GLENN: Is it accurate that you studied with the intent to work in intelligence? MI6? Has that contributed at all to your success as a coach or how you go about things? Can you connect the two?
EMMA: Oh, that’ s a good question. I mean, yeah, I had every intent as a young undergrad going through university. I was angry and upset with the world.
GLENN: This is interesting.
EMMA: I studied predominantly politics post 1945. I developed a love of European politics post 1945. And then I realized I’ m really interested in anything from the state— the Kurdish nation, to the Basque terrorist situation. I was always fascinated about what creates division. And then I became really interested in how do we solve problems and what does that look like? And developing the art of everything from diplomacy to negotiation skills, assured me to be able to do my job. I think I’ m not always conscious of that. But sometimes, when I sit back and I think,‘ Wow, how much of the sociological underpinning and political underpinning have influenced my coaching?’ And I’ d say, yeah, absolutely.
GLENN: Well, solving conflicts in coaching is one of your chief responsibilities.
EMMA: Yeah, and you have to imagine how much media you have to do all of the time. So, you’ re always having to level up with the media to deliver a message that gives people confidence and courage. You can’ t alarm people. You can’ t scare people with things. So, you have to know how to share information.
GLENN: I’ m a big New York Yankees fan since I was a little boy and there was a manager along the way named Joe Torre and he mastered the art of sharing.
EMMA: I love little insights like that, Glenn. I would love to listen to him.
GLENN: Everybody loved and respected him— the media, the players.
EMMA: You know what? I try to be honest. I do like to build on these relationships with people. And I do want to share interesting things. And I found like, especially being back in the U. S., I’ ve enjoyed much more doing work with the media in the U. S. than I do the U. K. I had this really cool conversation with Roger Bennett about the differences. Every week in England, it’ s‘ Is so and so playing at the end of the week,’ or‘ Is so and so being sold.’ Here in America everybody’ s interested about what it took to get there, and they’ re interested in more qualitative insights, rather than just click bait. And I like to engage with the media, so I’ m enjoying being back on this side of the pond.
GLENN: Before I leave MI6, have you seen“ Slow Horses” with Gary Oldman? How great is that?
EMMA: I love it and I love anything spy related, but I love“ Slow Horses.” Absolutely brilliant.
GLENN: So, we could recommend it to anyone who’ s listening?
EMMA: Yeah, definitely.
GLENN: How do you stay educated? You mentioned recently that you want to keep developing and have a lot of plans for yourself this year. What kinds of things?
EMMA: Oh, anything and everything. I’ m part of a cohort of coaches all over the world that get to develop in different ways. We might bring different challenges and help solve them together. Then, I’ m meeting with a few Premier League clubs in the next couple of months. When I come back to England, I’ ve got them already set up.
GLENN: Will you visit them and observe training and that sort of thing?
EMMA: Spend the day with them. I’ ve also got a series of Zooms lined up with some top coaches to put myself in their situation and I’ ve decided this year to look at innovation. We launched the WNT strategy, which I’ m so excited about because the strategy is less about producing teams to win. Of course, we want to produce teams to win but I want to be able to turn a page on some of the things that have really irked me about the women’ s game, and I want to use different innovations to be able to further progress that and that includes coach education.
GLENN: What is something that irks you about the women’ s game.
EMMA: Everything’ s through a male lens. Absolutely everything.
GLENN: When you go visit the Premier League clubs, are you visiting the women’ s teams or the men’ s teams?
EMMA: The men’ s teams, but there I will go to talk about coaching and managing and leadership. And you can only really do that with another manager, and I’ ve built enough relationships in England to be able to do that. But I also will do that in the U. S. too. My plan is to go across to the NFL this year. I really want to develop a better understanding of the dynamics between multiple head coaches, co-coaches, the different coordinators. I want to spend a bit more time in the NFL to really get underneath how best to do that. And Formula One. I love to learn from Formula One.
GLENN: Why is that? I know José Mourinho has also visited F1.
EMMA: F1 is just so ahead of the curve in so many ways and it’ s just about finding an edge and most of the time the edge is when it comes to communication or sometimes it is related to data science or algorithms that are developed or black-box learning.
GLENN: How about learning from your mistakes?
EMMA: I’ m really reflective and I’ ve had a real, hard rule for many years, which is: please do not review the game that you lose in excruciating detail if you don’ t do it for the one that you win. Do it the same, be consistent in your behaviors. Sometimes I’ ll be looking for inspirations across the board. Sometimes I’ ll go to business. At the moment, my head is down the rabbit hole of AI agents, which is going to be a phenomenal development technologically this year. I’ ll take influences from everywhere and bring them back into coaching where I can, but I absolutely need to keep myself motivated. I’ ve recognized I’ d become quite stale in the end at Chelsea, and
continued on page 22
21