Modern Management

PRACTICE

LEADERSHIP

MODERN MANAGEMENT: REALITIES & OPPORTUNITIES

VISION

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PREMIER LEAGUE

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

SUCCESS

THE BAD NEWS IS TIME FLIES. THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU’RE THE PILOT”

MICHAEL ALTSHULER

The League Managers Association, National Football Centre, St. George’s Park, Newborough Road, Needwood, Burton upon Trent, DE13 9PD

www.leaguemanagers.com

The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily those of the League Managers Association, its members, officers or employees. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Editor Alice Hoey alicehoey1@gmail.com

Editorial Contributors from the LMA Wayne Allison, Mark Farthing, Sue McKellar, Gabriella Ward

Publisher Jim Souter jim.souter@leaguemanagers.com

Art Editor Sarah Ryan sarah.ryan@leaguemanagers.com

Illustrations © iStock & flaticon.com

WINTRODUCTION RICHARD BEVAN

LMA Chief Executive

elcome to the LMA’s 7th Leadership and Personal Development Guide: Modern Management, Realities and Opportunities. Our guides are produced by the LMA’s Institute of Leadership and High Performance, supported by the Premier League, and are part of our comprehensive investment in the ongoing support and development of managers and coaches in our game.

Across all of its activity, from our Diploma in Football Management in partnership with Liverpool University, through our ever-expanding programme of CPDaccredited leadership, wellbeing and technical masterclasses and our vibrant and successful one-to-one personal development programme, the LMA Institute has a singular focus. This is to deliver insight, education and support from leading experts and senior LMA members that is relevant vocationally to anyone looking to build a career in the professional game. Every element of our delivery must engage, challenge and develop the individual, not just in a theoretical sense, but with the realities and challenges of modern football management at the forefront of our thinking. Our aim is to ensure that every manager and coach can develop themselves technically and professionally while continuing to build a rewarding and successful career in the challenging employment environment that is professional football.

Our guides are informed by the needs of our members. Through constant communication and discussion with them, we have a deep understanding of the real-life professional challenges and issues they face. This guide looks to address a number of the most frequently highlighted challenges and provides insight and guidance on how to embrace them. It covers a diverse range of topics within the three main areas of the Institute’s delivery: You and your career; Leadership

and your team; and the Game itself. The guide is just that, a guide to these subjects. It is practical and easy-to-use, and aims to encourage awareness and understanding of some complex subjects, with recommended proactive actions and strategies. Our guides are the starting point and act as supporting resources for much of the activity we deliver across the Institute.

I would like to thank Alice Hoey, our editor, for her continued commitment to the LMA, and all of the contributors and LMA members who have shared their insights for this guide. We hope that it proves to be a valuable resource throughout your career.

LMA MEMBER INSIGHTS

This guide, like much of the learning provided through the LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance, would be nothing without the unique insight of the LMA’s members.

We would like to thank each of the managers here sincerely for their time and honesty in sharing their experiences.

SAM ALLARDYCE

PAUL HURST

NIGEL ADKINS

MICHAEL APPLETON

SAMMY LEE

MICK MCCARTHY

ALAN PARDEW

JON WHITNEY

MARK WARBURTON

DEAN SMITH

TANYA OXTOBY

DARREN MOORE

EVERY DAY THE CLOCK RESETS. YOUR WINS DON’T MATTER. YOUR FAILURES DON’T MATTER. DON’T STRESS ON WHAT WAS, FIGHT FOR WHAT COULD BE.”

SEAN HIGGINS, BASKETBALL COACH

AND YOUR CAREER

MENTORING

Mentoring can have considerable benefits for both parties involved, but how can you get the most from a mentoring relationship?

Words: Dr Wayne Allison

When you’re dealing with something for the first time, or face a challenge or dilemma, little compares to having the ear of someone who has experienced something similar, and from whose mistakes and experience you can learn. A good mentor will support and challenge you, help you work through ideas and arrive at decisions with confidence and, crucially, they will be guided by your needs rather than dictating the way forward.

Mentors tend to be inquisitive and empathetic and enjoy helping others work through their challenges. They are confident in their own experience but free of ego, so they’ll resist the urge to simply tell you how it should be done. Instead, they’ll ask targeted questions that get you to see things from all sides. They will encourage you to talk and share your thoughts, feelings and emotions, without pushing too hard, and when you do open up they will listen

without judgement. They will open up, too, because great mentors are adept storytellers, recounting the times when they experienced something similar to you, how they responded and what they learned. They’ll help you to find relevance in these stories and then convert that into something practical that you can act upon. They will also use their experiences to help you question and analyse your current issues.

THE RIGHT CHEMISTRY

Unsurprisingly given all of this, the success of any mentoring relationship rests ultimately on the chemistry between the two parties involved. While a mentor needs to be someone you feel at ease with and would be comfortable confiding in, they don’t have to be a friend or someone you know well. What’s more important is that they are someone you respect for their experience, knowledge and willingness to challenge your approaches and ideas.

Think carefully about what you want to get from the mentoring arrangement. Mentoring is not, after all, about being taught facts or coached in a skill, but rather about having the opportunity to bounce your ideas and problems off someone who has more experience or a different perspective.

Current best practice advocates the concept of multiple mentors, where you receive support and guidance from a range of people with different skill sets. If you’re looking to develop in a particular area of the game, such as strategy or training methods, try to find someone you know to be world-class or highly seasoned in that field. If your needs, however, are more generic, like developing your leadership skills or coping better with the pressures of the job, you might consider a mentor from another field altogether. An experienced member of the business community, the charitable sector or the military, for example, may be able to provide a valuable alternative angle on what you are experiencing in your role.

Mentors also don’t always have to be older than the people they are guiding, although that is often the case. In reverse mentoring the mentor may be a younger person who brings a different skill set and provides support and advice to someone higher up the career ladder. While the former may have less experience overall, they will have different knowledge or skills that the manager can learn from. This may be in the use of certain technologies and social media, or in understanding how best to manage the younger generation.

MAKING IT WORK

How you decide to structure your mentoring will depend both on your needs and on what is practical and convenient for both parties. Depending on how much time you can each commit and how much guidance you feel you would benefit from, it might range from a chat over a coffee once every three months to a more formal face-to-face meeting every few weeks.

It’s worth starting small, focusing initially on a few core issues, and then building in more time and complexity if things are going well. Set out and agree how you want the mentoring arrangement to work right from the start so both parties know what to expect and what is required of them. Building trust and reliability early on is key, so make sure the arrangement is realistic to lessen the risk of one party letting the other down.

Prior to each session, agree on what you hope to discuss and what outcomes you would like to get from it. This gives you both time to consider your points of view, what experience you might draw on and how else you might be able to contribute to the discussion. Meet somewhere private, where you both feel comfortable sharing information and feelings, and keep notes or a summary of the main points so you have something to reflect on. Most importantly, ensure that specific action points are noted with key accountabilities for each of you.

Having the guidance of older coaches in the early stages of my career really helped me to develop. When I was at Blackpool, Bobby Saxton would help me to stay calm, talk things through with me and tell me about how he dealt with similar experiences as a manager. He also shared his experience of board meetings, which was very valuable.

SAM ALLARDYCE

WHY BE A MENTOR?

Develops communication, listening and empathy skills.

Helps you to plan how to bridge an individual’s skills or knowledge gap (Individual Development Plan).

If the mentee is from a club or large organisation, mentoring will help develop talent internally and may contribute to succession planning.

Provides a confidence boost and re-energises you.

Helps bring to the fore important periods in your career. Refreshes your memory on key lessons.

MENTORING – 5 KEY POINTS

A mentor is not there to teach or coach you, but to guide you to help yourself.

A mentor should never tell you what to do. They should challenge your ideas and encourage you to consider all angles.

A mentor will normally have more experience than you, but not always. Different experience is also very valuable. If you’re looking to work on specific game-related skills, consider a mentor from within football. Otherwise, look outside of the sport and consider multiple mentors from different environments. Good chemistry between you and your mentor is important, but keep the relationship professional rather than social.

SAMMY LEE

I was guided by Ronnie Moran as a player and then through my formative years as a coach. He gave me a work ethic, an appreciation of good times and bad times and led me into a career in coaching.

I’m now passing on my experience via the LMA Mentoring Programme. I want to help other managers, because it can be a lonely job, even if you’ve got 50,000 people chanting your name. It’s important managers know they are not alone, that people like myself have experienced what they’re going through and are there to help. Much of the time, it’s just about being there, being a sounding board and a way for them to vent their feelings.

We can also signpost managers to the services and facilities that the LMA can offer them, which they may not be aware of. First and foremost, though, it’s about communication. Without that, you can’t tailor the relationship to the mentee’s needs. Then it’s about developing trust and a bond. Once you have that trust you can develop the relationship.

DISAPPOINTMENTS AND SETBACKS

With expectations in the English football leagues now so high and average tenures so low, managers face constant pressure and many career hurdles. Being able to maintain perspective and bounce back stronger is imperative.

Words: Alice Hoey

All leaders face setbacks and disappointments, but in football management they come thick and fast. As a manager you can expect to lose your job a number of times over the course of your career, and how well you handle each event and move on will have a major impact on both your performance and your health and wellbeing. Thankfully, like any skill, personal resilience can be developed with time and experience.

It’s important to remember that just because you failed to achieve something, or believe yourself to have done so, it doesn’t mean that you as a person are a failure.

What’s more, everyone has different expectations of what you and your team should achieve and their own parameters for what constitutes success and failure.

When dealing with feelings of failure and disappointment, therefore, it’s helpful to think about what it is that you’re basing them on. Whose goals have you failed to meet, what were their expectations founded on and were they realistic? Ultimately, only you know the full background to the situation, so try to block out all the noise around you and rationalise things based on your own judgement.

REGAIN CONFIDENCE

When you’re going through a difficult period, there can be real comfort in remembering when you have faced similar situations in the past and how you came through the other side. Recall the pain you felt at the time, the lessons you learned and the strength you gained; who supported you most and what coping strategies worked well? Reminding yourself that the fallout from such a failure or setback is both temporary and surmountable will give you more courage to move on and try again.

A key step in bouncing back from a perceived failure is turning negatives into positives. Drilling down to find lessons isn’t just important in terms of mindset, it’s also essential if you’re to improve your performance as a manager over time. After all, the road to success will always be potholed with failures, but you’ll only reach your destination if you learn along the way.

Try not to take a negative situation personally or to view it as symptomatic of some kind of personal weakness. Instead, stand back and look at things from a rational and subjective point of view, examining what factors contributed to the situation, what you could have done differently and what, if any, gaps in your knowledge or skillset might have been exposed. Talking things through with those around you who you trust and who understand the situation is very valuable here, both in enabling you to see things from different perspectives and in helping to keep you grounded in reality.

ACCEPTANCE

Finally, remember that it is totally natural to feel disappointed, frustrated and even angry following a major setback or disappointment in your career. Stewing in these emotions for too long, however, can send your mental wellbeing on a downward spiral and prevent you from trying again or seeing the opportunities that are open to you.

Instead, allow yourself a period of time to brood before putting some distance between you and the event. Once you’ve worked through things and extracted as many practical lessons as you can it’s time to look forward and start planning the next step in your career.

DEALING WITH FAILURE

Don’t take it personally – take a step back and look at the situation subjectively.

Talk about it – get alternative perspectives on things from trusted advisers.

Find the lessons – ask what actions or behaviours might have brought about a different outcome.

Don’t dwell on it – set a deadline, say 48 hours, after which you must look ahead and move on.

Be your own judge – everyone will have an opinion on the situation. Don’t get bogged down by it all.

GETTING BACK INTO THE PROFESSION

When you find yourself in between jobs it’s important to resist the temptation to shrink away from those around you. Your ability to stay connected to your network in the game and to maintain a strong, positive public profile will be key to getting back into the profession.

Words: Dr Wayne Allison

As we learned in the previous article, allowing yourself some time to mull over a career setback can be productive. Once that period of reflection is over, however, it’s important to be as proactive as possible about furthering your career and personal development.

Give yourself a confidence boost by identifying what your core strengths are and where you’ve been most successful, then look to build on those areas. Take advantage of the extra time you have to attend LMA masterclasses, Leadership Series events and workshops, and other industry events that might provide opportunities to expand your horizons and your contacts list.

You could take a course, learn a language or do more presenting and public speaking to build your communication skills and confidence. You might also

consider working with a PR firm to help strengthen your personal brand and change people’s perceptions of you. Getting involved in charitable or voluntary work is another great way to keep active and develop new skills and contacts, while enabling you to give something back to the local community.

WATCH AND LEARN

When you’re working full time there’s often precious little time to learn from what managers in other clubs or sports are doing, so use time in between jobs to gain inspiration and ideas from many different sources.

Watch as much football as possible, both from a scouting perspective and to understand how other managers are working. Taking sabbaticals and study visits abroad can be hugely valuable in growing this knowledge further and can improve your ability to compete for jobs, both here and in other countries.

The influx of foreign managers to the UK in recent years has made competition for jobs all the greater, but it has also exposed managers and coaches here to a wider range of leadership, management and coaching styles and approaches. This in turn has increased the desire among UK managers for knowledge of what’s going on abroad and has raised the bar in terms of what is expected of them.

Study visits can open your eyes to other ways of doing things, validate your own methods and expand your contacts book. Having a network that extends beyond the UK can also mean you have greater insight into what’s going on in clubs around the world and more exposure to potential learning and career opportunities.

Consider mentoring, too, whether that means you offering your services to a younger coach just starting out in the profession or entering into a mentoring programme yourself. The latter, in particular, can be especially helpful in identifying what your super-strengths are, what you are most passionate about pursuing in the profession and what might help you get there. With the support of a mentor you may find the courage to take your career in a new direction, or follow a long-held dream. Having an experienced ear may also help you to work through any self-confidence issues you have.

STAYING UP TO DATE

In football, you never know what’s around the corner, so it’s important to keep your eyes wide open and have one ear to the ground. Those managers who are able to soak up as much as possible of what’s going on around them will have the greatest chance of success in this fast-paced environment.

While organisations such as the LMA, The FA and the English leagues will keep you informed of any urgent matters relating to the game, it’s up to you to be proactive about staying abreast with wider issues, trends and opinions.

When you have a good level of knowledge and awareness it won’t go unnoticed. It will come across in all conversations that you have, with your players, the board, staff and peers and, perhaps most importantly, during media and career interviews.

Information is now so widely and constantly available, via the internet and sports news channels, and so easily shared that there is no longer any excuse for not knowing what’s going on. Targeted use of the internet and signing up for news feeds from reliable industry news sites can be very useful in keeping up to date. However, it’s worth looking not only within the football world but also at other sports, as there may be issues and trends that are relevant and that you can learn from.

Formal and informal networking opportunities can be valuable in enabling you to debate and discuss current issues in a closed environment, while phone, WhatsApp groups, email and other secure communication channels are a great way to exchange opinions and ideas with your peers. Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date, offer your help and advice where appropriate and join in with discussions and debate.

STAYING IN TOUCH

Making the most of these networking opportunities is vital, not only in staying connected to what’s going on in the industry, but in maintaining your profile. This is absolutely key if you want to progress your career, as it ensures your name and face are front of mind when job openings arise and means you’re seen as being active and relevant. Attending industry events and engaging in media activities helps you to remain in the public eye while demonstrating your knowledge and authority in football.

Finally, make the most of the contacts you’ve built up in the industry over the course of your career. How well you’ve maintained these relationships over the years will have a considerable bearing on how fruitful they prove to be when you need them most. Don’t be too proud to pick up the phone or send messages to enquire about potential job opportunities or other chances to gain experience, and make sure your CV and portfolio are fully up to date and ready to impress.

GET NOTICED

Show that you’re being proactive and that you’re a relevant and authoritative figure in the industry:

Attend LMA masterclasses, Leadership Series events and workshops, and other industry events to further your CPD and show you’re being proactive.

Do more presenting and public speaking.

Get involved in charitable or voluntary work.

Be open to media work.

MICHAEL APPLETON

You never stop learning. There are so many different facets to management now and it’s important to have as many strings to your bow as possible.

The more conversations you can have with your fellow coaches, the more questions you can ask, the more people you can meet and exchange contact details with the better. You never know when you might be speaking to a future boss or colleague.

TAKING TIME OUT

Work-life balance is an absolute must if you’re to maintain your performance and safeguard your physical and mental wellbeing.

Words: Alice Hoey

Learning to draw a line between work and other areas of life is becoming an ever more important skill. But it isn’t easy. The emergence of technologies such as email and instant messaging has enabled us to work smarter and more efficiently, but in doing so it has blurred the lines between our working and personal lives. Try as we might to ‘clock off’ after a day’s work and turn our thoughts to other matters, calls, emails and other messages can reconnect us with work-related challenges in an instant.

The result is we often work longer hours but tend to be less focused when do, because we are bombarded by constant distractions. Research has shown than the mere presence of a mobile phone, even one that’s turned off, is enough to cause a drop in concentration and cognitive performance.

The first step to addressing this is to think about how you use technology during the day and how it impacts both positively and negatively on your performance and wellbeing. There may be times, for example, when having a mobile phone allows you to feel closer to friends and family, perhaps by enabling some facetime while you’re in transit. At other times, however, you might find simple tasks take longer than they should because of the constant pings and beeps of incoming messages.

Undoubtedly, most of us would benefit from being more proactive about taking time away from connected devices (see overleaf for tips on how to do this). While this may cause you to feel anxious initially, allowing yourself to go completely off the radar can be cathartic. What’s more, it rarely harms productivity to be disconnected for a while; quite the contrary, without constant distractions you may find you focus better, work harder and make fewer mistakes.

DON’T FEEL GUILTY

It isn’t, of course, only technology that can prevent you from having a healthy work-life balance. The manager’s role now comprises so many different elements that it can feel like you’re on a treadmill – working hard just to stay still. If things aren’t going to plan it may be especially difficult to drag yourself away from the training ground or club at the end of the day. Even when you do physically leave the building you may find that your mind is still there.

While it’s natural to want to do everything in your power to maintain momentum or get the team back on track, you will only succeed in doing so if you’re on top form, physically and mentally. Taking time out to engage in the things that you enjoy most away from football, whether that be a long walk with your dog, spending time with your family or playing a round of golf, is as important as good nutrition and exercise.

As such, you shouldn’t feel guilty about taking time away from work to recharge your batteries and keep stress and anxiety in check. Focusing on number one for a change may pay dividends in the long run.

QUESTION EVERYTHING

Time away from the management treadmill is also essential for your professional development. After all, while we’re all aware that selfreflection and re-assessment is best practice, finding time to do it justice can be a challenge.

The close season is a great opportunity to take stock of what’s just happened and what might lie ahead. It’s time, too, to cogitate over any new ideas that have been brewing over the past year, perhaps bouncing them off trusted advisers, thinking about how they might work in practice and planning a strategy for August.

You might choose to go further than this and question everything – why did you choose this career, this club and this approach, and have things matched your hopes and expectations? Do the behaviours you’ve been seeing in your team align with the club’s culture and ethos or have things slid out of sync? How might you look to correct this next season? What means have you been using to communicate your messages and have they proved effective? What approaches have you seen other leaders try that you might be able to replicate or transfer to your situation?

LET IT ALL OUT

This self-reflection might also unearth feelings you’ve been keeping hidden for some time, as during the season it’s important to shield your team members from any doubts or concerns you might have. Once the dust has settled, though, and away from the team, it’s healthy to air these emotions, work through them in private and get to the bottom of any concerns that have been bubbling beneath the surface. Talk to family, friends and trusted advisers if need be in order to return to work with a clear head.

Just as the players’ bodies need time over the close season to rest and recuperate from any injuries, your brain and body need to recover from the stresses of the season. Not everyone finds relaxation in the same places –for some it’s doing nothing on a sunny beach, for others it’s found in more active pursuits – but what’s key is that you put your mind to something different. A change, as they say, is as good as a holiday.

SIX

WAYS TO DISCONNECT

CREATE A TECH SPACE

It’s hard to resist the ping or flashing light of a mobile device, even when you’re supposed to be taking time out. Dedicate just one room in the house or workspace to the use and charging of technology, so devices aren’t everywhere in sight.

BAN THE BLUE

The blue light emitted from smartphones, tablets and computer screens has been found to disturb sleep, so keep your bedroom free of such devices. Try also to resist the temptation to check the time, news or incoming messages at bedtime, as doing so brings all the stresses and problems of the day to bed with you.

CLOCK OFF

Unless you’re expecting an important call or there’s something you need to access on the go, it can be liberating to be without your mobile device for a while. Clock off for short periods each week by going somewhere or doing something without any mobile devices or computers available, e.g. a round of golf, 50 lengths in the pool or a long country walk.

MINIMISE DISTRACTIONS

If notifications are becoming distracting, you could choose to receive them less frequently, exit annoying WhatsApp groups or even delete certain apps altogether. Your email inbox can be paused for a period or you could put your device into ‘airplane’ mode. Alternatively, simply turn off Wi-Fi for a while.

CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS

There’s no obligation to respond to emails, texts and phone calls immediately. Wait until it’s convenient and you can respond effectively. If an issue is urgent it will make itself known.

GIVE YOURSELF A LIMIT

Surfing the net and using social media sites can sap valuable time. Try using a timer to alert you when you’ve been online for a set period.

TIME MANAGEMENT

When it comes to time management, the key is not how much time you have but how you use it. The following five keys may help you to unlock your personal effectiveness.

Words: Mark Procter

How you decide to use your time will be driven largely by two factors, urgency and importance, and they are very different things. If something is urgent then it has a time deadline, whereas something is important when it adds value. These two factors come together less frequently than you might imagine.

Looking at the matrix (overleaf), estimate how much of your time you currently spend doing the types of things in each of the four boxes. Then look at whether this is as effective as it could be. The tasks in the urgent and important boxes need to be done, but if they are dominating your time you might feel like you’re constantly in crisis mode. What bottlenecks might be causing you to be so busy and what business improvements might alleviate them?

THE URGENT VS. IMPORTANT MATRIX

crisis pressing problems projects with close deadlines

interruptions some calls and emails some meetings

preparation and planning new opportunities relationship building busy work some calls and emails time wasters

If you spend too much time doing tasks that are urgent but not important you might need to renegotiate with whoever is driving your agenda. For example, are you attending numerous meetings that aren’t moving you closer to achieving your goals? Are you writing reports that you don’t really understand the value of?

The key and often neglected box is ‘important but not urgent’, because in here lie all the purposeful, longer-term tasks that tend to get put on the back burner. To be truly effective you will need to focus time and energy on these more strategic tasks so that the number of things in your ‘urgent and important’ box diminishes. For example, take the time to plan better or improve a business process or train someone up so you can delegate more tasks to them.

The easiest way to free up time is, of course, to cease doing the things in the ‘not urgent, not important’ box. Activities such as engaging with social media and procrastinating can eat away at your time, without adding any real value.

IMPLEMENT A TIME MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule, when applied to time management, indicates that 80 per cent of the benefit comes from doing 20 per cent of your tasks. What’s most important here is making sure that these 20 per cent of tasks, often in the ‘not urgent but important’ box, actually get done. Think of these activities as your foundation stones, so plan them in at the beginning of the week, just as you would important meetings. Defend this sacred time from intrusion and once you’ve started don’t allow yourself to be disturbed or distracted. Once these bedrock activities have been scheduled into your diary other tasks can be fitted in around them and assigned a priority value, such as high, medium or low. If you don’t do this, your day may end up filled with a jumble of important and unimportant tasks, leading to a sense of frustration by the end of the week.

GET STUFF DONE

Multitasking tends to be seen as a valuable skill, but in reality doing more than one thing concurrently inhibits your effectiveness. One alternative way to deal with a lot of tasks coming at you at once is to use the Zap technique. Here, you zap each task by doing one of five things: bin it, file it, pass it on, do it now or diarise it. In this way, nothing hangs around to clutter your mind and impact on your effectiveness.

What you mustn’t do is simply put off dealing with things, as procrastination is the enemy of progress. Think of any task you delay tackling as a frog; the longer you sit there looking at it, the bigger and uglier it will get. The key is to eat the frog early.

A useful tool to get things done is the Pomodoro Technique, where you get rid of all disturbances and sources of distraction. You might, for example, turn off your telephone and email notifications and close your office door. Set a timer for 25 minutes and concentrate fully on the task in hand. Then, when the timer goes off, take a five-minute break before returning to the task. Repeat this until you have finished and then give yourself a reward, such as a coffee break or some time to chat with a colleague.

CLEAR THE CLUTTER

Doing something as simple as ensuring your office and desk are tidy can greatly improve your effectiveness. As well as improving your psychological wellbeing, it’s much easier to find any information or tools that you need when they’re filed in an orderly way, whether that be in a box or on your computer. While tidiness and organisation might seem relatively trivial, the cumulative effect of things like this can really impact on your time management and effectiveness.

FORM HABITS

To be truly effective, time management must become a habit and you can start to do this by implementing routines. Make a plan for the next day and week, being sure to block in time for important tasks while prioritising others. Zap everything that comes your way and stay on top of things.

Research shows that a habit will stick best if there is a routine followed by some kind of reward. That might mean you allow yourself to head home after you’ve written your plan or take a break for your first coffee of the morning. Habits are also more likely to stick if they align with your current lifestyle and personal preferences. Think, therefore, about when in the day you tend to have the most energy and focus and use those times to tackle the most important stuff, the tasks that really move you forward. Finally, be sure to review your effectiveness from time to time, looking at what is working and what is not. Only by taking this helicopter perspective on yourself will your effectiveness improve.

THE ZAP TECHNIQUE

When faced with a whole loads of tasks, zap each one:

n Bin it

n File it

n Pass it on

n Do it now

n Diarise it

THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE – 4 STEPS

Repeat until you’ve finished 1 2 3 4

Get rid of all disturbances and sources of distraction

For 25 minutes concentrate fully on the task in hand

Take a five-minute break, then return to the task

WHEN WE LONG FOR LIFE WITHOUT DIFFICULTIES, REMIND US THAT OAKS GROW STRONG IN CONTRARY WINDS AND DIAMONDS ARE MADE UNDER PRESSURE.”

PETER MARSHALL

MANAGING YOUR TEAM

MANAGING UP

Club chairmen, CEOs and boards hold the power to hire and fire and to influence decisions made by and affecting you. Maintaining good relationships with these key stakeholders is vital.

Words: Prof Sue Bridgewater

Just as with any relationship, personal or professional, managing up the chain of command requires time and effort. However, in return you’re likely to be rewarded with greater understanding and respect for your methods, more freedom and resources to see your plans through, and greater influence over how the club is run and developed.

GROUND WORK

Good relationships with the key stakeholders in the club are founded on proper due diligence before you even accept the job. You will already have researched the club’s philosophy and vision and it’s unlikely that

you’d have been offered the manager’s position if your own weren’t closely aligned. However, it’s important to delve deeper than that, looking at how the club is structured, who has the power and who makes the decisions. Find out how many full-time executives there are on the board and try to form a picture of who they are and whether you could work well with them.

Effective relationships involve creating win-win outcomes in which both parties get what they want, so seek first to understand and then to be understood. Are the owners and directors motivated by business or by a passion? What roles do the various directors hold on the board and what do you think that each would see as a successful outcome?

For example, the finance director might want good value for money and for the books to balance, while the marketing director might want players and a manager who are willing to help showcase the club and engage with fans. Gaining this level of understanding will help you to give them what they need.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

It’s worth also remembering that, their professional roles aside, these are individuals with their own unique personalities, needs, preferences and lives. Try to show an interest in them as people, their families, hobbies and backgrounds, and find out what you have in common.

In the increasingly global and diverse world of football, awareness and sensitivity of any cultural differences is also very important. If owners or members of the board are from different countries or backgrounds, see what you can learn about them and show that you’re taking an interest in their backgrounds. There may be cultural differences in what is deemed appropriate

Understanding the infrastructure, organisation and process of the club is critical, because they will be different each time. Often you have less opportunity to influence football matters than used to be the case; there are many other people involved, and there’s a process you have to go through.

SAM ALLARDYCE

behaviour in social and professional situations and business etiquette that you should be aware of.

SOCIAL CONTACT

Regular face-to-face contact, whether chatting over lunch, catching up over a coffee, speaking after each match or going into the boardroom when the opportunity arises, is essential in helping to create strong bonds and trust.

This trust creates ‘stickiness’, which tends to make relationships endure longer than those conducted solely by phone or email. Put differently, even if results are going against you, people with whom you have developed good personal relationships are more likely to stick with you.

Not all owners and directors, however, will be easy to get to know and form bonds with and, given the increase in involvement from overseas, some may be out of the country for much of the time. Geographic distance works against the creation of social and trust bonds, so it’s important to take any opportunity to meet in person, whether that means getting on a plane to visit them abroad or ensuring you schedule in a proper catch up when they are back in the UK.

While nothing beats face-to-face contact, arranging video conference calls is a good alternative, and even a normal voice call is preferable to an email or text. Speaking to one another directly enables you to get answers and explanations instantly and helps to avoid the misunderstandings that can easily result from written messages.

TAILOR IT

How you communicate with the other party will, of course, depend to some extent on their personal preferences. The better you get to know someone the better you’ll understand what kind of information they want, what level of detail they need and how and when they like to receive it. Everyone has a different style of leadership and different ways of working, so it’s important to be able to adapt to the people you’re working under as you move from club to club.

Does the other party want daily, detailed updates on your plans and progress or a weekly overview? Do they like those around them to be frank and open and to throw strong opinions into the mix, or would a milder-mannered and more diplomatic approach be better received?

TACT AND DIPLOMACY

There’s an art, too, to putting forward your ideas in a way that is persuasive without being pushy or seen to undermine the credibility of the other person. You will want to tread carefully, for example, when pitching an idea that contradicts or criticises something put in place previously by your boss.

Diplomacy is key and while it’s good to speak with honesty and openness, you’ll need to have enough tact to know when is the right time to speak, when you might be able to influence people, and when to keep quiet.

While it is helpful in any working relationship if two people like each other, what’s more important is that there is trust and respect, and that each values the other’s contribution and commitment to the club’s success.

DEAN SMITH

It’s a good idea to phone the owner or chief executive after each game to explain the reasoning behind your decisions. Doing this straight away reduces the risk of the facts getting distorted by other people’s views.

Communicating with owners who are abroad can be a challenge, though. You have to ensure your messages are even clearer as they may reach the owner through a third party.

MANAGING MILLENNIALS

In many ways, today’s players are just like those of 20 or 30 years ago, but there may also be subtle differences in their thinking and preferences.

Words: Alice Hoey

The world has changed immeasurably over the past 20 years, with technology transforming how we work, live and interact with one another. We have all had to adapt to being connected 24/7, to instant access and boundless information, and to a highly globalised and diverse society. We have seen flexibility and work-life balance grow in importance in the workplace, along with corporate responsibility, and we have felt the ripple effect of all of these changes in every aspect of our lives.

When we speak of the need to understand or manage millennials (born in the last few decades of the 20th century) and post-millennials (born in the 21st century), it is not because they are so very different to us; they’re not. But, whereas older generations have had to adapt to our changing society, the younger ones were born into it, so the associated behaviours and attitudes are innate and stronger.

PAUL HURST

Players today are more curious and want to know more detail, probably because of all the information they get coming through the academies. They want to understand your reasoning. They may have certain expectations of you, and that includes more regular communications.

You have to try to understand young people’s personalities and attitudes and where they’re coming from, because society has changed.

It’s important to remain aware of what the players might be going through, because with each year that passes you get further away from understanding the issues first hand. We grew up in a different era to our players, so we’ve got to try to understand what makes them tick and how their lives are in general.

THINK QUICK AND SHORT

Millennials have grown up in a culture of immediacy, fuelled by technology that enables constant communication, quick results, and regular reviews and feedback. Used to this instant gratification, they may thrive on shortterm goals and become impatient when working towards something in the distance. Breaking a big objective up into small steps will therefore be particularly important for millennials, as will enabling them to see what progress they’re making along the way.

Regular feedback will also be crucial in retaining their talent in your team. That may mean planning more performance reviews throughout the year, and having an open door policy so they can come to you for reassurance and validation when they need to.

KEEP THEM KEEN

This tendency to think in the short term may also have implications for millennials’ career planning. Unlike past generations, they tend not to expect or even desire a ‘job for life’. Generally speaking, they thrive off the challenge of taking on new or different roles, so finding ways to feed this need will be key in keeping them from moving on.

Providing your team members with plenty of opportunities to develop new skills and gain responsibilities is important, as it helps to keep them engaged and motivated and demonstrates that you value them enough to invest in their futures.

LEADERSHIP STYLE

While it’s a generalisation to say millennials have been raised with a softer touch, parenting and teaching styles have changed over the years. Questioning and debate are now actively encouraged, and as a result millennials and post-millennials may respond more positively to leaders who are approachable and who allow them to voice their views. Let them know that you value their opinions and are willing to listen, and be prepared to talk them through your reasoning if they disagree with your decisions.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Finally, culture is of huge importance to millennials and post-millennials, and they tend to take great pride in who they work for, perhaps even more so than previous generations. This is possibly because it is now so easy to discover what someone does for a living and then root out all sorts of information on their organisation. With a few clicks, you can learn about an organisation’s charitable work, culture and vision, media coverage and what it’s like to work there.

Whereas in the past the priority for a young person would have been to find an organisation that was solid and secure, a millennial is more likely to want to work for a brand they can wear as a badge of honour. Broadly speaking, millennials are attracted by organisations that have higher purposes beyond profit and whose ideals and purposes tally with their own. These qualities, incidentally, also make millennials great brand ambassadors and they may relish the chance to step into the public eye in aid of a charitable cause or community initiative.

As a manager, it’s important when trying to attract and retain young players that your club culture is strong, clear and consistent, and that you provide ample opportunities for them to engage and be part of the club’s ongoing story.

MENTAL HEALTH AND YOUR TEAM

As well as looking after your mental health, you will need to take steps to foster good mental wellbeing among your team members.

Words: Alice Hoey

While there’s still some way to go before mental and physical wellbeing are viewed on equal terms, awareness and understanding of common mental health issues, such as depression, stress and anxiety, have grown considerably in recent years. We now know that one quarter of adults and one tenth of young people experience mental health problems and they can affect anyone. It’s therefore imperative that, as leaders, we work with our teams to break down the stigmas associated with mental ill health and create cultures where team members look after one another’s mental wellbeing as well as their own.

This isn’t simply a question of duty of care; mental wellbeing is as much a performance factor as physical fitness. In fact, the WHO defines mental health as “a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively

and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. Therefore, when considering ways to improve and maintain players’ overall wellbeing, mental health should be an important part of the conversation.

BE PROACTIVE

Whereas a player’s physical fitness is visible, measurable and to a large extent determined by the training and regimes that you implement, their mental state will be influenced to a greater degree by factors outside of your control. These include family history, lifestyle choices, loneliness, bereavement and events in their personal life. However, there’s still plenty you and the club can do to make a positive difference.

Promoting good diet, nutrition, rest, relaxation and sleep can all reduce the risk of mental illness, as can team-related factors such as a sense of belonging and equality, self-confidence and self-esteem, and feeling valued and supported. As a manager, your approach to things like communication and motivation and the strength of the culture that you build at the club, especially around inclusion and cohesion, can have a major impact here. It’s also very important that you communicate clearly to everyone in your playing and support teams the correct pathways for seeking support, so they know who or where they can go for help.

OPEN UP

One of the biggest changes we’ve seen in recent years in terms of mental health has been in how we perceive and talk about it. Greater awareness and education of what mental health is all about, the contributing factors and risks, and more well-known faces speaking out about their experiences, have helped to break down some of the negative stigmas attached to it. There’s also now easier access to information and support for those who feel they need it, perhaps more so in sport than in many other fields of business.

Creating a culture of empathy and understanding and encouraging people to talk openly about their personal experiences are important, as is educating your team about mental health. This will help to break down barriers and help them to spot the signs of common mental health issues. It also gives you ears and eyes on the ground so, should someone need help, you’ll know about it sooner and will be able to direct them to the most appropriate support.

DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

If you do have concerns about a player, you might first try asking the teammates who are closest to them for their thoughts. Have they noticed a change in their behaviour, do they know of any negative issues going on in that player’s life and do they think they might benefit from additional support?

Approaching someone who may be experiencing mental ill health may feel awkward, but it’s far better to try to resolve concerns at an early stage and reduce the risk of things worsening. Invite them in for an informal chat to talk openly about how they are feeling and to air any worries they may have. It’s important to really listen to what they have to say, without prejudging or pre-empting, and be positive and supportive.

You might then suggest that they speak with the club psychologist, but also make it clear that there is a wealth of external, confidential and nonjudgemental support available should they feel more comfortable speaking to someone outside of the club. It’s also fine to adjourn the meeting if you need time to consider the best response or course of action.

It’s possible, of course, that the individual won’t want to talk about what’s on their mind. In this situation, don’t put pressure on them to open up or try to put words in their mouth. Instead, simply let them know that your door is always open should they change their mind and make sure they are aware of all the support services available to them inside and outside of the club.

YOUR MENTAL HEALTH

Finally, it isn’t only the mental health of your players and support team that you should be concerned with, but also your own. By looking after your mental wellbeing you’ll be better able to support your team and will be setting the best possible example.

Health and wellbeing is integral to the LMA’s Member Services programme and alongside a 24/7 Confidential Support Service for members and their families, the LMA has invested in a Health Board. This brings together a number of leading health professionals, including those specialising in the area of mental and emotional wellbeing, who help to shape the LMA’s wellness and education programmes.

Mental health education also forms a key part of the programme

provided under the LMA Institute of Leadership and High Performance, and the LMA is working closely with the game’s stakeholders in order to educate and promote resources to those in the professional game and at grassroots.

SIGNS OF STRESS

Research shows that prolonged stress is linked to anxiety disorder and depression, so spotting the signs and providing access to the right help early on is important.

Low interest, energy and motivation

Poor sleep

Irritability

Feelings of emptiness or worthlessness

Drinking alcohol excessively

Relying on drugs or medication

Taking frustrations out on those around you

MANAGING UNDER PRESSURE

Thanks to high and often unrealistic expectations, constant media scrutiny and unprecedented levels of redundancy, managers today are under intense pressure. Developing resilience skills is therefore essential if you’re to perform at your best and avoid succumbing to stress.

Words: Alice Hoey

While all managers will have to deal with high-pressure situations throughout their careers, not all will cope with them in the same way. Those who are able to remain calm and rational and who don’t allow their emotions to rule their heads will find solutions more easily and suffer from lower levels of stress. These managers are better equipped with what we call ‘resilience skills’.

Resilience is the ability to think clearly under pressure, keep your response in proportion to the level of threat and recover well from difficult periods. Through practice and experience we can all develop resilience skills over time, and this has considerable benefits to both health and wellbeing and performance.

A QUESTION OF PERCEPTION

Learning to perform better under pressure starts with the recognition that it is not the situation itself that drives feelings of stress or anxiety, but rather your thoughts around it. That’s why two people faced with exactly the same scenario will probably respond in very different ways. If you can reassess how you’re perceiving situations and what thoughts are driving your reactions you can start to look at things in different and more constructive ways.

Unfortunately, as you see and hear things your brain adds its own filters according to how the situation might impact on you, the potential outcomes and risks. This influences what you think, see and feel, and can lead to patterns of thinking that tend to raise stress levels and lower performance. For example, when considering a challenge ahead you might focus entirely on the extreme outcomes, rather than acknowledging all the small improvements the team is making along the way. You might catastrophise, where negative thoughts snowball towards the worst-case scenario, or take things too personally, hearing all the negative comments around you but never the positive ones.

These thinking patterns are all likely to trigger the body’s stress response, which prevents you from responding calmly and rationally just at the time when you need to most.

CHOOSE YOUR RESPONSE

Once you’ve given some thought to what’s going on in your head in a highpressure situation, and perhaps have identified that you’ve fallen into one of these mind traps, it’s time to challenge your thinking. Faced with a potentially stressful situation, question whether there’s another way of looking at it. What, for example, might be influencing why you see the situation as stressful, and is that helpful or even logical? What is the worst that might happen as a result of the situation and is your response in proportion to that possible outcome?

It can also help to think about how those you trust and respect would respond in a similar situation and what advice you would give them?

What is most important is to recognise that you are not at the mercy of your thoughts and emotions; rather, you can learn to turn down the brain’s filters and, calmly and rationally, begin to see things for what they really are.

RESILIENCE - THE BENEFITS

Improved mindset for dealing with periods of uncertainty

Improved physical and psychological wellbeing

Better task focus

Better problem-solving focus and ability to think clearly under pressure

Increased ability to sustain performance during periods of high

Reduced likelihood of suffering from anxiety and depression

More effective immune system

Better sleep

Lower risk of heart attack

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

The following can all make you less resilient:

Excessive weight

Raised blood pressure

Sleep deprivation

Regular timezone changes

Social isolation

Desk-bound lifestyles

Constant stress and anxiety

Stimulant and alcohol misuse

SOCIAL MEDIA AWARENESS

It takes years to build and maintain a reputation to be proud of and, if you get social media wrong, seconds to destroy it.

Words: Cathy Wood

From presidents to prime ministers, the news updates are littered with examples of poorly written, or poorly timed, tweets and posts, which can quickly detract and distract from other important issues of the day. None among the press pack will want to talk about your football philosophy if your latest signing posted something inappropriate half a lifetime ago.

Social media is integral to everyday life and, according to figures released by We Are Social and Hootsuite (July 2019), the number of worldwide social media users has surpassed 3.5bn. Put into context, that’s just under half the world’s population.

If you have players in the 16-24-year-old age bracket, there’s the added challenge of managing screen time, as most spend upwards of seven hours a day on their smartphones, significantly more than the time spent training or in the gym.

Get it right though and social media can be a powerful, positive tool to promote passions, provide insight and inspire, educate and motivate. The key is understanding how the major platforms work, the audiences they reach and how and why young people - many of whom will be your players, staff and fans - engage and interact with them.

THE MAIN PLATFORMS

Despite a slew of bad publicity, Facebook continues to go from strength to strength and, with 2.4bn users monthly, is the biggest social media network in the world. But Facebook doesn’t just own the original platform. It also owns Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and every month 2.7bn people log on to at least one of these.

Little wonder, then, that when Instagram or Facebook are temporarily unavailable, due to some technical hitch, many users don’t know how to survive a few hours without checking notifications or messages.

Facebook

Although there’s no question that many young people have graduated away from Facebook to ‘cooler’ platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, some still have Facebook accounts. They may use it to look at funny videos, find out about events or connect with older friends and family using Facebook’s own messaging app, Messenger.

As with all social media, it’s worth reminding those in your team and your own family to be mindful of old Facebook accounts that they may have forgotten about. If accounts are no longer used, or new ones have been set up, remember to close down old ones properly. This means ensuring they are deleted, rather than deactivated; the latter means the account can still be reactivated at a later stage.

Messenger

Facebook’s messaging app is free to use, allowing users to send instant messages, either one to one or as part of a group chat, as well as photos and videos. Voice messages can be recorded and there’s live video chat and video calling. You can even send and receive money via the app. You don’t have to have a Facebook account to use Messenger.

WhatsApp

Purchased by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp is a free instant messaging service where you can message individuals or groups, record voice notes, send pictures and videos and make and receive video and voice calls. WhatsApp messages are encrypted end-to-end to protect privacy.

At the moment, WhatsApp is linked to a single mobile phone number, so can’t be used on multiple devices with different phone numbers. There’s talk of an upgrade to the app that is likely to change this.

Snapchat

This is a messaging app where users can send pictures or videos and set a time limit on them before they disappear. Young people like this app because it’s fun, fast to use and they can be themselves without the pressure of creating a perfect online image. They also feel there’s little risk of images or videos getting into the wrong hands.

As with all social media, even if a picture is set to disappear from view, a recipient can still take a screenshot of it using their own phone or a secondary device with a built-in camera.

Instagram

Allows users to share pictures and short videos privately, to a group of selected friends, or publicly. Instagram’s draw is its visual appeal and ease of use.

It’s also particularly well suited to displaying stunning sporting images, another reason why athletes like it so much.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows users to post messages, called tweets. The original version only permitted 140 characters per tweet, but this has since been extended to 280 characters. You can also now add pictures and videos in addition to the character allowance.

Many athletes and public figures have been subjected to appalling abuse on Twitter, so it’s vital to ensure players and staff know where to go for help and support if this happens.

LEAVE IT OUT

If you decide to create your own social media profiles, or members of your immediate family have profiles that might include you relaxing on holiday or away from the game, make sure they fully understand the privacy settings and are aware of who can see what.

If you have children, be careful not to overshare about them on social media (known as ‘sharenting’). Keep their names and dates of birth offline. If, for example, you wish your child a happy fifth birthday, you inadvertently reveal their date of birth online, which a fraudster may keep to use at a later date. When it comes to social media and personal details, remember, less is always better.

EDUCATION

The safest manager, player or member of staff is an educated one. Even if you don’t use social media, those closest to you undoubtedly will. Make sure they receive regular updates on key changes to major platforms so everyone, of all ages, can stay safe and informed online.

UNDERSTANDING AND ENGAGING WITH THE MEDIA

The media demands on football managers are now considerable and they’re growing, so taking a laissez-fair approach is neither realistic nor productive. A carefully considered media strategy is essential.

Media handling is part of the job of the modern manager and the best managers do it very well. Managers that choose to work with the media and who don’t adopt a defensive or confrontational style tend to receive more balanced, fair and supportive coverage.

PLAN TO DELIVER

It is very important that managers don’t fear speaking to the media. Media conferences and interviews should be seen as opportunities rather than hindrances and managers who plan their approaches and think carefully about their strategies with the media find it can be an extremely positive influence. Work closely with your PR and communications team to ensure you are clear about the messages that you and the club want to get across and that you’re

aware of any potential issues or tough lines of questioning.

It’s useful to consider which of your core messages need to be delivered at certain times and make sure you get them across in a consistent way. Identify key dates in the diary and prepare what you’ll say ahead of each fixture.

LOCAL COMMUNITY

Regional newspapers are every manager’s bread and butter; their reporters live and breathe their local clubs every day and are the key conduit to the fans. A manager who shows that he understands the local environment and community and speaks well of it will prosper with his own supporter base.

Attending supporters’ meetings, charity events and former-player functions, and getting out into the local community are all positive ways of connecting regularly with the club’s key stakeholders. Engaging with such events should be an important part of your wider communications strategy.

ON AIR

Local, national and host broadcasters, both TV and radio, are extremely important, as they are the major communications channels for the game, and provide it with key revenue streams. It’s best to take any opportunities you have to develop strong relationships with broadcasters, always dealing with them in a professional manner.

While many managers will wait until they are between jobs and seeking a new role to work closely with the broadcasters, it’s possible and advantageous to do so, within reason, while you’re working. Make the host broadcaster feel welcome when they visit your club and work with them in fulfilling your media commitments.

TAKE YOUR TIME

Managers are at their most vulnerable immediately after a game and it’s crucial to establish a routine to calm down and prepare before speaking with the media. Take five minutes to liaise with coaches and media officers prior to facing the cameras.

Remember, those in the media need to leave any conference or interview with content, so it’s important that you engage with them in a proactive, positive and consistent way.

DEALING WITH MISREPRESENTATION

There may be occasions when you are unhappy with something that has been said or written by a journalist. Should this happen, it’s best to arrange to discuss the issue with them in private, avoiding attempts at public embarrassment.

Correct the facts in any inaccurate stories, ensuring that your clarifications can be used by the broadcast outlets. It’s important to set the record straight, but not in a way that belittles an individual journalist. In many clubs, the director of communications will record the manager’s media conferences, meaning there’s a full record of what has been said. This makes it easier to correct misquotes if need be.

BE AUTHENTIC

All managers have different personalities and this determines how they will interact with the media. It is important to be natural and authentic rather than attempting to be somebody you’re not.

You may want to try to lighten the mood, as humour and laughter can break the ice even in the most difficult of times, but always be professional, courteous and serious when required. Most of all, be prepared.

A harmonious relationship with the media will likely make the difficult and hugely demanding job of management that little bit easier.

INTERVIEWS AND PRESS CONFERENCES – 10 ESSENTIALS

Look beyond those asking the questions and think about who are you really speaking to. It might be your own or the opposition’s supporters or players, the opposition manager, the board or the media itself. When speaking to host broadcasters, remember that your messaging will be conveyed worldwide.

Never go into an interview unprepared. Decide beforehand on a small number of key messages and make sure these are delivered clearly. Consider providing an update or key facts at the start. Set the agenda and explain your position and thinking.

Establish how you will handle any no-go subjects. The manager’s first answers to these often sensitive and difficult questions tend to set the tone of the mood. Don’t allow yourself to be drawn onto topics you don’t want to discuss.

Be confident and prepared to disagree. Don’t fall into the trap of agreeing with a journalist’s questions and opinions simply to be polite.

Always treat journalists professionally and as individuals.

Be punctual and greet the media on arrival.

Take pride in your appearance. Avoid looking unkempt or walking into the room drinking or eating.

Avoid lots of hand-to-face action or hair movement, which can be seized upon for photographs. A brief shot of a manager rubbing his eyes or running his hands through his hair can lead to photographs that give the impression of a person under pressure.

Avoid coming across as a moaner or excuse-maker, repeatedly blaming results on referees or injuries, for example.

Journalists are likely to ask you about match officials’ performances. Ensure you are fully aware of what you can and can’t say about match officials, both positive and negative, without being sanctioned by the FA. 9 10

MICK MCCARTHY

You have to understand what those in the media are trying to achieve.

When I’m asked a question I’ll digest it and work out what they really want from me. I’ve learnt to be well prepared and also to be honest with the media.

If I don’t want to answer a question I’ll tell them, rather than just waffling or losing my train of thought.

THE

SECRET OF CHANGE IS TO FOCUS ALL OF YOUR ENERGY NOT ON FIGHTING THE OLD, BUT ON BUILDING THE NEW.” SOCRATES

WORKING IN THE MODERN GAME

LEADING A TEAM OF EXPERTS

The modern world of football is complex and requires leaders who can leverage the talents of a team of professionals to solve problems and gain a competitive edge.

Words: Mark Procter

In the modern game, the role of football manager encompasses not only the challenges of managing and developing a playing team and the immediate operational staff around them, but also bringing together a large team of experts, from sports scientists and nutritionists to data analysts and media liaisons.

As these individuals will most likely have more knowledge and experience than you in their areas of expertise, getting the best out of them will require a subtly different skillset than you might use with your playing team or fellow coaches.

It’s important, for example, not to rush to solutions, but rather to harness the full diversity of the team, and this requires patience and tolerance. The leader’s role will also be more hands-off than operational and this can take

time to become comfortable with. Experiment with your style, reflect on it and ask for feedback from team members and colleagues.

LOOSEN YOUR GRIP

The GRIP model (Goals, Roles, Interactions and Processes) is a useful performance tool for any team, but when working with a team of experts the framework that you set needs to be looser, as you’re really empowering and trusting them to self-organise and deliver. Let’s look at each element of the model as it might be applied to a group who each have their own specialist skills and knowledge.

Goals - The definition of a team is ‘a group of people working together to achieve a common purpose’, so the starting point for ensuring all elements of your support team are working effectively is having a common purpose. Where the set up is complex and the roles are diverse, finding one specific goal that’s applicable to everyone can be a challenge, so try to articulate a vision that will unite, inspire and motivate. What is the direction of travel, if not the end point, and why is this so important? Tell a story that others will want to be a part of.

Remember that values are a clear statement of how you operate in your club or team and how you should be with each other; they define what is and isn’t culturally acceptable. Perhaps what is most important of all, therefore, is that you lead by example. If you can go to work every day clear on why you are there, what you believe in and how your values connect with the club, then your team will follow your lead.

Roles - Whereas in an operational team clear and distinct roles and responsibilities are important, in this context it may be advantageous to allow greater flexibility. Enabling roles to overlap can be a messy experience, but it’s important if you’re to give the team the freedom to be innovative and play to their strengths.

When empowering a team in this way it’s necessary to give them the responsibility and authority to deliver. That means providing a trusting framework where the team not only has the resources it needs, but also the clout to make it happen. Where you do need to set constraints, clarity in delegation is very important. For example, which elements are ‘ask then go’

(where they will need your agreement before taking action) and which are ‘go then let know’ (where you would like to be kept informed of particular actions)?

Interactions - There are some important ground rules to keep in mind in terms of how complex teams interact. These are an essential element of the team framework and so should be discussed openly.

Use all of the expertise in the room to play through scenarios

Dissenting views should be seen as a constructive challenge rather than a nuisance

Conflicts should be surfaced and discussed rather than avoided The team should feel free to question any assumptions that are apparently widely held in order to avoid ‘groupthink’

Over time, as the team develops, your role as leader may well evolve into providing a helicopter perspective, coming in now and again to review progress and offer an objective viewpoint. There should be no need to be heavy handed, but instead to ask questions and offer your own perspective on what you see. Meanwhile, if it emerges that the team has interpersonal or communication issues, you will need to help people work through them openly.

Processes - Finally, as a leader, you’ll want to agree a number of processes, such as timelines, meeting or reporting schedules, with your wider team. But when working with a team of experts in a complex situation it’s also important to consider the process by which you generate and develop new ideas.

To get the most benefit from the knowledge and experience of your support team you’ll need to avoid oversimplifying an issue or problem before it is fully understood by everyone. This is known as ‘reductionism’ and it is the enemy of creativity. To avoid this, it’s best to open the subject up for discussion in the first instance so that you can get a wider perspective on it and generate a range of options. This ‘divergent thinking’ will result in a number of ideas that can then be explored fully by discussing scenarios and prototyping or testing.

At this point, you can begin to close things down (convergent thinking) and

move into your decision-making process (see the diagram below). Using decisionmaking criteria first agreed by the team will help everyone remain objective as each option is discussed.

BALANCE DIMENSIONS

DIVERGENT THINKING

Creative disorder

Overlapping roles

Seeing the system as a whole

Helicopter perspective and process communication

Long-term strategy and reflect on aspects not considered so far

CONVERGENT THINKING

Clear and structured procedure

Clearly defined and stable roles

Prioritisation/focus on key factors

Communication at content level

Short-term actions and speedy decision making

SAM ALLARDYCE

My philosophy has always been to look at what job needs doing and then find the very best person to do it. They don’t just need to be well qualified, they also need to be able to lead and take the initiative. You want people who want to keep developing in their roles.

I like to get together regularly with everyone and get down on paper or an iPad all the issues or problems we need to address, personal as well as professional. Sometimes in this job you discover problems too late, so it’s important to have staff who are open and professional enough to speak up.

YOU AND THE ACADEMY

While the academy won’t be at the forefront of your mind as a manager, you will play a key role in ensuring it fulfils its role successfully.

Words: Neil Saunders

Since the introduction of the Premier League’s Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) in 2012, significant progress has been made to encourage the development of more and better home-grown players. Over £800m has been invested in club academies across the leagues, enhancing facilities and increasing the number and quality of coaches – going from 250 working full-time across Premier League and EFL academies seven years ago to around 800 today.

There has also been a focus on ensuring players are developed holistically, with consideration given to the education, safeguarding and player care provisions in place at each academy.

A large amount of work has been done to provide an age-appropriate and varied games programme for players at each stage of their development from U9 to U23. In the 2018/19 season, the Premier League’s Youth Department delivered over 10,000 academy fixtures, in addition to 212 regional, national and international festivals and tournaments.

In the Professional Development Phase, players at Category 1 academies

had the opportunity to compete against international and first-team opposition through their participation in the Premier League International Cup and EFL Trophy.

Talent identification methods have evolved across clubs, with academy staff trained to better understand the physical development of players, using ‘bio-banding’ to group players by biological age instead of chronological age for training and games.

All of this has greatly benefited the young players invited into the academies and we’re seeing a better quality of player coming out of the system as a result.

STRENGTHENING LINKS

As the football industry has evolved over the years, so has the role of the manager. Your priority must always be the success of the club’s first team, but there are growing demands on modern managers and you’re increasingly likely to be working alongside a technical director, director of football or sporting director. This support structure brings a broader focus on the long-term development of the club’s football strategy, which could include the development and integration of those in the academy.

Through work with us at the Premier League, each academy will be implementing a long-term development plan for their young players, so it’s important that this is not impacted on should there be a change in first-team manager. That said, the manager has an extremely important part to play, as they will be responsible for providing young players with first-team playing opportunities.

For this reason, many clubs have developed technical boards, on which their CEOs, technical directors/directors of football, managers and academy managers (plus others in some cases) sit, meeting regularly to discuss current and future playing talent, as well as wider football matters.

If this group works effectively, they can ensure the academy does not work in isolation from the club, and that the academy manager and his or her team understand the playing philosophy of the manager and club. This optimises the opportunities for their best academy talent to make the transition from the academy through to the first team.

Having an understanding of this talent will allow the manager and technical

board to better assess the composition of the first-team squad, promoting academy players where appropriate and recruiting externally in those areas where the position can’t be filled internally at that stage.

These strong links can then be communicated to academy players, providing motivation and an understanding of the requirements for them to achieve their goal of first-team football. Where time constraints allow, attending occasional academy fixtures and training sessions can have huge motivational gains for both academy players and staff, and serve to better inform the manager about the future pipeline of talent.

ONE OF OUR OWN

As well as supporting the sustainability of the club by providing players for the first team and through player sales, the academy also acts as an important link between the club and the local community.

Supporters love to see home-grown players making their mark in the first team, perhaps best demonstrated by the ‘he’s one of our own’ chant that greets graduates.

DARREN MOORE

It’s great when you have local academy players coming through the system, because they have an affinity with the supporters. Knowing they’ve been nurtured from within creates an instant bond and they have pride in those players.

It’s great if you can find 10 minutes to chat with the academy staff to find out how they’re doing and which players are doing especially well. Over a number of weeks you build up a picture of who might be worth inviting to train with the first team, what their strengths are and where they can play. What’s more, it builds a connection between the club and the academy and between the manager and the academy coaches.

DATA ANALYTICS

Data analysis is influencing decisions throughout football clubs, from training and tactics to recruitment.

Words: Omar Chaudhuri

With the stakes in football now so high and the game so competitive, clubs and their managers can leave nothing to chance. Data analysis offers a valuable means of identifying opportunities to gain an edge at the micro and macro level, helping to inform decisions and improve understanding of the team’s performance throughout the club.

TRAINING AND TACTICS

The more a club knows about its players, the better able it is to make decisions around who to play and where, their potential for injury and

how to train them to maximum effect and minimum risk. Wearable technology can now provide clubs with critical information on each player’s performance during training or a match, such as distance covered, level of intensity and duration of high intensity, and acceleration and deceleration.

This information can be compared with the coach’s training objectives and used to plan future training programmes, aiming to improve areas of weakness while avoiding overload. The data can also be used to assess each player’s form, thereby influencing overall tactics for upcoming matches.

Performance data can even be used by the players themselves as a motivational tool, enabling them to better visualise how they need to improve and set personal targets to work towards.

PERFORMANCE TRACKING AND REPORTING

Data analysis such as this also has a valuable role in enabling managers and coaches to monitor the effectiveness of their approaches over time and to report back to others in the club.

Demonstrating success and progress in football can be a challenge, because the low-scoring nature of the game means the result doesn’t always reflect the side’s performance. Teams often lose despite playing well, and vice versa. Indeed, at 21st Club, our research has quantified this, showing that the better team in a match loses or draws 36 per cent of the time.

The numbers can go much further than this, too. A number of executives at English clubs receive automated post-match messages from us that give an indication of how well their team performed in a match, and as such how often they would expect to win or lose, irrespective of the final scoreline. This data may be shared with the head coach or chairman and can cut through to people who know that consistently making decisions based on emotion is not a sustainable approach.

Beyond quantifying good or bad luck, coaches can leverage the numbers to have a discussion around the playing and strategic philosophy of the club. While people may disagree about what constitutes ‘attacking’ or ‘exciting’ football - sometimes resulting in the dismissal of managersanalytics provides a common language. Given agreed benchmarks, coaches, managers and owners have a common ground and can track progress over time.

This means more than just counting passes or tackles; proper data analysis can, for example, quantify if a team is sufficiently daring in attacking transitions, perhaps by counting the number of forward sprints after regains.

INFORMING RECRUITMENT

Data can also influence more strategic aspects of the club. During head coach hire processes, for example, we’re often asked to look at how prospective coaches manage a playing squad. It is possible to track if a coach has awarded homegrown debuts, lowered the average age of a team, managed internal squads, or helped provide return on investment for new signings. Managers can monitor these data points themselves and report back to owners, who are increasingly taking a portfolio approach to player trading.

Making subjective judgements on major investment decisions is no longer the norm, and managers can use objective information to both communicate their own beliefs and present how the club is meeting its own objectives.

A COMMON LANGUAGE

For data to drive decision making, staff members throughout the football club need to be speaking the same language. From a head coach point of view, this starts with being able to translate what is happening on the pitch into information that the manager, owner and others in the club can understand.

This responsibility often rests with club analysts, who will collaborate with the manager, looking at a combination of video and data. There is often a mistaken belief that these two sources of information are in conflict, but more often than not they complement each other.

Being able to identify key moments from a video and cross reference them with the data means you can scale your analysis across hundreds of games, if necessary. This allows analysts and coaches to identify trends and strengths and weaknesses in teams and players, and be better prepared in both match analysis and recruitment.

It is important that managers try to understand the roles and responsibilities of their analysts, while conveying to them as clearly as

possible their own requirements and preferences. For example, managers need the results of any analysis to be translated into information that is simple, easy to understand and that can inform decision making and planning.

THE BIG PICTURE

As clubs have become increasingly investable businesses over the years, there has been a notable shift in thinking, which has mirrored the trend in financial trading and other realms of business. Rather than relying solely on human instinct, decision making is now influenced heavily by data analytics. Indeed, some of the best modern-day owners and managers are overwhelmingly analytical in their approaches to club strategy and operations.

For all the opportunities that data presents, there is an imperative for owners and managers to recognise the pressures and challenges of management, and to appreciate that not everything can be quantified and monitored. However, with the stakes so high, few managers and their clubs can afford to make key decisions without first consulting the numbers.

Analytics has had a massive impact on how we educate and develop our players. It allows us to highlight positive and negative aspects of play, to better prepare for the next game and see how to compete against the opposition. The impact is huge and wide-ranging, but you can be inundated with data, so what’s key is to understand what works best for you and what you can extract that will benefit your team’s performance.

MARK WARBURTON

RECRUITMENT AND DATA

While an expert eye is still essential when scouting for new talent, data is helping clubs to narrow the search field with a growing level of detail.

Words: Lee Hemmings

Signing a new player can have a hugely positive impact on the team’s performance, but get it wrong and it can be a very costly mistake. Recruitment decisions are among the biggest a manager will make, so they must be founded on as much reliable and relevant information on potential targets as can be gathered.

Traditionally, this information has been sourced via scouting networks and this is still largely the case. However, as football is now truly global, the size of the potential market for players is so huge that it would be unrealistic to expect a human scouting network to be effective on its own.

NARROWING THE FIELD

Thankfully, as these worldwide scouting challenges increased so did the use of data in football clubs. Initially, data analytics provided an extra means of filtering

potential players in the selection process and, still today, the first assessment of a player is done using some kind of platform or website. These provide the most simple form of data on a player, on their life and career, just as you would find in their CV.

Today, data analytics is widely accepted and used across the industry as a recruitment tool, however its growth has not been at the expense of traditional scouting methods. Instead, it has added a new layer to the process and increased its overall efficiency. Scouts still depend on their expert eye and professional instinct to spot the next big thing, but data now allows recruitment teams to focus their efforts on a narrower field of talent first.

While there are no doubt merits to opportunistic scouting and tracking players’ development by observation alone, it makes sense to watch those who are, say, showing early maturity or who have certain attributes that fit a specific need in your team. Data can highlight immediately which players match these requirements and are available in the market, saving the manager time and helping to deliver the best results.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Clubs are now able to take advantage of increasingly advanced analytics to help inform their recruitment processes, with the questions they can ask of the data becoming more complex. For example, in the next release of Player LENS, as well as showing which players are available and under what terms, the basis on which Player LENS was established, basic information around their talent will be complemented with detailed data on in-play attributes and how they compare with other players on the platform and in a club’s own squad. Statistically, and in seconds, Player LENS will be able to highlight if there are available players that can improve a squad.

As an example, when comparing a subset of central midfielders who are available within a club’s budget, industry knowledge might suggest they are all renowned for winning the ball. Who, though, has the better attacking qualities and contributes most to their team scoring? This is answered not only by looking at assists, but also by the number of through balls and forward passes, among many other metrics. When these additional qualities are highlighted by the data, it may enable clubs and their managers to find that player with something extra, a characteristic that, while not apparent from a

Analytics has made it possible to see if a player links in with your style of play. Then your staff can look to see if their character will fit with the team and with the club’s culture. All parties are involved in the recruitment process, with the final decision coming down to the coach.

DEAN SMITH

few games’ scouting, shows up over the course of their career. This process will save a huge amount of time scouting talent that will likely not be of interest. It will also reduce and prioritise shortlists to a manageable number of players who are suitable, by way of recorded attributes, and already known to be available in the market.

If a club is looking for a left-footed, ball-playing central defender, for example, they can get a shortlist of players who fit the criteria and are known to be available. These players can then be ranked based on the club’s preferred playing style.

Video analysis also remains important to clubs. Player Lens is developing channels that allow for the sharing of subjective views between clubs, managers and other users. This would transform an expert opinion on a player into a data record, which could be shared within the network.

The idea is not to change the whole recruitment process, but to complement existing strategies with new ideas and speed of execution and access to existing processes. With often very small margins separating teams, managers who constantly look to improve their processes and who stay abreast of new opportunities with regards to data analytics will have an advantage.

MARK WARBURTON

In terms of recruitment, data allows you to really do your homework and compare players by asking very targeted questions.

You can look at tactical, technical and physical data; on the impact of a team when a player is included and when they’re not; whether they’re better than what you have already or the same; and if they have potential. It enables you to cover all the bases of due diligence.

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO PSYCHOLOGY

With gains from analytics and fitness becoming ever more marginal, the mental game may be the next frontier in elite performance.

Words: Jeremy Snape

Since the growth of the television networks in the 1960s and 1970s, the commercial engine has propelled the game of football forward at a staggering pace. Fitness testing advanced in the 1980s and 1990s, with full-time physios and fitness trainers initiating the backroom team, and biomechanists, physiologists and dieticians soon joining the ranks.

As the gains that could be made from physical factors began to diminish, a new era was born in the early 21st century, analytics. Measurement moved to the field of play, with GPS, wearable technology and big data allowing managers and their backroom teams to be predictive rather than reactive.

Ideally, the use of psychology in clubs would have run alongside this focus on the physical dimension, especially given the trends that have emerged in recent decades. Social media, always-on technology and an industry with diminishing patience mean managers and players are expected to deliver their

best under relentless pressure, scrutiny and criticism. This presents multiple challenges to both mindset and mental wellbeing.

Yet professional clubs have typically secured the services of some six-to-10 physical specialists before they considered hiring a full-time psychologist. Areas such as confidence could not be measured as easily as hamstring strength, so were relegated below more data-centric disciplines. Psychology became branded as remedial, with players only encouraged to see a psychologist when they were struggling.

THE NEXT FRONTIER

Thankfully, psychology is now coming of age and the value of things like psychological strength, flexibility and endurance is almost on a par with that of their physical counterparts.

American sports were early adopters of psychology. For over a decade, US academy psychologists have educated parents to communicate in a way that builds character and resilience in their youngsters. They have provided support for students in balancing exam pressure and sports training and help to broaden their identities and options in later life.

The next generation in football will see sports psychology not as an emergency service, but integrated into every part of the game where thinking is required. High-performance psychology offers insights not only from the world of elite sport, but other high-pressure fields such as the performing arts and the military, where one hesitation, false move or

If players make it into first-team football it’s a tough and unforgiving game, mentally and physically. We need to ensure players are able to cope with this, perhaps by demanding more from them when they’re young and helping them to develop coping mechanisms for when things don’t go their way or they face a career setback.

PAUL HIRST

emotional decision could result in disaster. Therefore, as managers in football increasingly look outside their inner circles for ideas and strategies, new opportunities are emerging. Here are some growth areas for psychology that can be used across the performance environment:

Talent ID - One of the biggest advances we’re likely to see is in the early identification of talent using tools such as psychometric testing and personality profiling, strategies already employed widely in the business world.

Personal resilience - Players in their formative years may be helped by mindset specialists to develop a robust self esteem and rounded identities that don’t rest solely on their success as footballers. This is vital for their ongoing mental wellbeing through turbulent times such as injuries, club moves and, ultimately, their transition out of the game. Clubs that value the people as much as the performers will make this part of their support structures.

Mood - Mental health for professional players is another area where there are real growth opportunities. There are already basic apps that can track the mood in the training camp, with players tapping a green smiley face or red grumpy face to log how they’re feeling, but there’s so much more to come. In time, more advanced mood data will be correlated with blood chemistry to provide revolutionary insights into players’ recovery, sleep, happiness and motivation, helping managers and their staff to improve these performance factors proactively.

Technology and visualisation - Virtual reality and augmented reality glasses could take visualisation to the next level, fully immersing the players by recreating the sounds, smells and feel of walking out in front of the crowd. It could mean that players ‘feel’ the penalty kick before they actually get to the stadium. Neuroscience shows us that even thinking things creates neural pathways, so this is a powerful tool used increasingly in highperformance environments.

Team environment - Behind the scenes, psychologists can help coaches and managers to create the optimum environment for their players. The level of pressure in football today and the emotional turbulence of the season can be exhausting, so psychologists encourage players and managers to avoid dwelling on past mistakes and potential threats. Instead, they focus their energy on the next pass, the next training session or the week ahead. Having a skilled professional in the support team who can build trusted relationships with the players and encourage them to talk about what’s going on in their lives can also relieve some of the pressure on the manager.

Communication - Psychologists can help the manager to communicate powerfully with his or her audience, whether it is the media, the team at half time or the club’s owners, and find ways to engage the players and connect them with the club’s heritage. They can also help to educate them in diversity, bias and inclusion, enabling them to integrate better with team members and build trusted relationships with them.

Learning - Advances in our understanding of neuroscience and skills acquisition provide other ways to educate the players. Decision-making simulations, pressure-testing drills and implicit coaching styles are becoming the norm as coaches look to develop players who are self-aware leaders on the field rather than robots or sheep. This builds strength and flexibility into their learning muscles in parallel with their physical ones.

While much of your focus as a manager will be on the result of the next game, psychologists can help you to take a more holistic view and understand the personalities inside the shirts. If it takes six-to-10 specialists to support the physical side of the squad, the next decade may well see a similar number supporting the mental side: high-performance psychologists preparing the team, injury psychologists reducing recovery time and counselling psychologists providing confidential support to the players.

The rewards and expectations in football have never been higher, but working with a team of psychologists, the potential is there to both build happier, more resilient players and to help them perform at their best.

TANYA OXTOBY

Even though I’m early on in my career in management I’ve seen the use of psychology in football change a lot, especially in the women’s game. Investing in this area to ensure the players are as prepared as possible mentally is going to be a big growth area.

At Bristol City Women, psychology has had the biggest impact in making sure the players are aware of all the factors that might affect their performance, things like technology, lifestyle choices, rest and routine. We want there to be no surprises, no panic or fear, to remove the anxiety and give them control. They know what to expect and have the tools to be able to work through any issues that arise.

ON-PITCH PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY

With the right mindset, players can perform at their best and respond positively to everything a game throws at them. Managers can help by taking a psychological approach to matchday and helping the players evaluate their psychological performance.

Words: Prof Chris Harwood

The 90-plus minutes of a football match impose various demands on the psychological functioning of the players - their motivation, concentration, emotions, decision making, self-belief and the communication and relationships they have with their teammates.

With a well-trained performance mindset, players can consistently deliver their best, technically, tactically and physically, and sustain that performance. What’s more, armed with the right strategies and skills, primed, practised and ready-for-deployment, players can manage any challenge, adversity or event that they encounter during a match.

Without the mental resources to deal with these potential mindset derailers, players tend to show visible signs, such as hiding, abusing the

referee, repeating errors, blaming others, making poor decisions, and displaying other emotions and behaviours that are toxic to team momentum and performance.

While professional players are responsible for training and maintaining their psychological performance, it’s up to managers and coaches to facilitate and support players in this critical area. There’s a lot they can do to help their players develop and maintain an optimal performance mindset during match play.

THE KEY INGREDIENTS

The properties of a performance mindset essentially boil down to five attitudes and behaviours in a player that are clearly visible to those around them. These can be distilled further into five fundamental psychological values, which keep the system moving forward and keep others moving forward with it:

Commitment -A player’s commitment to unconditionally high effort in their position with a focus on learning and problem solving through the game.

Concentration -A player’s ability to focus and refocus their attention only on what or who is relevant to their performance in the next 30 seconds/minute of the match.

Control - A player’s composure throughout positive and negative game events and incidents through use of a responsive breathing routine and superior self-coaching ‘one liners’.

Communication - A player’s positive, directive and confidence-building support to teammates to influence and sustain the team mindset through the course of the game to the final whistle.

Confidence - A player’s intentions to consistently action and execute appropriate (i.e. forward-thinking) decisions with such positive and robust engagements that they could be one of many game changers.

MEASURE IT

Players’ mental performances will generally improve through learning, and learning starts when coaches see the value in helping players with their mental performance. This means educating them on the 5Cs and how they help players to manage the continuity of their performance.

Ask the coaches questions around the 5Cs to get them thinking about what a player with each of these qualities acts like on the pitch. What does excellent communication look like to you? How do you know that your teammate is highly committed? When do you see superb self-control in the team and what does it look like?

Work with them to agree the on-pitch behaviours that best represent each C. For example, for Concentration that might be immediately resetting your focus after each refereeing decision.

Get the team to decide on a subjective performance score (e.g. out of 100) that reflects their goal for each C that season, and then monitor this as a team, week by week. Team members and staff can score each C after a match, enabling you to review what the team’s various mental strengths and weaknesses were and learn lessons from that specific performance.

Finally, you can help the players with their mental performance on the pitch by employing performance analysis to capture examples of excellent 5C behaviours that link to positive passages of play and results. This also helps to illustrate where poor 5C behaviour hurts the team and needs attention.

With this strategic approach you can begin to assess a team’s mental performance in simple, cost-effective ways that allow you and the team to examine results and discuss where they were strong or weak. Importantly, it also makes the players more accountable.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Inspirational speeches and well-crafted storytelling can give players a motivational boost, but the effects on one or more of the performance values tend to wear off after a week or so unless there’s a concerted effort to live the performance behaviours underpinned by the values.

As a coach, performance-behaviour related to the 5Cs isn’t isolated to matchdays; it’s put into action all over the club in training and gym performance contexts. The opportunities to practise one’s performance

mindset lie everywhere, daily. A 5C coach is one who integrates psychological challenges into training, and supports players as they grow and refine their psychological skills ready for matchday through well-planned training.

Align your coaching sessions to the 5C values, and ensure there is an intentional psychological return on the session through the drills and semistructured games that you set up. For example, you might challenge players’ self-control and give them the chance to practise a positive response, to move on, by inserting poor referee decisions or reversing the scoreline.

FACILITATE THE SOLUTION

As a manager, you play a vital role in your team’s performance psychology by creating a climate and culture that values a psychological approach to matchday and that helps individual players and the team evaluate their psychological performance.

Most solutions for improving performance mindsets stem from healthy, honest discussions and reflections within and between players and staff. However, there will be many times where using a professionally qualified sports psychologist is valuable in assisting players to overcome specific challenges, and further develop themselves and their on-pitch strategies in specific areas.

In this respect, even though you may not have all the answers for players, you are facilitating the solution and, in most cases, then becoming part of the answer as a support mechanism for your team.

It’s really important to work closely with your sports psychologist, because while they have the expertise, no one knows the players better than you. You know what makes them tick. Every player is unique, so the information you share with your sports psychologist will help them to do their job better.

TANYA OXTOBY

PERIODISATION

Training has evolved since the days of sustained heavy loads and runningbased exercises. Today, managers are planning multidimensional programmes that help to prepare the team for the rigours of the competitive season.

Words: Prof Ryland Morgans

The physical demands of football are complex, characterised by frequent changes in speed and direction and drawing on both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Working with their performance and medical staff, and coaching staff, managers must design training programmes that aim to stress both energy systems, while simultaneously developing other key explosive components that are important for the successful completion of technical actions, such as pressing or shooting.

Increasingly recognised as a useful model in football, periodisation offers a framework for the planning and systematic variation of a player’s training prescription. The variation of the daily and weekly training load is thought to be key here; monotony has in the past failed to produce the desired result and when the overall load is too heavy it can lead to fatigue and injury.

Many clubs prioritise technical or tactical sessions when planning training for the competitive season, but other factors must also be taken into account, such as the training requirements of individual players, the need for frequent travel and the competition schedule ahead. Here, we look at some of the main considerations.

A TAILORED APPROACH

In periodisation, the training programme is generally divided into three phases of different lengths: the macrocycle, the mesocycle and the microcycle. In football, it isn’t viable to systematically manipulate loading patterns across long periods of time, the macrocycle or mesocycle, as players must meet numerous training goals within similar time periods and have a fixture schedule that requires multiple peaks across many months.

However, variations in training load are being applied within the smallest structural planning unit, the microcycle. This is traditionally associated with a seven-day period, but it can easily be manipulated to reflect the number of days between competitive fixtures. In this way, managers and their staff are able to use the basic principles of periodisation to plan training loads that provide a physical training stimulus to the players and facilitate recovery and regeneration.

A structured approach needs to be taken to planning a varied training load, even if only across relatively short time periods, and should take into account a number of key principles.

As improvement in performance is a direct result of the quantity and quality of work completed, training load should be increased gradually to increase the body’s capacity to do work. This progression of load is best achieved through

The basics of preparation are the same today as they always were, but what has changed is the shorter time we now have between games. You have to be very well structurally organised to make the most of that time between games, to get the best out of your support staff and the players.

SAM ALLARDYCE

subtle changes in factors such as volume, intensity and frequency of training. In team sports such as football, training plans have tended to be focused on the group, but as each player is unique in terms of their ability and potential to improve, load progression should ideally be individualised.

Specificity is also now widely recognised as fundamental to a successful training plan. In the context of training, specificity relates to both the physiological nature of training stimulus and the degree to which the training resembles actual competition. How well performance in training translates into performance on matchday may depend on how closely training replicates those competitive conditions. As such, all sessions included in a training programme should have relevance to the sport’s energetic and metabolic requirements, and technical and tactical movement patterns.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

In order to prepare players properly for the demands of a football match, specific physical and technical/tactical drills and practices that have key physiological objectives must be included on a regular basis.

Traditionally, running activities have been used to achieve these physiological goals. However, increasingly we’re seeing a more global training methodology prove successful, as it develops the players’ technical, tactical, physical and mental capacities simultaneously. This can be an efficient approach when the schedule only allows limited time between matches for training. Such an approach incorporates football-specific activities that not only complement, but physically contrast each other, while supporting the team’s tactical strategy.

A variety of football drills and running protocols have been designed to train metabolic systems important to football, primarily targeting the development of the aerobic and anaerobic systems. Being able to manipulate the running speeds during these practices is also important. The delivery of these practices needs to adhere to the basic principles of training: frequency, intensity, time, type, specificity, progressive overload, reversibility, and the player’s ability to tolerate training load to ensure fitness development. All conditioning drills, whether football specific or running, can achieve a required physical outcome, although the specific choice of drill will ultimately depend on the philosophy of the manager.

PLAYERS AND PITCH SIZE

Of particular interest in the development of a global methodology of training is the use of small-sided games, where coaches can maximise their contact time with players and increase the efficiency of training. These can subsequently reduce the total training time because of their multifunctional nature, and so prove particularly beneficial for those elite players who have limited time to train. As well as being an extremely effective use of training time and sport-specific physical load, football drills may have several advantages over traditional physical training without the ball.

General consensus says that as player numbers increase, exercise intensity decreases. However, this relationship is partly dependent on whether the pitch size also increases. In practices with lower player numbers, relatively more time is spent performing higher intensity activities, such as accelerating, decelerating, twisting, checking, turning and shooting, while less time is spent standing still. Small-sided games, however, have proven to have a ceiling effect on physical performance, due partly to the position-specific demands placed on the players.

Drills with a low number of players involve more continual activity and therefore activity levels are also higher. In drills with higher player numbers, and concomitantly larger pitch sizes, movement patterns and therefore physical loadings become greater. If pitch size is not increased as player numbers increase, there is less area per player, so the area in which players become active will decrease and training data will be lower for certain physical parameters.

Finally, it should be remembered that regardless of other session variables, the length of the games will ultimately dictate the ‘total’ physical load on the players.

There is much to take into account when deciding how to shape a training programme for the periods between matches, starting with what it is you’re aiming to achieve. Decisions around how much load you will place on the players, how you will build that load up and what types of exercises you’ll use to do that can only be made effectively by working closely with your lead performance and coaching staff, by constantly evaluating the context over time and by considering both the team and the individuals within it.

JON WHITNEY

Biomechanics and tools like GPS analysis mean you can now see the demands of a game on each player, enabling you to tailor their weekly training accordingly. You can see where the players are over-training or under-training and whether they are resilient and robust enough to meet the demands of matchday.

The sports scientist or head of medical should be the first point of contact for the manager in the morning. You need to know how many players you’ve got ready to train and understand the volume and intensity of each training session, so you can keep them as fresh and close to 100 per cent as possible for matchday.

MATCHDAY

The manager’s demeanour and approach in the hours before a game can have an impact on the performance of the whole team.

Words: Alan Pardew

Most managers will have a routine they go through before a match. I like to go for a walk early in the morning so I can think through the main issues that could occur and how I might deal with them. For example, if there’s a player in the dressing room who is agitated after having been left out of the starting 11, how should I best handle him?

When I enter the stadium, I’ll check that everything is set up for the players to my expectations. Are the stewards behaving positively? Is the entry point for the players and the dressing room as they should be? I’ll make sure there are as few distractions as possible, and that the TV cameras are in the right place and are not too intrusive.

I think it’s important to have your own space when you get to the stadium. As soon as you arrive people will be trying to pull you in different directions and will have questions they want answered. You have to make good decisions

quickly and deal with any last-minute setbacks, such as one of your starting players being injured. It helps to have some personal space to get yourself together. That way you’re ready for kick-off.

Of course, your pre-match routine may change for a special game. I might keep things 80 per cent as normal, so the players feel comfortable, but tweak the rest. For example, we might arrive a little earlier or warm up in front of the fans. Little things like that can be important in giving you an edge in a game.

You also have to listen to your staff and the players, because they might have opinions on how well the routine is working and whether it could be improved.

Your demeanour before and after a match is really important. I try to appear calm, assured and confident about everything before a game. That makes delegation an important skill on matchday, because there’s a lot to think about and many decisions to make. If you can delegate some tasks or smaller decisions to your assistant manager, medical staff and so on it will reduce the likelihood of you becoming stressed or rushed or to lose your composure.

When the final whistle goes, how well you can remain calm and in control will depend to a large extent on your level of experience.

At the end of the game, you’re looking to quickly analyse what just happened and to speak with your staff and players so that everyone is on the same page before you face the press. I like to convey the same messages in the post-match press conference as I have delivered to the players, albeit perhaps in a different way. As a player, I didn’t like it when a manager said one thing in the dressing room and the opposite to the media.

The most important part of your post-match duties, then, is looking ahead to the next game and planning the week’s training. Even if you’ve just won a game comfortably you have to remind yourself and the team that the next one may be much more difficult, and that however well you did you’re going to have to do even better next week.

GUIDE CONTRIBUTORS

WAYNE ALLISON

Currently LMA Technical Director, Wayne previously worked as Coach Inclusion and Diversity Manager at The FA. Prior to that he was the organisation’s Coaching Research Manager, responsible for providing the research knowledge required to inform policy that supports and enhances coach education and development.

Wayne is a former professional footballer who holds the full range of UEFA coaching qualifications, including the UEFA Pro Licence, and has been on the coaching staff of several professional clubs. He has a PhD in Sport Exercise Science and Coaching and is co-author of ‘Advances in Coach Education and Development: From Research to Practice’.

CONTACT

wayne.allison@leaguemanagers.com

+44 (0) 7741 193 387

PROF SUE BRIDGEWATER

Head of Sport Research at Liverpool University, Prof Sue Bridgewater has a BA (Hons) in German with French from Durham University and an MBA and PhD from Warwick University. Since 2001, while working for Warwick Business School, Sue has helped the LMA and PFA to design and deliver football management education. She now directs the Diploma in Football Management on behalf of the LMA and provides the organisation with football manager statistics and research.

Sue has also conducted research into sport and football for the PFA, The FA, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Sport England and several football clubs. A regular media contributor, Sue has written academic and practitioner journal articles in the areas of leadership, international business, marketing and sports marketing. In 2010 she published the books ‘Football Management’ and ‘Football Brands’, both Palgrave, and previously co-authored ‘International Marketing Relationships’ and ‘Innovation in Marketing’.

Sue is a member of the LMA Leadership and Personal Wellbeing Advisory Board and is on UEFA’s Research Grants and Awards panel. Away from football, Sue has delivered training for blue chip clients, including Philips, Nestle, KPMG, IBM, Ford, HSBC, Deloitte and Diageo, and her early career was spent in marketing and new product development with Unilever.

CONTACT

sue.bridgewater@liverpool.ac.uk www.liv.ac.uk/management

OMAR CHAUDHURI

21st Club is a strategic advisory business for football clubs, leagues and associations. Established in 2013, the London-based company works with boardrooms, giving them the confidence to make brave decisions by utilising objective information.

Omar Chaudhuri is the Head of Football Intelligence at 21st Club, and is involved in ensuring that the analytics clubs use is both meaningful and in context. This helps to ensure clubs are as informed as they can be when making major strategic choices.

ALICE HOEY

Passionate about the power of great leadership inside and outside of sport, Alice was part of the team that came up with the concept of The Manager, the LMA’s quarterly member magazine. She has been its editor for most of the 10 years since its inception and has commissioned, edited and helped to write all of the LMA’s personal development guides.

Alice’s expertise in the fields of leadership, elite performance and wellbeing is built on nearly 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, producing bespoke content for clients such as Lloyds Bank, Barclays, HSBC, IBM, Atkins Global, the IIA and Vodafone.

Working for media agencies in the City and now as a freelance editor, she has interviewed countless key figures in the fields of business, the arts, politics and sport and written on everything from insomnia, travel and London 2012 to adversity strategies, telecoms trends and business auditing.

CONTACT

alicehoey1@gmail.com

PROF RYLAND MORGANS

As a practitioner, Ryland was most recently Performance Director at Everton and Crystal Palace, before which he spent four years at Liverpool. Ryland has also worked at Swansea City, Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Northampton Town, gaining promotion from every division.

Ryland combined his club roles with a national team position as Head of Performance with the Wales National team between 2010 and 2018. Under his watch, Wales rose in the FIFA world football rankings from 117th to 8th.

As a coach educator, Ryland has been a lead instructor and researcher for the FA of Wales Coach Education department since 2001, and more recently, he focused on delivering the UEFA Pro License course for the department.

Ryland holds both the UEFA Pro License and a PhD, in Football Science and remains at the forefront of academic research in the areas of elite level professional football and applied science.

More recently, Ryland has advised numerous national associations on team performance and coach education and provides a consultancy service to performance technology companies and professional football clubs across Europe.

MARK PROCTER

Mark’s area of expertise is strategic leadership, defining business strategy and then implementing it through people leadership. During his early career in the IT and telecommunications sectors, Mark held a progression of business and human resource management roles at Honeywell, Mercury Communications and Cable & Wireless. He started his own consulting business, Future Pace Development (www.futurepacedev.com), in 1998.

Over the past 18, years Mark has been led on numerous corporate education programmes and worked internationally with leaders from a wide range of organisations, including Allianz, Amey, Arcelor Mittal, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroen, Safran, Unilever and Transport for London. Mark’s consulting work has taken him into a variety of organisations, where he has been able to impact their business profoundly.

He is Associate Teaching Fellow at Warwick Business School and Liverpool University Management School, where he teaches on the LMA Diploma in Football Management. Mark is also Global Educator with Duke Corporate Education.

CONTACT mejprocter@gmail.com learningcurvegroup.co.uk

NEIL SAUNDERS

Neil Saunders is the Head of Youth at the Premier League, responsible for managing the ongoing delivery of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP).

A former professional footballer with Watford FC and Exeter City FC, Saunders holds a first-class degree in Coach Education and Sports Development from the University of Bath, and was the recipient of the British Olympic Award for Academic Innovation.

JEREMY SNAPE

Jeremy is a former international cricketer with a Master’s degree in sport psychology and is a non-executive director at the LMA. His analytical thinking and ability to simplify complex performance challenges into practical solutions has fuelled his reputation as a thought leader for high performance.

Jeremy is a founder of Sporting Edge, a high-performance coaching company that fast-tracks success by sharing the secrets of the winning mindset. Its fresh approach to coaching is powered by a digital library of exclusive video interviews with the world’s top coaches and athletes. These insights are blended with practical tools from performance psychology to drive results. Sporting Edge can deliver confidential 1:1 coach and athlete support; inspiring team talks; coach education programmes; and cultural identity projects.

CONTACT

+44 (0) 1858 414214 info@sportingedge.com sportingedge.com

CATHY WOOD

Cathy Wood is Managing Partner of Matchstick Media Limited, which helps young people, footballers and athletes create a digital footprint to be proud of. Matchstick Media delivers social media enrichment sessions for LFE and has worked at more than 80 football clubs across the divisions helping to educate and promote best practice use of social media.

Wood is a former Great Britain Ironman triathlete, journalist and author. She represented Great Britain at World and European level, winning team bronze and team silver medals at successive European Championships. Wood founded Matchstick Media to help educate players and athletes on the positive use of social media and how to use it in a responsible and inspiring way. She has delivered social media workshops in more than 75 clubs as part of the LFE’s Life Skills options. She also delivers the LMA’s Social Media Masterclass. In 2016, Matchstick Media launched Athlete Angel, a social media monitoring service for footballers and athletes. Details at www.athleteangel.com.

CONTACT

www.matchstick.media www.cathywood.co.uk 07905 816 222

CHANGE BEGINS AT THE END OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE”

ROY T BENNETT