Managers: it’s about helping others to be their best
I’m a huge football fan and I’m fascinated with the managers. I love seeing their different approaches; from the way they talk to the media to the stories players tell about how their manager interact with them.
Whatever approach they take, while their tactics and understanding of football is important, success is increasingly about how well they can manage, communicate and motivate the players. Ultimately, it's about how they bring out their best in their people.
We can learn a lot about managing people at work from football. It's not really all that different to managing a team in an office, on a site or on a project.
For me, there are three key things that we can learn:
As a manager you don’t need to be an expert practitioner in the field. Some of the greatest managers were at best modest players; for example, Jurgen Klopp, Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson. The best accountant doesn’t necessarily make the best person to lead the department, or the best software developer may not be the best choice for IT Director. As a manager your knowledge in a subject area is not what is being tested anymore, it’s knowing what needs to be done and communicating it effectively to your team.
It’s about the team. Football managers work with a team, including coaches, doctors, analysts, and scouts. They know the gaps in their knowledge and realise they can’t do everything. They rely on their advisors for support. In other words, they hire experts in their field, and while the manager sets the direction, they trust them for advice and to get on with delivering. In an office or on a project, there are people in the team hired to do a job, so use their skills and experience and trust them to get on with it.
The success of the team is success for you. If a football team does well, the manager gets kudos. That’s why the best modern managers create an environment that encourages and supports their players to perform. It’s the same at work; if you manage a team that delivers good work, it reflects well on you. Your role as a manager is to enable your team to perform at their best.