While the game of baseball is a team sport, there are a lot of individualistic moments. One person is on the mound holding the fate of the next pitch. Up to bat it’s only one person. Fly ball is hit in the air and there’s one person who catches the ball.

There’s a phrase our coaching staff has started to use as of late: good players are good at what they do while great players are good at what they do AND they make everyone around them better.

In the game of baseball when there can be such an emphasis of individual, it’s hard to help youth see the bigger picture that the game is beyond their individualistic results. Everyone has their own batting average, earned run average, stolen bases, number of catches, and the analytics go on and on in the game of baseball. But how do we keep pushing the team first perspective? How do we keep emphasizing how critical it is not just do your best as an individual, but also find ways to help elevate others?

I’m sure many can debate that good vs. great goes way beyond the phrase we use, but the point of the simplistic expression is to emphasize that reaching a high level takes more than just what you do as an individual. To reach greatness, it requires you to bring others along for the journey. It requires you to help bring out the best in others.

What’s more impactful…one person producing amazing stats or one person producing really good stats while helping elevate everyone else?

Great players strikeout and go back to the dugout to learn from the at bat and then cheer on their team.

Great players mishandle a ground ball and say to their pitcher they’ll get the next one and make up for it.

Great players find meaning in the losses to identify as a team how to grow.

This phrase of good vs. great transcends well beyond the game of baseball or sports for that matter. Think about how we show up at work. The impact we make as an individual can be impactful. What happens when we take our individual success stories and help others learn from them to make their own success stories?

Think of the opportunities in our community. You as an individual can make a big impact but what happens when you bring in others to help? What happens when you spark a fire with others to see how we can better our community?

I get that the idea of being great is much more complex than simply being good at something and helping elevate others. But there’s a key element that we must understand. Greatness should have a broader lens than just the individualistic view. Greatness is not only looking within but also the impact we can make externally.

Momentum with one person is impactful. Momentum with an entire group is transformational.

Take your step: take one area of your life and reflect on some individual success stories. Start to explore what it would look like to take those individual success stories and help elevate others. What would it look like in this area of life to not just be good at what you do, but also help elevate others? Try one of these ideas of what it looks like to elevate others and take notice of how impactful not just your individual success can be, but also how you can drive broader success.