Leading The Environment

THE MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK

“I AM OPTIMISTIC IN LIFE. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT –ESPECIALLY IN FOOTBALL”

CARLO ANCELOTTI

MODULE 01

IDENTIFY THE BIG CHALLENGE

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COVID HAS AMPLIFIED EXISTING CHALLENGES – AND PRESENTED NEW ONES

– BUT NOT ALL CHALLENGES ARE YOURS TO OWN

As a manager, people look to you for leadership. It is only human because you love the club, your staff, the players and the fans so much that you want to provide the leadership people are seeking from you.

Often, particularly in times of a crisis like COVID, it is possible to get so focused on trying to solve all the club’s major issues that in doing so our efforts are diluted and we diminish our own effectiveness.

In times of crisis or in rapidly changing environments, it can be very helpful to take a step back to reflect on the big picture issues and who actually is accountable for them.

By taking a step back and doing some thorough analysis we can become much clearer on the issues for which we are accountable and those for which we are not.

Once we are clear on our accountabilities and priorities, we can then communicate them to those around us, which helps everybody in the ecosystem maintain their focus.

Follow the steps below to analyse your current COVID issues and priorities.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

STEP 1: ANALYSE THE CHALLENGES FACING YOUR CLUB

Review the COVID challenges outlined in the table on the next page and identify:

1 The challenges that are critical – if not addressed, threaten the Club’s viability or if addressed, will deliver significant gains to the Club

2. The challenges that are important – do not need to be addressed as a matter of urgency but will become critical over time if action is not taken in the medium term

3. Who is accountable for this challenge – the role(s) that have ownership for addressing the challenge

Regulatory - Government UK Government COVID restrictions EU COVID restrictions

Regulatory - Football Governing Bodies

Economic - Revenue

Economic - costs

Media and PR

Fans/Supporters

Football Strategy and Management

FA, PL, EFL and UEFA regulations and protocols

Scheduling and cancellations

Salary caps / financial regulations

Investors

Broadcasting revenue

Sponsorship revenue

Match day revenue

Player contracts

Transfer fees

Number of employees

Event management

Media strategy – all formats

PR strategy and crisis management

Social media campaigns

Pre- Post-Game Day media

Home game attendance

Fan engagement

Member attraction and retention

Competitions strategy

Game day strategy and tactics

Training and match preparation

Coaching staff

Specialist staff

Squad management

Player mental skills and game readiness

Player Management

Corporate Social Responsibility

Other

Off-field issues

Player health and injuries

Talent pipeline

Community Engagement and Partnerships

STEP 2: PRIORITISE THE COVID CLUB CHALLENGES

1 From the table you completed in Step 1, list those that are critical and important and are your accountability as the Club Manager to address.

2 Rank the challenges you’ve listed– prioritising those that are Critical.

3. For each challenge, outline how it is currently impacting the Club, your Team and/or the Playing Group.

4 Make any notes on your rationale for the rank-ordering (and selection) of the challenge.

Click in the boxes to type notes

RANK COVID CHALLENGE

HOW THIS CHALLENGE IS IMPACTING THE CLUB/TEAM/ PLAYING GROUP

STEP 3: CONFIRM YOUR “BIG COVID CHALLENGE”

Review your list of priorities from the table above and confirm that the challenge you have identified as #1 is the “Big Challenge” that you’re going to prioritise for action.

The “Big COVID Challenge” that I’m going to focus on over the coming weeks and months is:

I’ve chosen this challenge as the one to focus on because:

Click in the boxes to type notes

GENERATE A SENSE OF URGENCY MODULE 02

Having identified your critical and urgent issues and then ranked them, you now have a clear list of priorities.

You also have a single objective that is the no. 1 issue for you to focus on during COVID and the next step is to build a sense of urgency around your selected area of focus or the “Big COVID Challenge” you’ve identified.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Explain why COVID has created a need to change and that there is now an opportunity in this crisis. Creating a sense of urgency creates the picture behind the need for the change. Urgency also moves behaviour from complacency to action. Urgency can be established using different tactics. Think about the opportunity this objective creates. Think about its impact on when achieved around the club, the playing group and the fans.

Develop a brief plan around communicating your sense of urgency

START WITH THE CONCLUSION

“Due to COVID_19 we are now in the situation that requires us as an organisation to…..”

“If we succeed in (this objective) we will be able to ….”

“If we fail (to achieve the objective) the consequences will be..”

LIST YOUR KEY POINTS

“in order to achieve (insert objective) we will need to have the following in place:

FIND OUT MORE

“The Pyramid Principle: Logic In Writing And Thinking” By Barbara Minto

BUILD A GUIDING COALITION MODULE 03

The objective of building a guiding coalition is to establish buy-in toward your big COVID issue objective. The idea is that the greater respect for the diversity of the team, change agents will have a greater respect for the actual change. A diverse group also aids in establishing the essential buy-in of the change vision, creates a positive attitude toward the objective, and minimises resistance toward your proposed plan of action. The objective is that this coalition can have enough power to shape, implement, and sustain the effort required to achieve the objective. According to Harvard Professor John Kotter, a guiding coalition is a group of individuals within an organization that are the social leaders of the change initiatives. These individuals bring expertise, energy, and perspective across a variety of areas and their peers respect their professionalism. Kotter also says there are two essential factors of creating a guide coalition: diversity and behaviour. Team members should bring with them a variety of unique characteristics that contribute to the effort.

Individual attributes may vary in skills, experiences, perspectives, and network abilities. Research encourages diverse levels of management and non-management to be a part of the team. As such, the diverse background fosters a greater standard of perspective and empathy toward specific issues and initiatives that may arise in the change process. Behaviour is an essential ingredient to coalition success. Research suggests avoiding negative minded, unfocused, and selfish individuals.

MODULE 04

MAINTAIN FOCUS

Now that you’ve identified your #1 COVID priority, communicated why this matters and formed a “guiding coalition” the next step is to maintain focus and minimise distractions.

As you already know, attention is your most precious commodity so a simple rule applies: pay attention to where you pay attention.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

PART 1: MINIMISE DISTRACTIONS

As outlined in module #1, there will be a temptation to get involved in other COVID related challenges so to ensure you are focused on those challenges that are critical, important and that are your accountability:

1. Review your analysis from Module #1 and ensure you are only focusing on the areas that you prioritised

2. If new challenges arise, complete the critical, important and accountability analysis to determine if this should be on your radar or is someone else at the Club accountabe.

PART 2: CREATE FOCUS HABITS

The following tips are based on research regarding sustaining focus through building high performance habits.

The ability to focus is a skill but it is built on the formation of habits which make up around 40% of everything we do.

1 Use weekly and daily task lists to prioritise what you plan to get done

2. Once you have your task list, rate the tasks using an importance and urgency matrix and then rank them so that you are focusing on the tasks that are both urgent and important

IMPORTANCE

Example of an Importance and Urgency Matrix

URGENCY

Remember the Zeigarnik Effect, which means that unfinished tasks are harder to get out of your head than tasks you haven’t started yet. So finish the tasks that you start before moving onto the next one.

Create a “parking lot” for tasks which pop into your mind but you don’t need to deal with immediately.

Carve out “thinking time” which allows you to step back and see the big picture.

Make sure this scheduled thinking time is free from interruptions – phone, computer, people.

Work with your body’s circadian rhythm. Your body’s natural cycle of sleep and wake time provides a good guide to your best thinking time. The best time to do your thinking work is between 9am and 12pm as this is when you are fully alert and the body’s sleep pressure is fairly minimal.

Reduce or eliminate multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is a myth and your brain can’t effectively focus on more than one task at the same time – despite what many may claim. Give your full attention to the task at hand and you’ll have a much better chance of success for the current task and the tasks that follow.

Use transition breathing. Follow the technique described in the ‘Leading Self’ workbook by taking two minutes to focus on your breath when moving between tasks. With the transition breathing technique you focus on 6 breathes per minute – 4 seconds through the nostrils on the inhale, pause for 2 seconds and 4 seconds through the nostrils on the exhale.

FIND OUT MORE

“Good Habits, Bad Habits” by Wendy Wood.

“Atomic Habits” by James Clear

“STAY AT THE LEADING EDGE OF THE GAME. I MAY GROW OLDER, BUT THE PLAYERS ARE STILL YOUNG.”

BRENDAN RODGERS