The Power Of Identity: Nucor’s Tabitha Stine Offers A Lesson From Volleyball For The Boardroom
Great leaders don’t just show up, they bring with them a playbook—a set of experiences, lessons, and philosophies – that shape how they lead. Tabitha Stine, a prominent leader at Nucor, the nation’s top steel producer, discovered one of her most powerful leadership tools not in a boardroom or business seminar, but on the high school volleyball court.
Stine learned early that identity isn’t just something you have—it’s something you build. And that lesson came from her high school volleyball coach, Mary Hammersley, a legend in her own right and the first inductee into the Illinois Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Every season, Coach Hammersley rallied her team around a unifying theme, giving them a T-shirt emblazoned with a phrase or acronym that encapsulated their mission. One year, the team sported shirts that read “T.E.A.M.”—an acronym for “Together Everyone Achieves More.” These weren’t just words on fabric. They were a declaration of purpose, a reminder of what they stood for, and a north star to guide them through adversity. Each year, the theme evolved, just as the team did. It wasn’t about a single slogan—it was about identity.
“She always had these fun acronyms that would go along with different things,” Stine recalled in a recent interview. “And that would be the identity of our team that year.”
Years later, when Stine stepped into leadership at Nucor, she realized that what worked on the court could work just as effectively in the corporate world. She took the same principle that had united her volleyball team and applied it to her organization. But instead of T-shirts, she created something even more enduring—an identity document.
“I took that same concept and said, ‘We’re going to have an identity document, not just a theme,’” Stine explained. “The identity document changes. It evolves as the team evolves and as the environment evolves. It’s important for leaders to revisit that regularly.”
The parallels between great teams and great businesses are undeniable. Like a volleyball team facing a tough opponent, businesses are constantly met with challenges—shifting markets, changing customer demands, and economic downturns. And when the pressure is on, teams that lack a clear identity struggle to adapt. But those who know who they are, those who have built a culture of unity and purpose, find a way to win.
Coach Hammersley didn’t just use T-shirts as a gimmick; she used them to reinforce a shared vision. She had her players go through visualization exercises, challenging them to see themselves as winners before they ever stepped on the court. “What she taught us was, if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right,” Stine said. “If you come in with an attitude that is not positive, that is not instilling belief in others, what you will quickly realize is that you’re not going to win.”
The most successful business leaders understand this as well. Dr. Loubna Noureddin, co-founder and CEO of Mind Market and a member of the Forbes Business Council, has extensively studied the power of team identity, especially when organizations are navigating change. Ron Carucci, co-founder of the leadership consulting firm Navalent, echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of a well-defined team identity—even in virtual workplaces. Kim McHugh, now a Vice President at Chevron, learned about team identity and mindset on the volleyball court. Before leading in the energy industry, she played volleyball for Texas A&M, a sport that shaped her mental toughness in ways she never could have predicted. “You can do more than you think you can,” she shared. “It is your mind that stops you.”
In the end, identity is what holds a team together in tough moments. It’s what transforms a group of individuals into something greater than the sum of its parts.
Tabitha Stine has spent years in the industry, but no matter how far she’s come, she always goes back to that lesson from Coach Hammersley: When people believe in who they are and what they stand for, they play—and lead—with purpose.
And that’s how teams, in sports and in business, win championships.