Julie Foudy On Team Culture Adversity
Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy), a PCA National Advisory Board Member, played midfield for the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (1987-2004), winning two World Cup titles and two Olympic Gold Medals. A 2007 inductee into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, she now works as an ESPN Analyst and runs the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy, teaching leadership skills to youth.
In this clip, Foudy speaks with PCA at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Convention about team culture. She emphasizes the importance of athletes, coaches and administrators explicitly defining their team's culture, and making sure everyone is on the same page, rather than assuming that everyone on the team operates with the same mentality of culture.
Foudy also distinguishes between talent and culture. It’s great if a team is talented, but that’s not where the culture lies. Rather, the team’s culture should be wrapped up in working hard and being strong mentally, or other core competencies for success. For example, a healthy team culture focuses on improvement rather than how talented the players already are.