Why Notre Dame’s Football Coach Tells His Team to “Choose Hard”

This can be a particular episode of The CEO Series for me as a result of we took a visit to Notre Dame Stadium the place I performed soccer as a walk-on alongside my brother in the course of the undefeated season of 2012. We went to my previous stomping grounds to sit down down with head coach Marcus Freeman to speak about management and the way, in some ways, he’s the CEO of their unimaginable program.

Under are some highlights of that dialog, which have been edited for size and readability. Watch the total video above.

The coach as CEO

“A CEO is in command of a giant firm, and my firm occurs to be Notre Dame soccer. On the finish of the day, you are answerable for each choice that impacts the individuals in this system and the outcomes which can be on the sector. So you do not make each choice, however you are answerable for each choice. That is essential to ensure you perceive. All through my teaching profession, the best satisfaction got here from seeing the gamers you had been concerned with have success.”

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The celebration video that went viral after he was employed as head coach

“It was a blur. However I keep in mind strolling out of that door and seeing the crew going loopy — all I wished to do was hug them. It wasn’t a few speech. It was an opportunity to have fun and be together with your guys, proper? I inform them on a regular basis: I am a teammate. I may be the captain, however I am a teammate. I perceive the belongings you’re going via. I am on this battle with you. And I believe they respect that they usually perceive that. Strolling out that door is a second I will always remember and one I will cherish endlessly.”

The which means of his mantra “Select Exhausting”

“It began a few years in the past once I was within the Notre Dame weight room and was figuring out as our gamers had been being pushed arduous. And I keep in mind considering you can select to undergo the motions or you’ll be able to select to go as arduous as you’ll be able to. And that is once I got here up with this considered ‘Select Exhausting.’ We put up an indication you see while you stroll into this constructing that claims ‘Select Exhausting.’ As a result of while you stroll into Notre Dame soccer, you have to have that mindset. We will select arduous in the present day in observe, select arduous in the present day in conferences, select arduous in the present day within the weight room. And for the gamers, you are going to be challenged within the classroom, proper? You are going to be in school with among the most clever individuals on this world. And it is troublesome, however finally you’ve got chosen to come back right here so select arduous, settle for it, and know that the rewards from selecting arduous each single day cannot be discovered wherever else.”

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Drawback-solving philosophy

“When a crew is not successful, lots of people say, belief the method. My mantra is: repair the method. I spend plenty of time evaluating every little thing we had been doing. Why aren’t we enjoying higher? What are we doing schematically? Is there one thing our gamers do not perceive? Losses occur and it is part of life. However they damage. As a frontrunner, you do not wish to have too many. Repair it with urgency.”

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Retaining gamers within the age of the switch portal

“Look, in the event you’re the CEO of an organization, you bought to pay your staff, proper? Now if they will go some place else and make much more cash, it doesn’t matter what kind of firm you are operating, they will most likely depart. So we now have to be sure that our gamers can maximize the alternatives of identify, picture and likeness. That is essential, however what else retains them at Notre Dame? What else attracts them right here? And you have to consider it is your tradition. You have to consider it is the best way they’re handled. Do they get pleasure from being a part of your program? That is so essential. And that is a message for myself and our different coaches. Let’s be sure that as arduous as we push them, as demanding as we’re, we’re not demeaning. We wish them to get pleasure from being part of this crew and the entire alternatives that the College of Notre Dame supplies.”

Try extra profiles of revolutionary and impactful leaders by visiting The CEO Series archives.