The best

I love question games.

I guess it really isn’t a game to ask people questions, but it’s close enough as a sit around the table activity, despite not involving a deck of cards, spoons, or Rummikub. I even love a good rose, bud, thorn, or as my family does it, high, low, danger (the ‘danger’ part of that sequence normally throws people off, but somehow we were always able to come up with one in my house). At home, we have so many of those card decks of conversation starters and prompts that get you to think more deeply. I don’t know that we’ve ever gone though a full deck, yet there are at least 3 different stacks that sit on the counter at the ready.

I didn’t realize that this was a ‘thing’ of mine until the other day sitting down to dinner with a group. The conversation started to lull, and so one of my best friends said, “Arden, ask one of your questions.”

It’s true, I have a few big questions that I rotate though. I like to ask these specific ones because I feel like they tell me a lot about a person.

This summer I was sitting down to a coffee chat with this really cool woman. She was a bad-ass executive with an absolutely radiant and unapologetically authentic personality.

In this stage of my life, I feel like I have been asked (or if not asked, prepped to be asked) nearly every behavioral type interview question there is. There’s the classics like, “Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a challenge in a group setting” or “Tell me about a time where you led an initiative that contributed to positive change”… I know you know them. You may even have a STAR formatted script ready to recite in response.

But back to this woman. She asked me this question in our conversation that I was initially super thrown off by. She asked me, “What is the best sports team in the world?”

I won’t claim to be the most engaged in that world, or all that knowledgable when it comes to how teams are performing (I was reminded of this recently when one of the McIntire in Madrid guys set up a fantasy bracket comp and I began making my picks based on a ‘feeling’)(The team I picked to win it all got knocked out round one). Anyways…

I wasn’t super sure where she was going with this. I thought this to be a subjective matter; there’s so many things that ‘the best’ can mean. For example, if you look at college rankings, you’ve got the schools with the best academics, the best business program, the best quality of life… I think there is even a system that ranks the best university dining halls (at the time I visited UCLA, I believe it held this title, but don’t quote me… sorry to disappoint my UVA runk lovers). So if everyone is the best at something different, how can you call one team the best?

But that’s the point of this question. The answer doesn’t actually matter, but rather it’s how you justify it. So to reframe it in typical behavioral question language: “How do you measure success?”

The way in which you justify which sports team is the best in the world tells me exactly what constitutes success to you.

When I’ve flipped that question on other people, I get a few repeat answers. The Dallas Cowboys come up often (and I promise I am not just asking Texans) which makes sense from a monetary perspective because they are one of the highest grossing sports teams. So this answer indicates to me that the person asked views success in a financial sense. Another one I get is the New Zealand All Blacks. Across all sports, this rugby team has one of the highest winning records, which tells me that those who answer this team value performance in terms of success.

Some of my favorite answers have been the Jamaica bobsleigh team. This showed me that this person views success as ones ability to overcome adversity. I’ve also gotten the Yankee’s a few times (in truth, from my New Yorkers). But their justification stood out to me in that they pointed out how the Yankee symbol is iconic in a way that no other sporting logo is. It’s true, I see several Yankee hats every time I walk down Gran Via here in Madrid. So their version of success has to do with reputation.

I love hearing how people answer this question, and how they measure success, even if their answer is just their home team (“this is their year!” they’ll say). Because even this type of answer tells you something about a person: their sense of loyalty.

I think if I am ever in a position of hiring power, this question would be one I ask off the bat. It’s not that I believe there is one right way to measure success. In fact, it is probably better if not everyone views success in the same exact way. But it is important, if not critical, to understand how each individual in a team defines success if working towards a common goal.

I hope you like the question. Maybe you’ll even ask it during the next lull at the dinner table, or maybe it will just give you something to think about. I know I have and will continue to.

Love always, Arden