The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football's Leaders (7 page)

Solution Part One: Understand Your People

When it comes to understanding people, Ancelotti is a master. He is warm, generous and compassionate. ‘I believe that every experience can form your character. Your
relationship with your parents shapes you as a person because your parents are your most important teachers. They form your character and, as a manager, it is important to have
character.’

This runs deep for Ancelotti. He grew up on a farm in rural Italy – a safe and nurturing childhood, much loved by his parents. ‘My family were very quiet and calm, I grew up with a
very good family, small family: mother, father, sister, grandmother and grandfather. It was very good; I understood a lot of things. My father never shouted; he was very quiet and calm. I had a
beautiful childhood.’ The result is a centred leader who – for the most part – exudes calm. And this calm is at least part of the reason why his players will run through fire for
him.

The loyalty challenge

In the bestselling book
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
, management expert Stephen Covey quotes St Francis of Assisi’s famous principle: ‘Seek
first to understand and then to be understood.’ And it’s not hard to see why investing in understanding people grows loyalty. But where to begin? People, after all, are complex. One
good place to start is with a player’s strengths – understanding where they lie, focusing on them and using them to the greatest possible effect. Neil Warnock’s philosophy is to
make average players good and make good players great. In fact, he regards it as something of a personal challenge: ‘I enjoy getting the best out of people where other people say don’t
touch them with a barge pole. When everyone tells me, “They can’t do this, they can’t do that,” I look at what they
can
do. I also look at
who they are
– their temperaments and personalities. I like creating a team of different characters. When I first started at Scarborough in 1986, we were betting certainties to be relegated –
supposed to be the worst team in the league. I took about 20 players up to Scarborough to show them the set-up. All of them were free transfers, all cast-offs – but I just felt that every one
of them had something to offer. They all had plusses. I think you can get carried away looking at what they’re not good at, but I think if you can work on what someone
is
good at you
have more opportunity of progressing than you have if you focus on their faults.’

It is not always easy to see gold when everyone else is trying to dissuade you. But the rewards can be huge. Warnock continues: ‘When I was at Sheffield United, I was looking for a wide
player. I had seen Michael Brown at Portsmouth. He was on the books at Manchester City and had a bad-lad reputation. He was on loan at Portsmouth, who wanted to send him back because they
didn’t like his attitude in training. He didn’t play out wide at Portsmouth, he played up and down. We went down there to watch him, and playing in front of me I saw his attitude. He
was like a little terrier – I just liked something about the lad. City didn’t want him, Portsmouth didn’t want him, so I took him on loan and then I signed him in the summer about
two months later. In the end I think he scored 23 goals and got us to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the League Cup.’ By understanding a player who wasn’t even on his own staff and
then by focusing on his strengths, Warnock had done what he believes in. The player had become greater than he himself would have believed possible. ‘In the end he got a move to Tottenham and
became a multi-millionaire. It pleases me when he’d been cast out, not going to go anywhere and then I make a star out of him.’ Warnock teaches us a good lesson here. A leader should be
prepared to back his own judgement, even in the face of contradictory advice from those close to him.

Understanding a player can be very fulfilling for the manager. And Warnock believes it generates loyalty: ‘Brown’s back with me here at Leeds United, playing his socks off.’
But it doesn’t stop at understanding. It also takes acceptance. Acceptance is about taking the player at face value – not damning him out of sight for perceived limitations or
weaknesses. This may involve giving him a chance that perhaps many feel he doesn’t deserve. It is also about openness: football managers who are prepared to be proved wrong have a greater
chance of succeeding. Walter Smith concurs with this observation. ‘One noticeable aspect that you observe as a manager when you join a new club is the reaction you get from some players.
Players can certainly turn around a preconceived view that a manager may previously have held about them from a distance. A new manager can sometimes invoke a very positive reaction from a player
that exceeds expectation.’

Players as people

Seeking to understand the person beneath the behaviour is a critical act of leadership. Sam Allardyce is committed to it: ‘Most of the problems for a footballer who goes
off his game lie outside the training camp – they don’t generally lie inside if you’ve got it right. Ian Green was the manager who taught me this as a player. Looking back on it
now, he was a real man manager, a real motivator. It was his personality and his knowledge of when and where and what to do ... We all thought, “How does he know that?” and we put it
down to his experience. He would ask what was happening at home. Are you not sleeping? Little things, but important.’

So point one for a leader is to make yourself aware of what’s going on – to spot the symptoms and have the courage to delve deeper. Point two then is to address the individual
challenge. How to do this though depends again on understanding. Ancelotti is committed to this; he invests time in understanding every personality he is dealing with: ‘In Milan, I had a
report to help me understand what kind of player I was seeing, for each player. It was very interesting. So when they make a mistake yes, you have to speak to them individually. But also you have
to understand what kind of communication players like because there are some players who don’t like to be spoken to in front of the others, there are others that don’t have a problem
with you speaking in front of the others. Sometimes you have to speak in front of the others so the others can understand. This is a leadership challenge. But it’s important to know which
type of communication to use with each different player. There are players that are focused on what you say, but there are other players, for example, that like to be touched – a hand on the
arm – when you are talking to stay focused. Others are not so bothered about touch. You have to understand each one, to get the most out of him.’

Football managers like Ian Green or Ancelotti add to their raft of skills the all-important art of listening. They understand that to listen fully requires considerable effort and application.
Empathetic leaders don’t just catch what is said – they listen for what is
not
said, and actively search for underlying meaning, scanning conversations, facial expressions and
body language for clues. The result is that players like the young Sam Allardyce feel they have been taken seriously – and they respect their manager all the more.

This works in all areas of life. Take the example of a young American professional working some years ago in London, out with a group of colleagues for dinner in a small restaurant. A few
minutes after they arrived, the table next to theirs was taken by a small party including Bill Clinton, who was in town while visiting his daughter Chelsea at Oxford. During the evening, the two
tables got talking, and Bill Clinton – recognising a fellow American in London – spent some time speaking to his countryman, also called Bill. The young Bill was an out-and-out
Republican voter, and had precious little time for Clinton. But his opinion changed after the encounter: ‘That evening I was listened to for half an hour like I’ve never been listened
to before by anyone – let alone a former president of the United States. He gave me all his attention, and I was the only person in his universe for those 30 minutes.’

Brendan Rodgers sees ‘four magic words that people have on their foreheads: “Make me feel important.”’ This was very much the source of Clinton’s strength as a
leader. He could have leveraged his status as a former president, but he did not. Instead he had an enormous and lasting impact on Bill through his deep listening. Leaders who listen like this
command not just loyalty but affection from their people, which in turn means that employees or players are willing to work harder for them, leading to more success for the organisation or on the
pitch.

Understanding in the cauldron

What Ancelotti or Ian Green display is empathy. A much misunderstood idea, empathy is cast aside by too many leaders as ‘the soft side’ when, in fact, it is
incredibly hard for most of us to practise. Empathy has two components. The first idea is that we put ourselves in the shoes of another person, to better understand their mindset and thus their
worldview. Once we understand this, we can work much more productively with them. The second idea is that we show our awareness of their situation by some clear acknowledgement. Again there is a
productivity bonus: he is happier to work with me because he feels I understand him.

A moving story emerged in the UK press around 2007. A father was taking his young son to Cambridge for cancer treatment at the world-renowned Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He decided to turn the
visit into something memorable by staying in a top-quality hotel for a few days and seeing the beautiful city at leisure. The evening before the operation, the head-waiter at the hotel noticed the
boy was anxious, and asked his father about it. He explained that his son had had to shave his head for the operation, and was feeling self-conscious. The head-waiter expressed sympathy. The next
morning, when father and son came down for breakfast, the restaurant staff had
all
shaved their heads. This story of empathy in practice shows its power even in the most difficult of
circumstances. It also reminds us how costly it can be to get it right.

Like the head-waiter, Ancelotti believes in a costly version of empathy. And it is all tied up with the fundamental need for leaders to show their human side. ‘I think that you have to
show the player your character, because in a group it is normal to have a better relationship with one and a different relationship with another. By showing your character, you build trust –
and in this way, I was able to keep friendships even when making tough and unpopular decisions.’ Ancelotti has never been afraid to share his own fears and concerns, and his players sense in
him an openness and a centredness that they find easy to relate to. Ancelotti is comfortable crossing boundaries that others do not: ‘Provided a player respects my job and my decisions, he
can still be a friend. This is important, because when the jobs have changed, the friendship can still remain.’ However, this is a risky and hugely difficult line to tread and most leaders
struggle to get it right. Get it wrong and a leader can lose respect, results can drop, professional relationships and reputations can be damaged beyond repair.

Solution Part Two: Build Steel

Empathy does not equate to softness. There is a steel common to all the leading football managers that marks them out from their peers. Ancelotti gives an example: ‘I was
a manager of someone who had played with me. How could I break the relationship that we had when we were players? We stayed friends, but they have respect because my role was different. I was no
longer a player – I was a manager. They have to respect my decisions. Sometimes that is not easy. I remember dropping players who came to me after my decisions to ask me, “Why did you
take me out? We are friends!” I would answer them: “Yes, we are friends – and we can continue to be friends – but you have to stay on the bench today.”’ In
stepping up to lead your peers, the art of one-on-one – specifically
how
you deliver the message – is critical.

Perhaps the absolute master of steel is Sir Alex Ferguson. His resolve stems from a profound belief in his ability to make decisions, and originates back in the dockyard unions of Glasgow.
‘In the trade union I was a shop steward. I had a strong sense of responsibility about looking after or protecting people who were vulnerable, and I had to make decisions and stand by them.
In an era when trade unions were very, very powerful, very influenced by communists, there were still two or three times that we took strike action – for the right reasons. I had a great
mentor as a shop steward – a guy called Cal McKay, who was this fantastic, down-to-earth man and very intelligent. He could talk the length and breadth of any subject you could name, but he
would never force his beliefs on you. It was obvious that he had strong communist beliefs, whereas I was socialist and that was it, but it was his strength of character that had a serious influence
on me. I learned how to make decisions and had the strength of character to take me into management.’ Steel, then, can come from professional knowledge, decision-making ability and
self-belief. It is a hugely important quality in a leader.

Steel can build loyalty too

Football managers value loyalty – perhaps above all else. When the chips are down – either personally or on a wider scale – they want their players to come
through for them. We have seen how understanding builds loyalty when allied to acceptance and openness. But can steel do the same thing?

Mick McCarthy was finishing his playing career at Millwall in 1992: ‘It was Sunday night and Millwall had lost 6-1 – I think it was at Portsmouth. I was in the pub with a good mate
of mine, John Colquhoun. We were talking about our game the following week, at home to Port Vale – which team would you pick, and so on. We weren’t involved in team selection but after
all, everyone knows better than the manager. And it was particularly interesting because there was talk of Bruce [Rioch] getting the sack. Our conversation went something like this: