by Carson, Mike
On a lighter note, the importance of setting tone and embodying values is amusingly illustrated by Alex McLeish in a story about Ferguson at Aberdeen: ‘I was never really scared of Sir Alex, but I had great respect for him. He took the game seriously, and so did we. We had a multi-gym for players to use when they were injured, but there was a snooker table in the same room. Players used to use both at the same time – kind of, “Right, you play a shot while I do the multi-gym and then when it’s your turn I’ll go in the multi-gym.” We could always hear him come down the corridor so it was fine! One morning, they thought Fergie was away training, but sometimes he would hang back a bit and do some administration stuff. It was 20 minutes into when training would start, and this day he caught them red-handed. The lad had the snooker cue in his hand ready to pot when Fergie put his head in the door! Superb moment – the lad was absolutely brilliant – he put the cue around his neck and started doing squats! Fergie loved it, but he never let the seriousness of the football slip.’
Level 2 again: Work with beliefs and motivations
Also sitting below the level of thoughts and feelings is the question of beliefs. These are the things we hold to be true – about ourselves, our work, our colleagues, our purpose. Ultimately they determine our priorities, and Wenger is a master of them.
He begins by identifying his own: ‘What keeps me going is my love for the game, for doing the job I do and for football. I have that internal desire to be as good as I can, refusing to be average. Unfortunately sometimes in the job I feel very average when I don’t deliver results, but there is something in every individual that pushes him to try and be excellent. That is my petrol.’ This combination of pure love for the game and striving for excellence naturally influences what he looks for in players: ‘If you want to make a career at a big club you must be capable to believe in your abilities, and keep them in perspective off the field also. You can have players who appear quickly to have a big talent, but if they cannot handle keeping their feet on the ground and continue to improve, they will be eliminated. So always the people who last are those who can handle that kind of pressure and that kind of approach to their life. When you go out there [on the pitch] with the ball, it must mean something to you. Of course, you make mistakes at any age, but what basically always brings you back on track is that deep love and deep motivation to be as good as you can be.’
Once a player has that motivation, he must stay focused on it – against all the obvious distractions: ‘The consistency of focus around an individual’s motivation is an underrated quality. This is what sets one talented player apart from another with similar talent. And if you analyse people who have been successful, they don’t remain successful automatically. Their standing goes up and down, and to come up again you need a huge level of consistency in your focus. So, for example, if a player is only motivated by money he will not go far. Players are made rich very quickly, so if he has the money and is only motivated by money where does he go? The players at the top are people who have a very strong internal need to be the best. We are all motivated by that. Strikers may love to win, and defenders may hate to lose; but the final focus is the same.’
Of course, for a player this deep motivation brings with it a flip side. It is down to the manager to provide a valid channel for that motivation to express itself. Wenger makes the point that this challenge surfaces weekly: ‘One of the difficult things of being a manager is to sack 14 people every Friday morning – and then re-employ them on a Monday morning and say, “Right, we start again – I take you back on board.” This, of course, is extremely difficult. Somebody who doesn’t play or who is injured feels useless. The difficulty of our job and the key for the club is to take care of these people. And the nature of elite sport is you can be number five or six in the world in March and be number 500 in November. So if a player isn’t playing, he is feeling in danger and is asking how he can get out of that. Therefore inside the club it is important that we give respect and credit to people who for a while aren’t really in situations where they can show how good they are.’
Level 3: Create belonging and fulfilment
At the bottom of the iceberg, Wenger sees the need to create belonging for his players – both individually and as a team: ‘I believe in creating an organisation where every individual believes that he can exploit his full potential, and as well that he contributes to the goodness of the club and team. We have a sense of belonging and a sense of wanting to realise what we are capable of doing. In an organisation you can get these two things right: I feel I belong to it and I feel I can get the best out of myself by doing that. You have a chance to be successful. Unfortunately that’s not always possible and some of the aspects of our game are completely the opposite of that. When you have 25 players and on Friday morning you filter them out, you turn those people into unemployed people and the sense of belonging diminishes ... the sense of being able to show what you are capable of doing disappears.’ The danger here is that a demotivated player can lose his appetite for the game, descend into a victim mindset and even begin to drag others down with him.
Leaders in whatever setting need to create belonging in their teams: belonging to something special, something intimate, something big and something lasting. Being part of the first-team dressing room at Manchester United is a good example of something special – and not least because Sir Alex maintained a strict confidentiality. He saw it as essential for his players’ well-being: ‘You’ve got to have a system in your club where it stays in the dressing room. Anything that we have to say remains there. That was true for me right from the start, from 32 years old. I never ever would talk about what happened between me and the players. I’ve always held that confidentiality. By doing that I am laying a foundation of trust – a sense they can depend on you. Human beings need that because they are fragile. In fact, the human beings that we deal with now are more fragile than they ever were.’
Intimacy is important for a sense of belonging too – and it does not have to be incredibly profound to have a positive effect. Kevin Keegan would create an easy sense of belonging simply by being there with the players every day: ‘I would be there all the time, make sure the staff and I are first in and last out: looking around trying to feel what’s good, what’s right, what’s not right, sitting at tables when the players are eating – not actually listening to the conversations, just getting a feel for the mood. When the players train I’m there, when they’re doing their fitness I’m there. Then people know this guy is full time, he’s serious, he’s committed.’ Keegan is serious about relationships, but pragmatic about how deep to go: ‘The secret is to get people to believe in each other. Once you’ve got that, you’ve got a chance – because you won’t beat the opposition if you’re beating yourself. But they don’t all have to love each other.’ He gives the example of his excellent working relationship with John Toshack at Liverpool: ‘John Tosh and I were a great partnership. We weren’t great friends; we were good friends. I never went out for a meal with him, we never socialised together other than at club functions, but on a football pitch we were best friends. Everything I tried to do was to make him a better player, to make him score goals, to help him – and vice-versa.’
The something special also needs to be something purposeful. Thoughtful goal setting helps turn that sense of belonging to something worthwhile. Howard Wilkinson is a big believer in this: ‘The first thing I did before my first full season at Leeds began for real was to sit down with my players and talk through some facts: “to get out of this league you need that many points, to win this league you need that many points, to do that you need to score that many goals, you need to concede no more than this many goals, and looking back over the last ten seasons, the number of players we need to use is 16 (or whatever the right figure was). So now what do you think we can do? What do you want to do?” I’d have my own view and I’d throw that in at the end, because players in that situation out of bravado always think they can win it
. Then it’s hang on a minute, let’s think about this and what it means. It was very important for me to get them to commit to goals.’
Finally, the something special should carry some sense of the long term. David Moyes recruits for that: ‘I’ve always looked for players I feel could go on a journey with me, not just do a job. I try and sign players who I think could go with me for four, five or six years if possible. I always have to believe I could work with them in the long term. I’ve got to say I’ve met quite a few players and chosen not to take them, some quite well-known players I’ve not chosen because I’ve felt that what I heard wasn’t quite what I wanted to hear. A lot of them have turned out to be top players, but I just felt there was something missing, so I’ve stayed away.’
When we think of human needs, we often think of the basic stuff: food, shelter and so on. The reality is that the people we lead will have pretty developed needs – and belonging and fulfilment are at the heart of them. Football is no exception, and the great managers meet those needs head-on.
Back to Level 0: Set (and enforce) boundaries
For all the need to work lower down in the iceberg, the simple act of agreeing boundaries at the least makes it clear to everyone what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. Gérard Houllier cites it as one of his four foundational values, saying players should: ‘Be a pro, on and off the field.’ He stresses both: ‘A player has to be a top pro in terms of looking after himself, and doing the job properly – because he lives for that job, which is different from other jobs.’
The challenge to managers is only very rarely about the high-profile misdemeanours we read about in the newspapers. David Moyes says the more common issues by far are around personal commitment: ‘It’s much more likely to be someone turning up late for training, maybe somebody saying something through the media which they shouldn’t have done, maybe a tweet, maybe while they are away on international duty which causes you problems. The overall discipline of the players is much improved against previous generations.’ Manager of the England Women’s team, Hope Powell, also finds it’s about timekeeping and personal discipline: ‘I’m very strict on time, as in turn up for breakfast on time, turn up for meetings on time. And they are very good. Just now and again they might just need a gentle reminder.’ And is it ever more than a gentle reminder? ‘Oh yes, and sometimes it’s innocent really and they say, “I didn’t mean to”, and the response is, “If it happens again it’ll be the last time it happens.” And that’s it.’
The women’s game is different from the men’s – with less media profile and different group behaviours. But, regardless of gender, David Moyes believes societal trends allow leaders to be much more empowering in their approach to discipline: ‘The style of leadership is different to what it was in years gone by. Maybe leaders needed to be stricter then. In the world we are in just now, players can’t really step over the mark because there will be so much to lose – their work is worth too much to them. With camera phones and instant media, players have to be much more self-disciplined than in the past.’ The approach now from football leaders at the top of the game is about role modelling, self-discipline and appealing to a player’s sense of responsibility. André Villas-Boas decided early on that he could ‘only be a leader with open-minded leadership – open-minded in the sense of implying responsibilities in people and making sure people are made accountable for the mistakes that they do instead of me reprimanding them hard for what they are doing wrong.’ Moyes adds: ‘There are the basic ground rules that most football players have to abide by, and one or two which are important to me which I might mention to the players, but I really want them to discipline themselves. Good leaders don’t have to be too heavily involved in it all the time. Only in extreme cases do they need to come in and take action.’
Essentially, the leaders set the environment for self-discipline. It begins, of course, by hiring people who are likely to embody your own values. Moyes would only sign players who ‘display self-discipline, honesty and respect’. For Gérard Houllier, respect is the second of his four foundational values: ‘Respect means that the player cannot say, “I should play,” because if he says “I should play” in the press, he lacks respect to his teammates who he is playing with, or to the institution, or to the manager who picks the team. He must have respect even to the kit manager, not just to throw things away. He must respect the facilities, everything. Respect is a huge thing.’
As important as respect is boundary setting. When Hope Powell gets her team together for international duty, she thinks about it as a duty of care. ‘It’s more for their own protection. So I do lay down the boundaries – this is what you can do, this is what you can’t do. But they are adults – I’m not their mother – so I want them to take the responsibility, take the ownership. It’s quite a childish thought, but when you say you can’t do something, all of a sudden everybody wants to do it! But the players are really good – they generally ask. We negotiate, but I make it very clear that my word is final.’ Finally, it’s about enforcement and sanction. Most of the time, this is understated. As Powell puts it, ‘I have to just gently say, “Hang on a minute, what are you doing?” and just bring them back.’ Moyes also believes in keeping it low-key where at all possible: ‘I personally don’t believe in fining people if I can help it. I’ve had to do it, but I’m not a great believer in taking money away from people – it’s not usually the best solution to indiscipline. I would rather just remove the players from the environment – I think in its own way that’s a bigger punishment. It can cause other difficulties through the media with internet reporting, but by removing a player from the situation I’m sending him home to think about what he has done. He will have to explain to his family why he is not training.’
Martin Jol confirms the need to maintain the boundaries once set: ‘You need to have certain arrangements before a match and before a season, and certain rules and regulations, and I always say I won’t let anything slip. For example, you have to be on time. I won’t let them be late for a minute because I will say these are our standards. Another example: everyone wears the same clothes and the same socks. One player, he was always coming on the pitch with black socks. I thought, “It’s not about you, it’s about the group.” So you have to tell them, although they can be pretty sulky, but you have to be firm and that is what I have learnt.’
Even when confronting behaviours head-on, both Moyes and Powell favour an empowering approach. Not surprisingly, Wenger takes a similar tack. He is constantly inviting his players to take ownership and look at their own standards – both off the field and on it: ‘To every quality player, I ask him how well he thinks he has done and I listen carefully to what he says. If he has a fair assessment of his performance you can think that this guy has a chance in life. I also ask them to consider their level of ambition. This is very important to show how much you want to be the best and what kind of price are you ready to pay for it. Of course, in football you do need special talent, but when a player passes the age of 20, what is in his mind is more important than the rest and that’s what makes a career.’
Howard Wilkinson remembers clearly a moment of confrontation that worked well when, even in the heat of the moment, he got the player to look inside himself: ‘I got a player to think about the lack of respect he was demonstrating for his colleagues by turning up late. It was a case of, “Right, you’ve turned up ten minutes late. There’s 30 of us on this training ground. We are all paid this much per hour so you’ve cost us that much. We have work to do.”’
The important message here for any leader is that behaviours need addressing, one way or another. Strong leaders grasp nettles when necessary. Of course, there are times when this is not immediately appropriate – other people are present, other matters are pressing, or the moment is just not right. (After all, 1-0 down with ten minutes to go is no time to address a player’s behaviour.) But when a difficult behaviour is left unaddressed, it still needs dealing with – it’s just h
arder to do after the event.
Have the tough conversations
Tough conversations are part of the job – and successful leaders have them. In part, that is why they are successful. When things go unsaid, resentment builds. What was a small misunderstanding becomes full-blown conflict. It is an act of strong leadership to address the root cause of the problem.
As a manager, Glenn Hoddle often had to hold tough conversations. He recalls one especially difficult instance as England manager: ‘The problem with being England manager is the players are not yours – you are only leasing the car – so you’re not with them on a daily basis. Paul Gascoigne was one of our best players. I could see that he had too many injuries, and he was such a good player so I wanted him fit for the 1998 World Cup. I gave him so many opportunities. I said, “Look – you’ve got to get fit, your diet has got to change ...” But I wasn’t hands-on. He kept coming back a bit injured, missed a few games ... We got all the way to the moment of choosing the World Cup squad, and Gazza was still not fit. I had to play him in a pre-tournament game in Morocco. He was a genius as a player and I wanted him in the team and it was almost down to the very last game whether I was going to put him into the squad or not because of his lack of fitness. It was the saddest decision, but the toughest decision I had to make because the whole nation wanted him, I wanted him. He got injured after 20 minutes, he got caught on the ball because he had been too slow and in the end I turned to my assistant and said, “John, we can’t take him.” So I had to sit him down in the hotel one-to-one and I spoke to him with the facts. “Listen, Paul, for a year I’ve been telling you if we get to the World Cup it could be magnificent for you, you’re at your peak – but you haven’t listened and now I have to make this decision.” And it was a tough, tough decision.’
The key to tough conversations lies invariably in the preparation. David Moyes takes the decision rationally, then prepares emotionally: ‘I remember the tough conversation when I changed the captain. Like any leader making big decisions, I looked for the best way to do it, tried to be fair and did what I believed was right. It was a long thought process – I don’t make these decisions lightly. Then I worked out how to give him the message in a way that would keep him completely engaged and playing well.’ Glenn Hoddle uses quite detailed preparation. ‘I use role plays [getting someone else to play the character] and visualisation, which I find very powerful. But because I’m dealing with a human being, there is a reaction that I can’t predict – so I have to be ready to go somewhere I didn’t expect.’