Inspiration from Emma Hayes

At the United Soccer Coaches Convention, Emma Hayes, the newly appointed Head Coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, delivered a powerful session on high-performance leadership, team culture, and preparing the USWNT for Olympic gold in just 76 days. In this episode of Becoming My Stronger Me, I break down the three key insights from her talk that resonated with me the most:

"Performance = Potential - Interference" – How eliminating distractions unlocks true potential.
"If it isn’t broken, break it. Comfort is the death of teams." – Why growth requires challenging success, not just failure.
Her vision: "Create a world where the female lens is at the heart of what we do." – A challenge to coaches, parents, and leaders to rethink how we develop athletes.

Hayes’ insights push us to re-evaluate how we lead, coach, and support athletes at every level. Are we removing interferences or creating them? Are we evolving, or are we staying comfortable? And are we truly serving our athletes, or are we forcing them to conform to outdated systems?

Transcript

Speaker: 0:01

I'm Dr. Nassim Ebrahimi, and welcome to Becoming My Stronger Me, a podcast designed to help you become stronger in mind, body, and heart. In season two, the mental performance series, we'll explore the intricate relationship between mental performance, sports excellence, leadership, and personal growth to help you become your stronger you. Today I'm sharing some insights from one of the most respected leaders in soccer today, Emma Hayes. I recently attended the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Chicago, where Emma Hayes, the newly appointed head coach of the U.S. women's national team, delivered one of the most compelling sessions of the entire event. If you don't already know, Emma Hayes has built an extraordinary legacy. Before taking on the challenge of leading the U.S. women's national team, she transformed Chelsea women into one of the most dominant teams in the world, winning multiple league titles and redefining the tactical and cultural approach to the women's game. But what made her session so powerful wasn't just her impressive track record. It was her vision, her leadership philosophy, and her ability to challenge conventional thinking. She spoke about her process for preparing the U.S. Women's Olympic team for gold in just 76 days, an incredibly short window of time to build chemistry, unite a staff, and optimize performance at the highest level. Her goal to bring the team together in a united way, creating the best possible environment to win. And while she shared many insights, today I want to focus on the three quotes that resonated with me the most because I believe they hold powerful lessons for athletes, coaches, parents, and leaders in any field. The three quotes we'll break down today are performance equals potential minus interference. Let me say that again. Performance equals potential minus interference. The second one is if it isn't broken, to break it. Comfort is the death of teams. And the last quote or concept here that I want to reflect on is her vision statement. Create a world where the female lens is at the heart of what we do. So let's start with performance equals potential minus interference. This concept, originally developed by Timothy Galway in the Inner Game of Tennis, is simple yet incredibly powerful. Performance equals potential minus interference. In other words, an athlete's or team's true potential isn't just determined by their talent or their ability. It's about how much of that potential actually gets expressed when interferences are removed. So what are interferences? Well, interferences can be mental, emotional, or environmental. Mental barriers can be self-doubt, perfectionism, fear, failure, and the list goes on and on. External distractions could be poor coaching environments, unnecessary pressure, toxic team cultures, maybe even something that might be happening off the field or outside the sport, the conditions. Physical limitations are injuries, lack of recovery, poor nutrition. Emma emphasized the need for coaches to help their athletes identify and remove the interferences instead of just focusing on skill building. So, how can coaches and athletes apply this? Coaches, your job is not just to teach technical and tactical skills, but to create an environment where players can perform freely. So ask yourself: are you removing obstacles or are you inadvertently creating more? And athletes, start identifying what's holding you back, whether it's overthinking, stress, exhaustion, negative self-talk, and take the small steps to address these obstacles. Let's all reflect whether you're an athlete or not, whether you're a coach or not. What's one interference in your life that's keeping you from reaching your full potential? And how can you start removing it? The second quote that really resonated with me, and I really had to think about this one, was if it isn't broken, break it. Comfort is the death of teams. Well, most of us have heard the old saying, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. But Emma challenges this completely. She believes that complacency is the enemy of success. Teams, organizations, and even individuals who get too comfortable stop growing. Instead of waiting for problems to arise, she actively seeks ways to innovate, push boundaries, and keep evolving. So why does this matter? Well, at Chelsea, even when her team was winning, she never let them settle. She constantly reworked tactics, adjusted formations, and introduced new methodologies, even when things were going well. Why? Because staying at the top requires continuous improvement. So, how can this apply to athletes and coaches? Well, for coaches, ask yourself: are you challenging your team to improve or are you just repeating what has worked in the past? True leadership means being willing to disrupt success in order to sustain it. And with that comes a true understanding of the team and the athletes and the conditions you have today. Athletes. If you're excelling in your sport, that's great, that's amazing. But are you actively looking for ways to improve? Maybe it's developing a weaker skill, studying the game more deeply, or refining your mental game? Are you getting comfortable being a beginner with all of the amazing lessons you can learn by doing so? So a general reflection question here is where in your game, your coaching, or your leadership have you become comfortable? And how are you challenging yourself to disrupt that and push for growth? So let's talk about the third one. Unlike the first two, this isn't a quote. It's Emma Hayes' vision statement, particularly as it relates to the U.S. women's national team. Her vision statement is to create a world where the female lens is at the heart of what we do. For me, this was one of the most powerful moments of her talk. She wasn't just talking about coaching the U.S. women's national team. She was talking about reshaping the way we think about leadership, sports, and athlete development. For too long, women in sports have had to adapt to systems designed for men, typically by men. From training regimens to leadership structures to funding decisions, the female athlete experience has often been an afterthought. Emma's mission is to change that. So let's take a moment to reflect as coaches, parents, and leaders. Are we truly serving the athletes we have? Or are we forcing them to conform to outdated models? Are we coaching young, especially female athletes based on their unique needs, or are we simply copying what has worked for male athletes? Are we creating environments where female leaders, coaches, and players can thrive? Or are we expecting them to adjust to a male-dominated system? Emma's leadership is a reminder to re-examine the way we do things and to build systems that reflect the athletes and the people that we serve. A reflection question here. Well, how can you contribute to this vision? Whether as a coach, a parent, an athlete, or a leader. Emma Hayes' session at the United Soccer Coaches Convention was a masterclass in leadership, innovation, and vision. The three takeaways performance equals potential minus interference. If it isn't broken, break it and create a world where the female lens is at the heart of what we do are powerful lessons that apply not just to soccer, but to leadership, coaching, and personal growth. I hope today's episode gave you some new perspectives on how to elevate performance, challenge complacency, and rethink the way we develop athletes. If this resonated with you, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Send me a message, share this episode with a coach, an athlete, or a parent who needs to hear it, and let's continue the conversation. And if you're looking for more insights on leadership, mental performance, and personal growth, make sure you are subscribed to the Becoming My Stronger Me podcast so you never miss an episode. Until next time, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, join our Facebook group, send in your stories and feedback. And if you're looking for a mental performance coach or want more information, go to www.becoming my strongerme.com. I can't wait to hear from you.