Carlo Ancelotti: Quiet Leadership

Quiet Leadership Ancelotti

There is power and authority in being calm and measured, in building trust and making decisions cooly, in using influence and persuasion and in being professional in your approach.

Situational theorists argued that great leaders emerged as a result of place, circumstances and time.

Abraham Maslow emphasized the manager’s role in supporting subordinates.

High on the current buzz lists are authentic leadership, servant leadership, which extends Robert Greenlead’s original 1970s work.

Of all the leadership challengers, one of the most difficult is managing talent.

Deloitte concludes that millennials have forced us to rethink the way we work. Well, virtually every elite footballer is a millennial.

Quiet Leadership by Ancelotti. When managing the super egos of the world’s greatest players he has been described as the ‘diva whisperer’. He is described as the uber-diplomat.

The Ancelotti eyebrow seems to speak to us directly, offering its own subtitled counter-commentary on whatever conciliatory patter might be emerging from the Ancelotti mouth.

The Leadership Arc

Currently the average tenure of a FTSE 100 CEO is 5.18 years, for English Premier League managers it’s just 2.36 years. In Italy’s Serie A the average is 1.31 years; in Spain’s La Liga it’s 1.34 years.

Experience

The careers of leaders in most walks of life follow a similar path:

First comes the courtship.
Then comes the honeymoon period.
Next comes success and stability, should you be able to achieve it.
Eventually, this stability plateaus and then the problems begin; the cracks in the relationship.
Finally, comes the breakup – the inevitable parting the ways.

We can call this process, this rise and fall, the leadership arc.

Today, I’ve seen enough to know that you must never think that being a player is enough to be a manager.

Sometimes your leave on your own terms, sometimes you don’t. that’s football, just as it is in business.

Juventus was tough for me because, after working at a club like Parma, which was family, Juventus was like working in a company. Milan was also family.

It became easier to manage the big players because all the players were big.

This is the way at the big clubs. You have to wait for the chance and then take it.

In Chelsea the relationship with the owner was not so good. He thought that I was too kind in front of the players.

When you become manager during the season it’s difficult to bond with the existing staff, because there hasn’t been time before the competitions start to develop a way of working together.

Zlatan is a winner. Even at the training sessions he didn’t want to lose anything – ever. He’s always fighting, always 100 per cent.

If you have to sack people then sack them – don’t tell them that if they lose or do a bad job you’re going to sack them.

At Madrid, the signals of the ending were the same as at Chelsea; they start not to discus the future, not to make plans; it is a different feeling, the relationship fells different.

Leadership Arc: The Quiet Way

The leadership arc may be personal not generic.
The transition from member of staff to leader is not as straightforward as you think.
The constraints on running an organization are not always on public view.
Sometimes a relationship just gets tired and it’s time to move on.
Don’t always be obsessed with drawing loyalty from the people with whom you work.

Cristiano Ronaldo on Carlo

He knows how to talk to people and to deal with the bad moment.

Carlo knows when it’s time to have fun and when it’s time to work and be serious. He always finds the right balance because of his knowledge.

The Core Business

Fortune magazine’s cover story for 21 June 1999 read “Why CEOs Fail”. The simple answer was: by not getting things done. As the Fortune article concludes. The motto of successful CEOs is: people first, strategy second.

Real Madrid general director Jose Angel Sanchez: “We are a content producer.”[1]

Football really is the quintessential model for modern talent-depending industries.

Culture

It is important that the manager is a cultural fit for the club.

Wherever I go, I am always myself. My personality or style does not change.

I have read the work of the psychologist Robert Cialdini.

I see differences in the way things are in different countries, different approaches and cultures and management styles. One is not better or worse, they are just different. You must adapt.

Players must assimilate. Learning a language is the best place to start.

The relationship between manager and support stuff is crucial. Trust between us should be implicit – and loyalty is paramount.

The problem with loyalty is that it can last event when it’s damaging.

When arriving at a new club in a new country, it is important to have people on the staff who have a cultural link to both the country and the club you’re arriving at.

Listening, learning, being adaptable – they’re all crucial when it comes to integrating effectively into a club’s culture.

A culture of improvement is essential to success.

Culture: The Quiet Way

Learn the language.
Cliques are unacceptable.
Cultural education can often come better from workmates rather than the boss.
Managing the support staff is as important as managing the talent.
You don’t always need what you think you want.
You nee to trust in order to delegate.
Loyalty is at the center of relationships.
loyalty is to people, not organizations.
Understand the nature of the organization you’re in.
Move towards the culture you now find yourself in.
Don’t get caught in overplaying the value of loyalty in your key lieutenants. Not everyone continues to grow at the pace you need.

Zlatan Ibrahimović on Carlo

Mourinho knows how to treat a footballer, but Carlo knows how to treat a person.

For Mourinho, it was all about winning. He adapts very well to every country.

In Madrid it was perfect for Carlo to come after Mourinho. The players need the calm after the fighting.

Carlo is a natural leader. His style isn’t ostentatious – it’s quite.

Hierarchy

Managing up is a reality in all businesses. For me it is not so important.

Methods in football can look bad to those not embedded in the game itself – even to presidents and general directors.

My opinion is that players do their best when they are comfortable, not when they are uncomfortable. The comfort is in the trust built by the relationship

Hierarchy: The Quiet Way

Manage expectations from above to protect those you lead from the presidential noise.
Never be afraid to delegate.
Don’t be perceived as managing relationships above you.
Don’t play favorites.
The quickest and most effective way to keep your owner or board happy is to win.
Take your owner on the journey with you. Make them understand they are part of the story.

Adriano Galliani on Carlo

The football industry is similar to the American movie business.

I don’t believe there exists a magic formula about how a coach should be. Carlo is a great motivator and he has his own way to manage his players, just as Mourinho has his and Guardiola his.

In football everything has an end.

Talent

The players are the most important part of any football club.

My main job in the recruitment process is to say. We need this type of player for this position and that type of player for that position.

My concern is how they will perform in the team. The job of the manager is to integrate the players who have been received into the fabric of the team, which is called onboarding in some circles.

For me, the solution is never to sacrifice talent by diminishing it, but always to enable it to flourish, because this is always the best for the team.

Succession – removing or demoting players or staff, on either temporary or permanent basis – is difficult.

Talent: The Quiet Way

Speak to your talent (players, workers) firstly and most importantly as people.
Recruit to your values and for culture fit.
Try to avoid intermediaries.
Coaching great talent is about fine-tuning, not major changes.
You can’t control the talent.
Never forget that the talent will protect itself as its first priority.
Recruit to your budget.
When you first engage with people or talent you will work with forget about the X and Os’ of how to do the job.
For the selfish talent help them understand the satisfaction and reward that comes with serving the needs of others.
Take the onboarding of talent seriously.
Your job is not to motivate the talent – they should find this within themselves – your job is not to demotivate them.

David Beckham on Carlo

He is a manager that any player would love playing under. But even if he is a nice person, he is very demanding on the pitch.

The workplace

Talented people are very selfish. They want their talent to be nurtured.

It is always important to have great leaders in the team.

A personality leader uses his strength of character to lead. A technical leader will not speak as much, but lead by example. Christiano is a technical leader. Maldini was both.

I only have one implicit rule and that is to be professional.

The players must know where the line is, as you cannot expect people to accept the rules if they don’t know what they are. You must communicate these early in the relationship.

These non-negotiable are about behavior, and only behavior.

The Workplace: The Quiet Way

Influence beats coercion.
Kill feuds as quickly as possible.
Encourage the staff to take ownership for the environment and the culture of the workplace.

John Terry on Carlo

In smaller clubs some inconsistence is OK, but not with big club.

Once you strip everything back, it comes down to this; you go that extra mile for people who care about you as a person.

Responsibility

Making decisions is an inevitable part of being a leader in any industry.

I am convinced that getting things done in a job is integrally linked to the speed and focus with which decisions are made.

Great players invariably play that correct ball – they make the right decision.

Owners make strategic decisions. Coaches decisions are mostly tactical.

I try not to announce who will play and who will be on the bench too early.

The only thing that really makes me angry is when the attitude of the team is not right. Attitude is key, even if you are not winning. You can’t always control the result, but you can control your attitude and this is why it makes me angry.

Ideas can come from anywhere, so you should always listen to people.

You must learn from experience.

At Bayern there is a wealth of knowledge of the game that may be unmatched in world football.

Responsibility. The Quiet Way

Patience is not always a virtue; don’t wait too long to make a difficult decision.
Encourage a learning culture.
Soft power is the most effective.
Try not to get angry very often.
You cannot allow setbacks to be the end; recalibrate and start again.
Get angry only for the things that really matter.
With great talent and Gen Y talent use of power has to be measured.

Paul Clement on Carlo

Carlo could be strong when he believed that someone had acted incorrectly.

Carlo judges everybody on their merits.

The Product

Every business has at its heart the delivery of the product to the consumer. In football that product is on the pitch.

The three basic revenue streams of the business: match day (ticket sales), commercial (sales and sponsorship) and broadcasting (which dominates the turnover of most of the elite European football leagues).

The key to everything on the field is the identity of the team. The style of your play, what is seen on the pitch.

Winning is the best tradition of all.

The identity has to come from the head coach but it cannot override the club.

Great defensive play is mostly organizational and positional in the modern game – it’s not so much about tackling any more.

In the military, they say that no strategy survives contact with the enemy. This is so true in football.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Destroying is easier, it is about organization and discipline and anybody can be taught this. Creativity is more difficult to teach.

The Product: The Quiet Way

Know your business. Those you lead expect nothing less.
Don’t ignore the foot soldiers in an organization.
Everyone goes through ups and downs.
If you hit upon a great idea by accident, go with it.
Interview the organization to ensure that you’re aligned with the identity they want to create or maintain.
Always be thinking about winning.
Treat every day as if tomorrow is the day your talent will implode.
Let the product/talent breathe on your problem.
Remember, there are no great coaches or leaders. They are only as great as the talent they seduce and lead.

Alex Ferguson on Carlo

He is a gentleman, but a gentleman with a purpose.

Data

Plans never work out perfectly, but having no plan at all is even worse. It means you have no direction and are forced to be reactive instead of proactive.

At Madrid we used statistics mainly for the physical aspect of the players.

As Einstein said: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”[2]

My job is to see all the data, sift through it and then decide which is relevant.

I am very interested in using psychology for the good of my players and the team.

Data: The Quiet Way

Don’t try to play mind games.
Your most important analytical tools are your eyes and your brain.
Equally, don’t be afraid of data and analytics.
Create a place at the table for analytics to thrive.
Embrace data but as a leader your role is to translate it into insight.
Psychology is crucial.
Clear communication is vital.

Roberto Martinez on Carlo

He is super-respectful, and he doesn’t pretend to be someone that he’s not, which in the modern game is difficult.

As head coach you’re always only thirty minutes away from losing your job. There is no more security.

Learning to lead

Leaders do not emerge fully formed from the womb with all the skills needed to take on the world.

The transition from being a great contributor to being a leader of others is one of the most important and challenging career stages.

Experiential learning tend to be described in one of two ways: first, as learning achieved as a result of applying knowledge, intuition and skills in a task-directed setting; second, as learning that occurs as a consequence of simply encountering life, with participants reflecting on the activities in which they engage and internalizing that reflection.

Situated learning is also learning on the job.

Growing

Communication is key here – it is the basis of every relationship. What you say, how you say it and when you say it.

Growing: The Quiet Way

Rules can be elastic but, like a ballon, there are limits.
Self-confidence breeds confidence.
It can be difficult to see yourself as the leader.
In general, people love the job they’re in.
Intensity is good.

Paolo Maldini on Carlo

Values

People who display the three different component are elite performers: first, their own individual talent; second, the contextual talent – how they fit in, culturally; and third, their team talent – how much they contribute.

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships, as Jordan said it.

Values: The Quiet Way