What Anson Dorrance Can Teach You About Building a High-Performance Team
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Anson Dorrance led the University of North Carolina women's soccer team to 21 national championships. His legacy isn’t just about trophies. It’s about how he built a culture where performance was visible, truth wasn’t avoided, and growth wasn’t optional.
There’s a reason his methods are studied well beyond sport—they work. Especially in business.
Here’s what you can take from Dorrance’s “Competitive Cauldron” approach—and how to apply it with your team.
1. Create Your Own Competitive Cauldron
Dorrance ranked his players daily based on performance in drills. Everyone knew exactly where they stood. He didn’t do this to shame—it was to sharpen.
Business takeaway:
Make performance visible. Not to create rivalry, but to create clarity. If excellence isn’t visible, mediocrity becomes comfortable.
Ideas to implement:
Weekly called shots: Team members commit to 3–5 outcomes on Monday; share outcomes (hit/miss) on Friday.
Peer feedback: Quarterly anonymous rankings on core behaviours, shared openly.
Scoreboards: Track leading indicators—calls made, issues resolved, projects moved forward. Post them.
2. Make Performance Transparent
Dorrance didn’t hide the numbers. He shared them, often. This didn’t create fear—it created urgency.
Business takeaway:
If your team doesn’t know what “good” looks like, they’ll define it for themselves. And most people will choose a version that’s comfortable.
Framework to use:
Dashboards: Let people see their numbers in near real time.
Team rankings: Be upfront about how transparent your culture is—from day one.
Progress tracking: Have people self-report weekly: am I trending up or down?
3. Get to the Truth, Faster
Dorrance believed most players had personal narratives that shielded them from truth. His job? Collapse that distance.
Business takeaway:
The stories your team tells themselves may not be accurate. Coaching means helping them face those stories—not with shame, but with clarity.
Try this:
Ask: “What story are you telling yourself here that might not be fully true?”
Use metrics to challenge assumptions.
Facilitate peer feedback (Keep / Stop / Start).
Hold regular 1:1s to close the gap between self-perception and reality.
4. Catch Them Winning
Dorrance was known for setting relentless standards. But he also deeply believed in catching and naming progress.
Business takeaway:
Results lag. Behaviours lead. Recognising the right behaviours creates momentum and belonging.
Ways to apply:
Acknowledge progress in the moment—especially when it’s early or subtle.
Be specific: “The way you responded to that objection showed real strategic awareness.”
Share wins publicly—not just in 1:1s.
5. Teach to Compete, Not Just to Perform
Dorrance’s team didn’t just practise drills. They practised under pressure—so performance under stress became the norm.
Business takeaway:
Don’t just rehearse in ideal conditions. Train in chaos. That’s how you build resilience and readiness.
Tactics:
Simulate client objections, tech failures, high-stakes decisions.
Run Red Team drills: assign someone to poke holes in a proposal.
Use pressure. Not to overwhelm, but to prepare.
6. Make Your Values Memorable
Dorrance tied each team value to a quote players had to memorise. They didn’t just learn the values. They lived them.
Business takeaway:
Your values are only useful if people remember them when it matters. Not just in the handbook.
Tips:
Replace generic values like “integrity” with memorable language: “Operate on the far side of fair.”
Tie each value to a story or lived example.
Refer back to them—often. Values must be reinforced, not just revealed.
7. Cut Your Bottom Performers
Dorrance didn’t hesitate to move players on who didn’t want to be in the culture. It wasn’t personal. It was principled.
Business takeaway:
Keeping underperformance around too long weakens everything. Especially your standards.
How to handle it:
Be clear on what “above the line” performance looks like.
Give support. Track progress. Be fair.
But if it’s not working, act decisively. Let them move on—with dignity.
Final Thought
What Dorrance built wasn’t about sport. It was about culture.
About truth.
About standards.
About belief in what people are capable of—if you’re willing to tell them the truth and hold them to it.
The real question isn’t: “Can we apply this in business?”
It’s: Why aren’t we already?
Written by Versed
Coaching for leaders who want to grow through clarity, not chaos.
