Brad Stevens recently wrote a letter to his nine-year old daughter titled Be A Great Teammate. As I read through the letter, I couldn’t help think that the qualities that Coach Stevens was encouraging his young daughter to adopt were also qualities should be adopted by anyone looking to be play a positive role within any group they interact with. In fact, he did point this out to his daughter in telling her the following:

“You’ll be on many teams throughout your life…The thoughts below apply to all of these scenarios.”

The other problem I had was trying to decide which part of this letter was the most significant. While I encourage people to take a minute to read the entire letter, the following lines from the concluding paragraph are the epitome of what I think of when reflecting on the great teammates I have had the good fortune of working with.

“When times are good, be the great teammate that others want to celebrate with. When times are tough, be the great teammate who offers a shoulder to be leaned on. When you get older, you’ll realize that it wasn’t about the good or bad times, it was about who you navigated those times with, the lessons that you learned and the relationships that you forged.”