Last night the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team beat perennial powerhouse, Tennesse.  For Kentucky it was only the seventh win ever over the Lady Vols.

After the game, Pat Summitt, Tennessee’s coach and all-time winningest Division 1 basketball coach was quoted in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“In 35 years coaching, this probably has been the least energy of any team I’ve coached,” Summitt said. “I’m not good at coaching effort. It was a total lack of passion. I don’t know that you can teach that to a player.”

Coach Summitt hit the nail on the head.  You can coach, teach, inspire, motivate, strategize, challenge and bend over backwards but it’s all wasted energy if your team – whether it’s in sports or business – doesn’t put forth effort… if they don’t have a fire burning in their belly.

Same holds true at work.  If you’ve got an employee that simply doesn’t seem to care about anything or doesn’t seem to want to put forth effort, why keep them?  Especially in today’s deep pool of top notch talent looking for a job.

There’s never been a better time to get rid of the deadwood.