The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football's Leaders (25 page)

Strongly held philosophies work. Swansea and a complete commitment to his dream appear to have been the making of Rodgers. Building on foundations laid, among others, by Roberto Martinez, he
crafted a side that distinguished itself playing fluent, passing football. In his first season, Swansea won promotion to the Premier League via the play-off final at Wembley where they beat Reading
4-2. The pressure was relentless. The bookmakers immediately installed Swansea as favourites for relegation, and the talk was of a season of ten points. Instead, sticking to Rodgers’
attractive brand of flowing football, they finished a notable 11th – highest of the season’s three newcomers, a mere seven points behind Liverpool, and claiming such notable scalps as
eventual champions Manchester City along the way.

The offers were bound to come, and within weeks of the season ending, Rodgers had made the big move to Liverpool. On his first day, he began publicly to rally the club and the city behind his
philosophy and vision: ‘I promise I’ll fight for my life and for the people in this city. This is long term, and that appeals to me. I am very proud. I feel I have been blessed with the
opportunity to manage the club. I am really looking forward to working with some of the greats of this football club. For me it will take a bit of time to introduce how I want to play and the
philosophy I want to bring.’

Foundation Two: Remaining in Learning

The final component of the leader’s story is a mindset for continued growth and learning. Great leaders never stop learning. From the beginning of their story there is an
appetite for their work that drives them on; and throughout their career, they remain committed to growth.

Building a solid foundation of skills

At some stage in their career journey, all successful football managers build a skill base that will eventually ensure they are equipped to handle the demands of a career at the
top. These technical capabilities and the ability to communicate, teach and coach will form the basis for what they do each day and will give them credibility among professional players, regardless
of age. As Sam Allardyce says, ‘You need to know how to plan and make the sessions the right way because footballers are very quick to pick up on what you do wrong!’ Beyond the daily
work, this deep understanding of the game will be a bedrock at moments of high pressure. Like Mourinho showing his players that he has reliable knowledge in every relevant area, Allardyce comments,
‘I know this stuff. No one knows it better than me.’

As a young man, Rodgers invested in building a solid foundation. For ten years he coached young players at Reading in a sequence of appointments that took him from one age group to the next.
‘It was a constant progression, growing in each role and moving up every two or three years. Every season was a step forward. The club was growing, the players were growing, the staff were
growing and obviously then I was growing with them as well. There was no single defining moment – it was a lot of hard work from many different people that allowed us to grow and grow our way
of playing and working.’

Dario Gradi provides a perfect illustration of how to remain in learning even after decades of experience. ‘You have to keep learning. I always say that to the coaches and players. Even
when I’m coaching the under-12s, I tell them “you haven’t come here to have fun – you’ve come here to learn. So listen, learn and work at it.” I’m still
learning. I’m not just having fun. I do enjoy it, of course, but I tell them “I’m here to teach you and it’s not much fun if you don’t learn. My fun comes from you
learning. I know I’m a good teacher because I’ve taught a lot of people to become good players. But I’m no good if you don’t learn so you’ve got to play your part in
it.”’

This message of hard work and determination is the common thread to high-achieving managers as they lay the bedrock of their skills – however and wherever they happen to build it.
Allardyce says, ‘You
can
get a job without coaching badges, based on your experience and what you’ve done as a player throughout your career. Coaching badges are a good way
forward, but I always felt I could coach – I could decide on my experiences in football what I had to do. I was 28, and I realised that what I most needed to get was a skill in management. I
found out that the PFA ran management courses from a business school in St Helens, adapted for football. The lectures were generic, teaching us to manage in any industry – which I liked. They
had a sort of crash course – we had little or no time then as we were still playing so we only got that small summer period. I had to adapt it to football a bit myself – think about
what happens for a manager when he gets his job – and that was the interesting bit.’

For the ones who are deliberately building something over time, there is a danger of frustration and wanting to seize the reins too early – not a mistake that Rodgers made: ‘I was
fine because I was so young. I had time to grow. I was a sponge for knowledge, and I had an inherent belief in young players. My ethos was always to find them, to care for them, and to develop
them. The only frustrations I ever had in that time were wanting to have the best facilities, wanting to have the best players. But the challenge was hugely formative. I was asking the players to
play differently, and all the time there was questioning from senior officials at the club: why would we be playing that way when the first team play like this? I stuck with it. It wasn’t
conflict; it was education. I learned to be happy with the sense of thinking differently. Exercises were different, team management was different, how I was preparing the team to play was
different.’ When others might have felt hindered, Rodgers saw it as learning.

For David Moyes, learning and self-development is – and always has been – a driving passion: ‘I think you have to have a real desire to go and find it. You can read books and
you can learn and you can pick up things, but I had a real passion. I wanted to get out on the road and I wanted to find new things. I qualified as a coach very young, but my reason for becoming a
coach was really to become a better player. Then the more I went on the coaching courses, the more I started to think I really enjoy being around people who talk about football. I couldn’t
wait to be standing at the side listening in – talking to the Scottish coaches about football.’

Moyes studied for and achieved his UEFA pro licence not once, but twice – in England as well as Scotland. ‘Once you are qualified, it doesn’t matter which country you become a
qualified coach in. But I wanted to show that I could do it in both countries and I wanted to see if there was a difference in the two badges – and there was! Again, I was trying to educate
myself. I was a player and I played all season, and when you got four to six weeks in the summer you had to take a big chunk out of that to do your coaching. But it was sort of a holiday for me
because I really enjoyed being around and listening to football people.’

A real and lasting commitment

As Moyes’ summer programme testifies, truly to adopt a learning mindset requires a real commitment. In 1998, at the very outset of his career as a professional coach, he
desperately wanted to go to the World Cup in France to observe training and preparations first hand. ‘There was a period of time [around the 1998 World Cup] when I wasn’t a wealthy
footballer by certain standards. To be fair, I had support from the English PFA who helped pay for my tickets to the games because they understood that I was trying to be involved with some
coaching in the national side and they helped with funding. But I just didn’t have that level of cash to be in a different hotel each night. So I hired a car and I drove myself, two or three
times sleeping in the car. That year I had gone to a lot of the countries to ask if I could go and watch training, but found that it’s not easy to get into the international training camps
– they can be a bit guarded and security conscious. Strangely enough the only people who said I could come and watch were Craig Brown and his team at the Scotland camp. No disrespect but, in
truth, the last people I wanted to see were Scotland – I knew these guys pretty well already! But I ended up going and watching Scotland training and preparing for the World Cup and it was
very valuable.’

Moyes would also argue that the commitment must not waver over time. It’s important to remain in learning, whatever the circumstances. Now rewarded with the manager’s role at
Manchester United, as recently as summer 2012, determined to see at first hand the European Championships unfolding in the Ukraine, he ended up staying in a youth hostel when he was too late to
find a hotel. ‘Just because you get your job, you can’t put your feet under the table and say “I’ve made it now and this is it.” Self-learning and self-development is
essential for me. I watch a lot of football just because I know there are a lot of things I can pick up. If I was out of work I’d go to South America and have a look at what they are doing
– at why so many players now in Europe and the Champions League are from Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina ... I’d love to get out there for a couple of months and see if there’s
anything that maybe I’m missing and that I could introduce to what we do.’

He concedes it’s a challenge to find enough time for this when you are leading a professional outfit full time. ‘There are other things happening closer to home too. When I see how
Spain have improved, and how Germany are bringing on all their younger players on a conveyor belt – there is so much I would like to do given more time. I don’t think I’ll ever
find the complete answer to all of it, but to go and have a look is always a good beginning.’

Why it works

Mick McCarthy is a great example of how learning works. He does not suggest that he is a Moyes-style learner – but he finds value in it all the time: ‘When I look at
all the things I’ve done in my career, and people ask me what I’ve learnt, I often say I have no idea. But when a situation arises then I’ll know what I’ve learnt because
I’ll deal with it through my experience. Most of us would like to have a solution that we could write down and say, “This is how I do it”. I can’t do that. But when it comes
to leading people and making decisions, I realise how much I’ve learned.’

And like other components of the leader’s story, the learning element works for both the leader and the people around him. People are simply inspired by leaders with a learning mindset.
Moyes experienced exactly this effect from his earliest days: ‘People saw me out and about, and they were saying, “There is someone who is out to learn, out there trying to improve
himself.” They were willing to help.’

The leader who can stay in learning even in the toughest times find it a sure route back to balance. André Villas-Boas left Chelsea in January 2012 after only nine months in charge:
‘When I stopped first there was an emptiness – so I go back to my family at the beginning. Then I wanted to fill the emptiness that I was feeling with the game and learning and
self-development. I went back to the things that make me the person and manager I am. I made sure that I saw as many games as possible to prepare for an eventual comeback. I watched players that I
didn’t have the time to see when I was working. I met together with my technical staff, the ones that went with me, to ask how we failed and why we failed to make sure we take these lessons
into the future.’

The Authentic Leader

All leaders will come under pressure as they pursue their career – this is normal. Great leaders respond by ensuring that the story they are telling is joined up,
compelling and full of integrity. In short, they are authentic – they lead out of who they are.

For all leaders wanting to tell an inspiring story with their life and career, these basic principles emerge.