12 Leadership Lessons From World Class Football Managers

Robert Steers
Aug 9, 2017 · 6 min read

(or why every executive should take a football coaching license)

In between all the gossip about transfers and the sniping at other teams, there are some coaches that have shaped the game and have written plenty about leadership.

The two most over-used metaphors in business are sports and war. The reason, I was once reliably informed, is they are apt. It is obvious why we can learn from world class football managers. It takes a particular type of leader to drive a team of diverse personalities to perform several times a week for 90 minutes at the highest level. The most successful coaches go on to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds per day in corporate speaking fees when they retire from football.

For the rest of us mortals, there are still plenty of simple lessons we can take from football coaching directly. This is why I think everyone should coach an Under 14s at one time or another. Think of it as a safe playground where you can train your leadership skills with only the threat of a loss to Chatswood Rangers, rather than ending your career. That is the core reason why everyone should do a soccer coaching course. You can learn to lead teenagers who have no problems with telling you that they don’t want to do something. You have to learn influence and leadership without the same role power you have at work.

He would talk to me like I was the best player in the world and I went out at St James’ Park feeling like I was going to play like the best player in the world. — Craig Bellamy on Bobby Robson

It is no accident I have started with Bobby Robson. He is seen by many as the father of modern football management. He directly impacted the playing and coaching careers of many modern stars including Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, and Andre Villas-Boas to name the most prominent few.

The truth is, great coaches get more out of their people. According to Chelladurai and Carron (1978), if a manager adapts his or her behavior to comply with the players’ preferred behavior, the individual may be more readily inclined to repay the manager through an elevated performance (Lin, Jui-Chia, & Esposito, 2005).

He is a role model for every manager in football. — Jurgen Klopp on Alex Ferguson

Leading is involved with modelling the desired behaviour of the culture. Model the way — Leaders are supposed to stand up for their beliefs, so they’d better have beliefs to stand up for. The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

Bobby Robson is one of those people who never die, not so much for what he did in his career, for one victory more or less, but for what he knew to give to those who had, like me, the good fortune to know him and walk by his side. Jose Mourinho,

Servant leaders set great examples. The days of the dictator coach are behind us. We need to find other methods of teaching and relating to people that are more meaningful than “My way or the highway.” Most players (and employees) now want to know “why” something is being done. It would benefit the coach to have an answer ready.

Never change a winning team. — Alf Ramsey

Focus on your team’s strengths, play your best players in their best positions. Don’t force a player into an unfamiliar position just to have them on the field. In business, this means playing to someone’s strengths and have them focus on the area where they have the strongest background. The other way to look at this is that teams should always start with their best 11 on the field. This might seem obvious but a lot of coaches keep some players back as impact players, or over-rotate players to give more game time to weaker players. In the real world, this translates to finding ways to get your top performers as much time helping shape the direction of the team as possible. Often everyone in a team can be given equal air time for ideas or direction, and not everyone’s opinions are equal.

When you are a player, you think, ‘Me! Me! Me!’ When you are a manager, you think ‘You! You! You!’ — Arsene Wenger

Coachability — everyone can be coached. View your team as worth the time investment

There is only one ball, so you need to have it. — Johann Cruyff

People learn by doing. You can’t learn how to be a good team player by reading about it. Also, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, (or you can’t learn how to play without the ball), so people need to know what to do when things are in motion.

We showed the world you could enjoy being a footballer; you could laugh and have a fantastic time. — Johann Cruuff

Game based play — rules of engagement, scoreboards, work for fun. Talking and observation activities such as thinking aloud and modelling are more effective than writing activities in enhancing achievements both in learning and gaming.

“If you think you are perfect already, then you never will be.” — Cristiano Ronaldo

The most important tool for getting things done is the drill. So focus on drills that create WOW momentsIn the real world that would mean training teams to focus (time and energy) on delivering exceptional experiences in one or two key moments. A customer remembers the difference in high and low experiences, plus the end experience.

A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe that you are the best and then make sure that you are. — Bill Shankly

The game is at least almost 100% mental — belief, focus, attitude In football, the ability of the manager and other members of the coaching staff, to cultivate a shared mental model amongst players will likely be an important factor in influencing team coordination and performance.

For a small club there is only one way out: good results, and again good results — Brian Clough

Long ball, tiki-taka, it doesn’t matter as long as you get results

You can’t ever lose control — not when you are dealing with 30 top professionals who are all millionaires. — Alex Ferguson

Coaching Presence. 1. Developing the practice of observation, becoming mindful with the use of meditation practices, e.g. focussing on breathing which will help the coach practice observation as outlined by Nhat Hanh (2008), Silsbee (2008) and Lee (2009). 2. Developing self awareness, Silsbee (2004) and Ting and Scisco (2006) outline that through paying attention to ourselves in the coaching relationship we can become aware of the interferences, discussed earlier in this paper, which impact our potential as a coach. Reflection is a key tool to developing this capability.

This is a game of opinions. You have every right to yours but I get paid for mine — Harry Redknapp

Not everyone’s opinion is equal. Business ultimately is a game of opinions. The quote above comes from one of my favorite videos showing that even those who study the game carefully can be totally wrong. As a leader you need to have a strong opinion, seek out guidance from those around you, but ultimately you have to own the decision.

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