comparison. It makes you look better in the long run.

“Most leaders are judged on how well they’ve hired, coached, and motivated their people, individually and collectively — all of which shows up in the results,” the article says. “That’s why when you sign up top performers and release their energy, you don’t look bad. You look like the goose that laid the golden egg.”

If you’re the head coach, make sure you have someone who can ask you the kind of blunt questions that Summitt’s hire did. Make sure you hire someone who’s really talented, then let them do what you’ve hired them to do.

That way, everybody wins.

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