Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches

by Carlo Ancelotti

  We want to win the Champions League again, of course, but we can’t let Barcelona and Atlético Madrid finish ahead of us again in La Liga. I’m often asked if I consider the second season a failure because we didn’t win any trophies and I got sacked. I say, ‘No. Things were going well, we’d won twenty-two consecutive games, and then we had two big issues.’

  The first was a problem caused by statistics, which ‘revealed’ that our players were not working hard enough compared with other top European sides. The medical data turned out to be based on analysis by UEFA, which showed Real Madrid used less training time to prepare for games than other top European teams. The implication was that we should increase our workload in training.

  The numbers were wrong. We’d won twenty-two games in a row so we must have been doing something right. But we’d just broken that winning streak when the stats were released, and sometimes to explain a defeat people have to make something specific responsible for it, instead of thinking more coolly about it. (My preference is to find a solution, not to look for the guilty to blame.) The club jumped on that as an explanation and demanded more work.

  The club wanted to put pressure on the players, saying, ‘We need to work – we have to work harder, we have to have more concentration before the games.’ But it was wrong – I actually needed to give the players more rest. We suffered for about a month with injuries and fatigue, which was crucial to losing La Liga. We lost against Barcelona during this period and I had five important players injured – Sergio Ramos, James Rodríguez, Pepe, Luka Modrić and Karim Benzema – between February and March. We suffered especially from the injuries to Modrić and Benzema, because we didn’t have clear replacements for their very specific roles and talents. Even though we won nine out of our last ten games, it was too late. We had already lost the league.

  The issue with the medical data was a big signal that the club’s faith in my ability to do the job had lessened. It showed that they had more trust in the numbers than in me, and it was around this time that the second issue arose. One morning in March I received a phone call from the general director, saying that the president wanted to speak with me at the end of training that day. This was very unusual. When I visited the president, he told me that Gareth Bale’s agent had been to his office to speak about the ‘Bale situation’. Earlier in the year, on 4 January, I’d substituted Bale in the match that brought our winning streak to an end, and the president was reported as saying, ‘To remove Bale is to attack me,’ and, ‘Once he [Ancelotti] removed him [Bale] and I reproached him but Carlo didn’t understand it. Since then he lost my confidence.’

  In January Bale’s agent had been saying things and perhaps felt his position was strong because he had already spoken with the president. Now he was telling the president that Bale was unhappy in his position. He wanted to play more centrally. The president asked me what we were going to do and I told him, ‘Nothing.’ It was impossible to change his position at that stage of the season because I would have had to change the whole system and move many more players around. I also told the president that I was surprised the player could not speak directly with me. That would be normal. I would have expected the player to come to see me because I don’t want to speak with agents. I try to avoid speaking with agents at all. Later in the season, in response to more comments from Bale’s agent, I said in the press that sometimes it’s good for agents to be quiet, to shut up.

  Bale had fantastic world class qualities and all that I was trying to do was help him understand his core strengths so he could fulfil his potential and by the way, that I was more qualified than his agent or the president to help him with that. I like to work with players to do the best for them and the team. Once before, for example, I had the problem of fitting four great players, Pirlo, Seedorf, Rui Costa and Kaká into three places for my team. I spent time talking to all of them and I told them they had to work it out or one of them every game would be on the bench. Eventually we came up with the diamond where Pirlo and Kaká exchanged places, Pirlo deeper and Kaká more forward. That 4-4-2 diamond system turned Kaká into the World Player of the Year by him playing at the top of a diamond and, simultaneously, scoring more and creating more assists while allowing the team to win.

  I told the president that I would speak with Bale myself the next day, which I did after training. I told him, ‘I know that your agent spoke to the president. Why didn’t you come to speak with me about what you want?’ He said, ‘Yes, OK, no problem.’ I explained to him what I had said to the president, how it was impossible for me to change the system as it wasn’t just one position, it was the whole team. I was clear with him. I told him that we could try some things in the summer, next year’s preseason, to change his position, but not now. It didn’t make sense; we had found a shape that worked and in which he’d had a great first season. In my opinion, it was not the moment to change the shape. To be able to have the wide players swap sides, to switch the play, was central to our style of football. Whenever you play with two wingers, such as we were with Ronaldo and Bale, to be able to change sides as quickly as they can is the most important thing.

  Sometimes players who arrive at the top level because of particular skills believe that they want to do things differently, they want to experiment to try to be better. They forget what enabled them to reach the top level in the first place. I had one player, for example, who was powerful, physical – he could sprint a hundred times without tiring – he was all about power and pace, which was what helped him win the Ballon d’Or. But then he started to think that he was a different kind of talent than he was and he stopped working so hard, stopped running so hard – all the things that had made him great – and this affected his career. He is still a big friend of mine so I can say this and he would admit that it was true. A manager has to work with the player to try to get him to be clear about his development; to understand what makes him great.

  Anyway, from that moment on the relationship with the president was not the same. At the end of the season things were actually feeling positive, even though we had won nothing. We had reached the semi-final of the Champions League, we had broken records and my relationship with the players was a happy one. The new players were bedded in and the other important members of the team would soon be returning from injury. I was very confident that we were in an excellent position to challenge for all competitions the next season, with only a few small adjustments necessary, but I guess the president’s mind had already been made up. At Madrid, the signals of the ending were the same as at Chelsea; they start not to discuss the future, not to make plans; it is a different feeling, the relationship feels different.

  As we now know, there was to be no ‘next season’ for me at Madrid. When the news came that my reign at the Bernabéu was at an end, I had, despite my confidence for the future, been expecting it for some weeks. It wasn’t the first time I’d been fired and it probably won’t be the last. Being sacked or leaving a club is part of this job and as a manager you know from the beginning that it is a reality.

  The most difficult aspect about it ending at Madrid – as at any club – was leaving behind the relationships I had forged with my players. However, I always remain on good terms with them and our relationships tend to last.

  My time at Real was shorter than I’d hoped, but also longer than many who manage there. It is difficult to say if things might have been different. They wanted the players to train harder. However, as I did not agree I continued to conduct my training sessions exactly as I had planned, without changing my ideas. Leading may sometimes involve compromise, especially at the biggest clubs, but not when it comes to your expertise and you have the conviction of your decisions. While this might have helped us win another trophy, or bought more time, it does feel that this arc, the rise and fall, is somehow inevitable throughout my career.

  LEADERSHIP ARC: THE QUIET WAY

  The leadership arc may be personal, not generic. Your various job arcs may be more about you
than the jobs. This should be a serious consideration when deciding whether or not to accept a job.

  The transition from member of staff to leader is not as straightforward as you think. You have to understand that, no matter how insignificant you think your actions and words are, to your staff you cast a shadow over most aspects of their lives. Take that responsibility seriously; take care of people and don’t abuse your power.

  The constraints on running an organization are not always on public view. Again, when deciding on a new role you must do as much due diligence as possible. It is no good complaining that you were ‘sold a pup’ if you haven’t done your homework.

  Sometimes a relationship just gets tired and it’s time to move on. Don’t over internalize this, everything has a cycle. The key is to be as productive as possible in each cycle.

  Speaking truth to power has to be an acceptable behaviour. Leaders have to enable it for their own benefit. It is not a ‘nice to have’, it is essential.

  Find a solution, don’t waste time looking for the guilty.

  You get a very short honeymoon period when you start a new job – make it count.

  Respect is everything. It is a daily currency that can go up and down in direct relation to your behaviour and choices. Take it seriously.

  Don’t always be obsessed with drawing loyalty from the people with whom you work. Aim to inspire greater performance in the moment and focus on showing that you really care about them as people and their professional growth.

  Mutual trust comes as the final piece of the relationship pyramid but demonstrate you can be trusted from day one of your relationship with their talent.

  In Their Own Words … The Players

  Cristiano Ronaldo on Carlo

  I had always thought Carlo had such a tough-looking face – he looks like a tough guy in all of the photos I had seen of him – so, when I met him for the first time, it was a huge surprise because I didn’t expect him to be such a good guy. He told me about his plans – what he wanted, what he thought about me – and he made me feel very comfortable. Over the next few days he began to show his personality, the way he works, the way he is as a person – not just with the players but with the staff and his employers at the club – and then you begin to understand why everyone speaks so highly about him.

  In my opinion part of this is because of the way he is with people – he’s very humble, which is not so normal in the football business. He treats everybody as an equal. He never dismisses someone just because they are not at his level; he will always listen.

  Everyone has weaknesses. Because he is such a humble person it is very difficult to speak like this about him and the only weakness I can think of is also one of his great strengths. He is so very nice all the time and he never gets upset for more than a minute. He can tell you strongly about something he is not happy with, then it is done. This can be a weakness because if you are too nice, people might start to think they can take advantage of you. But it’s a positive weakness, if you know what I mean, and I certainly don’t look on him as being weak.

  It shows that what he feels inside, in his heart, is always positive. This is good because it is honest. Working with honest people – not just in my job, but in any job – is very important. It’s difficult to find honest, serious and sensitive people. Carlo likes to show a hard face to the world but inside he is an unbelievable person. He’s one of the best and most important people that I have met in my entire time in football. With Carlo it’s like a family – you become a part of his family.

  I like to think that Carlo and I share some qualities; I see some of him in me. I believe that I am a sensitive person too. I sometimes show a tough or even arrogant face to the world, but I’m not like that with the people I love and those who work with me. Carlo helped me a lot and I wish he had stayed longer at Real Madrid. I hope to work with him again one day. Someone said to me, ‘Will you be learning German?’ I say, ‘Toni Kroos has taught me a few words, but if one day I have to learn more German then I will learn.’

  I have only seen Carlo angry a few times. When he loses his temper he shouts and screams in whatever language comes first to his mind and then, one minute after, he stops, catches his breath and goes outside. Then he returns, smoking a cigarette and totally calm – everything’s fine again.

  His ability to regain calmness very quickly is important. He knows how to talk to people and to deal with the bad moments. Even if you had lost a match the day before, he would say, ‘Come on, guys, everything’s going to be OK. We haven’t lost anything yet – we just lost a game.’ He was like that with us and with the staff too, which made the environment here at Madrid spectacular. For me, the atmosphere with Carlo was one of his most brilliant achievements. If you look at the two years under him and what we won – the Champions League, the Copa del Rey – it shows how important Carlo was for Real Madrid and for the players. When he left the club, many of us took to social media to say how much he meant to us all. He is an unbelievable person.

  One of the reasons the atmosphere was so good was because he protected the dressing room from the president and anything else that might upset the balance of the family. I’ve seen that with my own eyes. People can say whatever they want, but I’ve seen that he doesn’t bow down to pressure from anyone; he makes his own decisions – sometimes good, sometimes bad – which is always the way in the coach’s job. This is why I like him, because he is his own man, with his own personality, his own choices, and he makes his decisions and sticks by them.

  He’s also smart – very smart in how he listens to the players. He understands players – he was one once, so he has the experience. He knows how to get the most out of the team to win games and trophies. It’s not a coincidence that we won almost everything. He has the plan and the strategy. If you don’t do the right things, you’re not going to win anything. As much as he would listen to the players, he would always make what he believed was the right decision. If the difference was to move one player to a different position or move another, he would look at the consequences and then move the player that caused the least disruption to the team. He would not move five players if he could achieve the same results by moving just one.

  Although he treats all the players the same, he also understands that, as in any sport or job, he needs to treat the special players not differently, but with more care. At the end of the day, it’s good for the team that you use the players as effectively as you can. Even when you maybe feel that you haven’t got the strength to last the whole ninety minutes, or you feel that you can’t run any more, then you need to do it for the coach. I will do it for him, because he deserves it as he has always taken care of me. Most of my teammates feel the same – players admire him and will hurt for him.

  You can see this in the way I played in the Champions League final in 2014. I was injured a month before the game and he said to me a few times, ‘Cristiano, if you don’t feel good, just let me know. It will be tough on me because even if you are only fifty per cent you’re still our most important player.’ So I played. I didn’t play unbelievably well, but I scored a penalty – my seventeenth goal in the Champions League that season, a record – and we won the competition. I wasn’t fully fit, but I made the sacrifice for Carlo.

  Every player should be humble and know that they don’t know everything about football. I always look to learn and take some pointers from every coach. I take a point off this one, a point off that one, because they know – they are older and have the experience. They are not going to teach me how to play football or how to kick the ball, but if you are smart, you can take advantage of every coach and learn about many things that, in my opinion, are important. With Carlo, he develops even the best players by continually making them motivated to work for him. He always motivates me. He would say, ‘Bomba’ – he calls me Bomba, which is Italian for bomber – ‘Let’s go – today you’re going to score a goal; you are going to win us the game, Bomba.’ Even when I didn’t score a goal
in the first half, he would speak to me in the dressing room at half-time. ‘You’re going to score,’ he’d say. ‘You’re playing unbelievable.’ He was always giving me confidence, all the time, and for me the most important thing is that he cares for me. He would always take care of me. These qualities are why every club wants him. He’s a special coach.

  Journalists often ask me about my coaches. Some of them have many similarities, of course. Carlo and Sir Alex Ferguson, for example – they are very similar. They both create a family; they are different kinds of parents but with the same thoughts about protecting you and enabling you to express your talent. Tactics weren’t the main thing with either of them. Even with Carlo there was not that much emphasis on tactics, even though he had worked in Italy. Before he arrived at Madrid, we were all thinking that as an Italian he would have a strong emphasis on a lot of tactical training sessions, but the training started with Carlo – and no tactics. He said, ‘With this team, I don’t need a lot of tactics. I want to score goals with these players.’ When you have this mentality, to attack, the emphasis shifts away from defensive training. Of course, you must still have quality organization, but not tactics in the way that tactics are usually used, such as when making a counter-attacking team. Carlo is not like that. Other players have told me that he worked hard on tactics at other clubs, but not here at Real Madrid, no.