The Manager - Issue 21

THE MAGAZINE OF THE LEAGUE MANAGERS ASSOCIATION

ISSUE 21 £7.50

ANALYSE THIS INSIDE THE MIND OF GUS POYET

LEADERSHIP · INSIGHT · INSPIRATION

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FROM THE

EDITOR Should anyone ever question the sheer breadth of aptitude and expertise residing in the dugouts of the four English leagues I will immediately stick this edition under their nose.

F

rom the analytical mind of the multilingual Gus Poyet to the sheer determination and cool head of former City trader Mark Warburton, it’s clear from this issue that managers are a talented bunch. Indeed, it is their variety of skills and experiences that makes it so important that they share and learn from one another.

Warburton’s unconventional route into football management has done nothing to stem his success to date, largely down to his commitment to self-development. He understands the need to build his portfolio and to learn from other people and spheres of business more than most. “I live and breathe football, but I also know that there is a big world out there and many sources that we can draw knowledge and inspiration from,” he says in our interview on page 28. “There are also lessons we can, and in truth must, learn.”

In our cover feature with Sunderland manager Gus Poyet,

meanwhile, we learn how he became such a strategic thinker and acquired some of the skills needed to pull his side back from the brink in last season’s fierce relegation battle.

“I’ve always enjoyed the practical side of maths, working with numbers and figuring out problems,” he says.

“I suppose I have an analytical mind and it is no doubt very useful to me as a manager. Numbers influence so many things, whether it’s working out co-ordinates or the mechanics of a situation or how to achieve the right balance.”

We examine the challenges and rewards of managing a turnaround in more detail on page 18, and hear how to make the most from experience abroad on page 22. Jo Clay, who left a senior position at Sport Wales to work for a charity in India, is one of those sharing their thoughts. “It has made me realise that I can adapt to a very different environment, and that the skills I’ve learned in the sports sector can easily be transferred to other fields,” she says.

As always, please get in touch with your feedback on what is inside and your opinions on what should be.

“BUSINESS IS ABOUT WORKING WITH PEOPLE AND HOW WELL THINGS WORK DEPENDS ON HOW THOSE PEOPLE RESPOND TO YOUR REQUESTS, TO EACH OTHER AND TO DIFFERENT SITUATIONS” – PAGE 40

The League Managers Association, St George’s Park, National Football Centre, Newborough Road, Needwood, Burton upon Trent, DE13 9PD 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 Editor for LMA Sue McKellar sue.mckellar@lmasecure.com Editorial contributor for LMA Matthew Amos Publishers Jim Souter jim.souter@lmasecure.com

Art direction Trinorth www.trinorth.co.uk Photography Action Images unless stated Senior Commercial Manager Alex Smith alex.smith@lmasecure.com

www.leaguemanagers.com

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FROM THE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE W

elcome to the 21st edition of the Manager.

The LMA has recently celebrated its second anniversary at the National Football Centre, St George’s Park, placing us right at the heart of the professional football community. Over the last two years, having had access to SGP’s stunning on-site facilities, we have been able to significantly expand the range of services that we can offer our members.

At the forefront of this has been the growth of our world-class health and wellbeing programme, Fit to Perform. This provides members with access to leading clinicians and state-of-the-art screening and consultations, helping managers to monitor and build their physical and mental resilience for the challenges and pressures of the modern game.

Over the last 12 months we have also expanded our learning and education programmes for current and aspiring managers and coaches. We have launched a new Diploma in Football Management – based at St George’s Park and in association with the University of Liverpool – for managers and coaches at the start of their careers.

We have also built a year-round programme of masterclasses, seminars and clinics, giving all professional coaches and managers the opportunity to continue their personal development and learning throughout their careers.

This season marks one of the most important and positive developments for the LMA, the expansion of our Anti-Discrimination

Strategy, which sits alongside The FA Anti-Discrimination Action Plan.

The LMA takes its role in tackling discriminatory behaviour very seriously and we appreciate the influence that manager behaviour has in the game’s culture and in setting behavioural boundaries.

Our strategy has already integrated diversity education and awareness

into our education programmes for our members, future members and staff. Moving forward, we will significantly develop a range of activities, including an ongoing awareness and education programme to all our members and staff. Working with our members and in partnership with the rest of the game, we can and will deliver a meaningful impact.

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CONTENTS LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT 6 KICKING OFF News and numbers

10 COLUMN: HOWARD WILKINSON The reality of life after promotion

18 PERSPECTIVES: BACK TO FORM For a leader, a business in trouble can be a great opportunity or a poisoned chalice. Kenny Jackett and La Tasca CEO Simon Wilkinson are among those sharing their experiences

35 HOW TO...

Delegate

36 MY WAY Q&A with successful entrepreneur Simon Dolan

40 REMARKABLE: LEARNING 42 TRUE BLUE Q&A with Everton CEO Robert Elstone

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ON TOP OF THE WORLD Experience abroad can be invaluable in broadening your skillset and perspectives. But how do you make the most of it?

With Aitor Karanka and Steve McClaren

28 IN PROFILE: MARK WARBURTON

The Brentford manager traded a job in the City for the dugout. We ask why and how

HEALTH & WELLBEING 50 HAVE YOU TRIED... HYPNOTHERAPY? 52 STRESS IS THE PITS Dr Dorian Dugmore tests the British Superbike team

54 THE ESSENTIALS See what’s caught our eye this month

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46 GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Jeremy Snape on the benefits of psychometric profiling

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COVER STORY: GUS POYET

An analytical mind, resilience and fair and honest leadership helped the Sunderland manager survive one of the fiercest relegation battles in years

PITCH SIDE 58 LUCKY US Barclays celebrates the league and its supporters

60 HALL OF FAME: GEORGE RAMSEY 64 PARK LIFE The latest from St George’s Park

68 THE REVOLUTION STARTS HERE David Sheepshanks on achieving SGP’s vision

66 PROZONE Profiling a World Cup-winning team

70 A HEADS UP New rules on head injury

72 EYES ON THE PRIZE Recreating a sporting icon

74 GOING FURTHER The charitable work of LMA members

77 INSIDE THE LMA Highlights from the last quarter

80 JUST A MOMENT 5

Newsbites

CARING, SHARING

Engaging in environmental initiatives, charitable giving and ethical business practices can have a positive impact on employee performance, says the European School of Management and Technology.

A survey of more than 200 employees at a global 500 financial services company found that employees who get involved in CSR activities feel more connected with their companies and customers. The activities can highlight shared values and be an effective ice breaker with customers.

When there is support for CSR from every level of management, employees also find that the bond created by values such as caring and altruism are highly motivating.

The study’s authors recommend that managers engage staff with CSR by encouraging them to talk about it and develop shared experiences with customers around the company’s CSR activities. It also advises company leaders to take a visible role in enacting CSR.

90% 80% 70%

BACK PAIN AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH

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WORK AS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR

OPEN UP When it comes to human resources, companies could learn a lot from top football clubs, according to research by Vlerick Business School.

The research found that effective people management encourages open innovation, the act of looking beyond company boundaries to co-operate with research centres, companies or other partners for inspiration. Networking via social media and hiring diverse talent to maximise creativity were found to be among the best ways to draw on these external influences.

Vlerick’s Professor Katleen De Stobbeleir says: “Open innovation is a human activity. People management and the business culture are therefore crucial. However, this is often where the difficulty lies as employees are not encouraged sufficiently to innovate outside the bounds of their companies or business units. As an organisation, you almost need to organise your human resources policy like some of the top football clubs. They loan players to other clubs, let them gain two years’ experience

and then take them back. When it comes to promoting open innovation, people management practices are just the start; the whole organisation must be infused with its value.”

THE PAINFUL TRUTH 66.7 per cent of male employees suffer from back pain at least once a month, with 30 per cent citing work as a contributing factor.

The findings from Body Project suggest back pain is second only to the common cold as the top cause of absence from work. According to ONS statistics, more than 31 million work days were lost due to back, neck and muscle problems in 2013, costing the economy around £7bn.

Newsbites

CONFIDENCE BOOST Good news for UK SMEs. According to the latest Vistage Medium-Sized Businesses Confidence Index, 60 per cent of SME owners expect the economy to pick up in the coming year, with 76 per cent already reporting that things were better mid-2014 than a year ago. 80 per cent expect sales revenues to rise, while 62 per cent also anticipate an increase in profits.

It all spells good news for recruitment, with 67 per cent of managing directors and business owners planning to expand their staff in the year ahead, up three per cent on last year.

A separate survey by PurpleCubed found that staff happiness has also nearly returned to pre-recession levels (71 per cent compared to 75 per cent before the crash) as has the risk of employees leaving (58 per cent compared to 56 per cent).

AND NOW FOR THE SCIENCE BIT...

T

here is far more to the nation’s favourite drink than we realise,” says the Tea Advisory Panel’s Dr Catherine Hood.

“Tea packs a powerful punch with many health benefits, particularly for the heart.”

A number of studies have found that black tea and its flavonoids improve vascular function, having a positive influence on blood pressure and arterial stiffness. The most recent examined whether tea improves vascular function by helping to prevent injury of the blood vessels in the face of restricted

blood supply, common in cardiovascular disease.

When 20 healthy people drank three cups of tea each day for a week it resulted in an immediate increase in flow-mediated dilation, a measure of blood vessel function. This latest study provides further evidence that drinking three or more cups a day can have benefits for heart health.

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Infographics

GET IT TOGETHER!

Managers in UK businesses could take a lesson or two from football managers when it comes to optimising team performance.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR IN OUR LEADERS?

A clear vision and strategy Approachable and supportive An empowering style Ability to listen Credibility 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30%

DEVELOP

There is a relative lack of concern among managers about developing their teams

67%

of HR managers rate understanding of organisational design and development as key

33%

...but only regard developing teams as an important area of knowledge

20% 10%

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12%

Only considered it a top-three challenge

Infographics

LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES: Balancing diverse stakeholder interests

(18%)

Managing change

(38%)

Maintaining staff morale and engagement

Managing workload

(32%) (31%)

FIVE to AVOID

Influencing upwards

Improving efficiency/ doing more with less

Influencing without authority

Balancing operational and strategic pressures

(21%) (24%) (18%) (29%) (21%)

SHORTFALL 2/3

In his 2002 book, Patrick Lencioni identified five main disfunctions that can hamper effective teamwork:

ONE A focus on status, ego and personal success before team success TWO Avoidance of accountability THREE Lack of commitment FOUR Fear of conflict FIVE Absence of trust

Organisational politics

rate the leadership skills of their line managers as ‘good’ or ‘very good’

1/3

are unimpressed

(Source: Roffey Park Institute 2014)

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Leadership & Management

HOWARD WILKINSON For the select band of 12 managers who achieved promotion at the end of last season, it is likely that the overwhelming feelings of elation, excitement, exhilaration, anticipation and exhaustion have now disappeared. Now that teams have got the first month of the season under their belts, the reality of the challenge ahead will really hit home. anagers will need to consider how they will measure success in their new environments and what their short and long-term goals will be, and then break those objectives down into realistic, achievable targets.

The scale of the challenge should not be underestimated. Of the 120 managers that have won promotion in the last 10 seasons 21 (18 per cent) were sacked the very next season, with 24 clubs going back down again. Unsurprisingly perhaps, 12 of these were in the Barclays Premier League, while five were in the Sky Bet Championship and seven were in Football League Division One. Football League Division Two was undoubtedly the most welcoming, with no team being relegated in their first season over the last decade.

If you measure success by trophies alone, promotion to the Premier League has offered the least reward over this period, as not one promoted manager has won anything or qualified for Europe. Across the football leagues, however, 10 managers went on to win back-to-back promotions and five managed to win a trophy.

As this year’s chosen ones sat down to prepare for the season ahead, recruitment, selection, short and long-term targets and, where possible,

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a buying strategy will have dominated thinking. Any manager worth his salt will examine past evidence when deciding what success might look like for him and his team.

My view has always been that the journey to success can only ever start when you have mathematically avoided the dreaded ‘R’ word. Managers and players alike should remind themselves that preserving their newly acquired status will give them almost everything they dreamed of during that long, hard season before.

“ANY MANAGER WORTH HIS SALT WILL EXAMINE PAST EVIDENCE WHEN DECIDING WHAT SUCCESS MIGHT LOOK LIKE FOR HIM AND HIS TEAM” With this in mind, managers will know that between the 2003/04 and 2013/14 seasons, the maximum points for relegated teams were 39 in the Premier League, 46 in the Championship, 48 in

Football League Division One and 52 in Division Two. Similarly, all 12 managers will fear the worst and so their first target will be to achieve the above. In reality, this is much easier said than done. For instance, in the graveyard of promoted managers that is the Premier League, it means achieving a result at least every two games. 10 wins and 10 draws in the 38 games will get you your 40 points, which in the past only just ensured safety. A journey as tough as this should come with a health warning!

When Alan Curbishley did great things in the Barclays Premier League with Charlton Athletic, he had certain priorities. He wanted to get results in the games where a result could be reasonably expected, take results that came as pleasant surprises, maintain high standards even when results went against them and, most importantly, ensure morale remained high through the good and inevitable bad periods.

All good managers know that they will need to keep their nerve to deal effectively with what will be an unpredictable, uncomfortable and emotionally draining rollercoaster ride. As the wartime posters once encouraged us to do, keep calm and carry on.

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Leadership & Management

ANALYSE THIS

The 2013/14 relegation battle was one of the fiercest in years, but thanks to Gus Poyet’s mental resilience, unfailing belief in his methods and inspirational leadership, Sunderland not only made it out of the danger zone but slayed a few giants along the way.

Words: Sue McKellar Photography: Action Images

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Leadership & Management

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Leadership & Management

very weekend, parents the world over escort their children to football, feeding their passion for the game and hoping to import a sense of dedication and competitive spirit. Gus Poyet’s father, however, understood the value of these qualities better than most. As captain of the Uruguayan national basketball team he had set the bar high. “He was a very positive role model when I was growing up and I can still remember when I was young how fans would look at him,” says Poyet. “I wondered whether I would ever achieve even half of what he had.”

His dad, he says, taught him everything. “From a very early age he instilled in me the importance of punctuality and never missing training; of being part of a group and understanding your role and knowing when you need to adjust,” says Poyet.

“He taught me how to understand sport and he pushed me to the very limits, because he wanted me to be the best at everything I did.”

But, despite his own successful career in sport, Poyet’s father was determined that his son should not put all his eggs in one basket. “As soon as I saw I had a chance to be a footballer I wanted to

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“I DEVELOPED MORE AS A PERSON DURING THOSE 18 MONTHS IN FRANCE THAN I DID IN MY 20 YEARS IN URUGUAY” put my studies aside, but it was nonnegotiable with my father and he was right,” says Poyet.

When Poyet finished high school he started a university engineering course in Uruguay, involving not only physics, but also elements of chemistry and mathematics. “I’ve always enjoyed the practical side of maths, working with numbers and figuring out problems,” he says. “I suppose I have an analytical mind and it is no doubt very useful to me as a manager. Numbers influence so many things, whether it’s working out co-ordinates or the mechanics of a situation or how to achieve the right balance. I love problem-solving and strategising and the challenge of figuring out in the heat of the moment how a game is playing out tactically and how I need to be proactive or reactive.” His love of numbers doesn’t, however, mean he is a slave to statistics, he says. “But

if a statistic repeats itself enough times that it gets your attention, you know you have either an advantage or a problem.”

LIFE-CHANGING The young Uruguayan has lived and breathed football from an early age, playing in the streets with his friends and acquiring his taste and proficiency for strategising, making use of people’s talents and tackling problems.

His first opportunity to apply his skills on a professional stage came at French side Grenoble when he was 20. While he has since moved a number of times as a player and a manager, the first move was, he says, by far the hardest.

“As a young player, leaving the familiarity of friends, family and my home country for a city in the middle of the Alps was tough,” he recalls. “It was cold – I had never seen snow before – I was on my own and suddenly had to pay bills and

Leadership & Management

CAREER TIMELINE JULY 2006 Became assistant manager to Swindon Town boss Dennis Wise while still playing for the club.

OCTOBER 2006 When Dennis Wise was given the manager’s job at Leeds, Poyet followed him.

OCTOBER 2007

AUGUST 2011

Poyet moved to his former club, Tottenham Hotspur, to become assistant to Juande Ramos. In his first season there, the club beat Chelsea to win the League Cup.

In recognition of a great 2011/12 season, Poyet was named Championship Manager of the Month.

OCTOBER 2013

Announced as the new manager of Brighton and Hove Albion.

Appointed manager of Sunderland. In his first season in charge, Poyet’s side defeated Manchester United to reach the final of the Capital One Cup.

MAY 2011

MAY 2014

Poyet was voted LMA League One Manager of the Year for his achievements in the 2010/11 season, during which Brighton achieved a run of eight straight league victories and promotion to the Championship.

Poyet led Sunderland to a 2-0 win at home to West Brom, guaranteeing the club’s spot in the Barclays Premier League and seeing Poyet shortlisted for the Barclays Premier League Manager of the Year award.

fend for myself in ways I had never had to before. A move like that changes your life and you have to become an adult very quickly. I developed more as a person during those 18 months in France than I did in my 20 years in Uruguay.”

Unfortunately, the scale of the upheaval affected Poyet’s football as much as it did his emotions and he failed to perform as well as he would have liked. “I effectively had to rebuild the reputation as a player that I had made for myself in Uruguay,” he says.

Poyet’s next experience of playing abroad, at Real Zaragoza, was a very different one, not least because Spanish culture was not dissimilar to what he was used to in Uruguay. He also feels that his

time in France helped and, when he later came to play in England with even more experience under his belt, the transition was easier still.

“I know from these personal experiences the impact that moving from overseas can have on a player and why players need a period of adjustment before they can start to perform at their best,” says Poyet. “That’s why we pay a lot of attention to the transition of players from overseas to Sunderland, particularly the young ones.”

NOVEMBER 2009

PUT TO THE TEST Poyet’s first foray into management came at Swindon, where he worked as assistant manager to Dennis Wise

and then later with Juande Ramos at Tottenham Hotspur.

For someone who likes to observe and learn it was, he says, the perfect preparation for management. “Dennis Wise and Juande Ramos are also very different in character, so it gave me the opportunity to see how people deal with situations in different ways and how the players respond to that,” says Poyet. Acting as assistant manager also confirmed that the top job was something he wanted to pursue.

When that opportunity came, at Brighton in 2009, he made an instant impact, earning the club promotion during his first season in charge and winning LMA League One Manager of the Year in the process. After four years with the club, Poyet moved to Sunderland, where his presence has been no less felt. He took the side to the final of the Capital One Cup and won a fierce relegation battle to keep Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League.

Faced with a battle of survival at the foot of the table, the mental resilience of both leader and team are tested to the limit, but rather than choke under the pressure Sunderland found another gear. In their last five games, Sunderland pulled off victories against Manchester United, Chelsea, Cardiff and West Bromwich Albion.

“It was very important that I emphasised to the players how marginal the difference between winning and losing had been in the previous four or five games,” he says.

“It had been down to just one action, one decision, one miss or one own goal.

I needed them to share my confidence that our fortunes would change sooner rather than later, although I had expected it to do so sooner than it did, with only six games remaining.”

When things did start to come together for the side, it was confirmation to Poyet that they were on the right track. “We kept our resolve, the belief in the training ground never faltered and eventually it all clicked,” he says. “It’s all well and good having beliefs as a manager, but you also have to prove

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Leadership & Management

SAY WHAT?

Poyet’s proficiency at languages is another skill that sets him apart, and is perhaps a sign of his more general ability to multi-task.

Speaking Spanish, French, English and Italian, which he picked up from his Italian teammates at Chelsea, Poyet says it’s just part of his make-up.

“On one occasion when I was with Real Zaragoza, we were on the coach and there was an English movie on the TV, which I was watching. At the same time I was playing cards and speaking with the Italian players and also joining in with a group of French players on the next table. Someone shouted out, ‘How can you do that? You’re worse than a radio!’ I guess my brain is just capable of multi-tasking and certainly it’s an element of the role of manager that I’m very comfortable with,” he says.

that you are right. During my time in management I’ve also been proving to myself that my methods work.”

FAIR PLAY How your team plays, though, is always dependent on the players you have, says Poyet. “When you join a club midway through the season like I did at Sunderland, you first have to adapt to them,” he says. “Then, slowly, you bring them around to your way of thinking. I have a clearly defined philosophy – built around the idea that the ball is precious and the most important part of the game – but my ideas are not black and white or rigid. I have respect for the different styles of play and methods that other managers adopt.”

His own methods include what some past players have described as a ‘kind and honest’ approach to his team, always letting players know why a decision has been made and where they stand. He also has a good relationship with his players, creating a healthy divide between what happens inside and

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“IT’S ALL WELL AND GOOD HAVING BELIEFS AS A MANAGER, BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO PROVE THAT YOU ARE RIGHT” outside the training ground and never allowing an atmosphere or grudge to linger too long. He also understands the importance of team unity and of every individual believing in their own crucial role in its success.

“To compete in the Barclays Premier League you need every one of your players to be convinced that every position is important, not just the one

who scores the winning goal or saves a penalty,” he says. “Players need to buy into the idea that they can’t dip in and out when they feel like it; there must be unity right from pre-season training through to the end. We must all show honesty, respect and responsibility at all times.” Given that he exhibits these qualities in abundance, Poyet certainly leads by example.

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Leadership & Management

PERSPECTIVES:

BACK TO FORM For some managers, a business in trouble is a poisoned chalice; for others it represents an unmissable opportunity to shine. But leading a turnaround can be very tough. We speak to those who were up for the challenge.

KENNY JACKETT

MANAGER, WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS t some point in your career as a manager, you’ll find yourself working in tough conditions; often it’s a reason why the club changed its manager. But it can only ever be a great opportunity. You have to look at the potential of a club and try to reach or exceed that. With Wolves I could only see potential to improve. Walking into my interview, I thought I had a good idea of what the club needed and what I would do if given the job.

You get better at dealing with tough situations with experience. However, if the opportunity comes I think you just have to take it, whether you’re experienced or a novice.

If morale is at rock bottom you will probably have to change people. While there may be a lack of confidence or sense of direction, the enthusiasm has to be there and if it’s not then you may have to change your team. That’s how I felt coming into Wolves. When I joined, the team had been through

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two relegations in as many years. They needed some players without that baggage and the supporters needed new players to focus on.

As a manager, you promise to be committed to the cause and to do everything in your power to succeed.

But when it comes to setting goals and raising expectations, you have to be careful about being openly optimistic or having high hopes. You will have your own internal ambitions and expectations, so at Wolves we say we want to get into the Barclays Premier League and that is where the bar is set. But, given the high turnover rate of managers, it often doesn’t help to lay your head on the line by making bold predictions about your ambitions and expectations for the team.

You have to concentrate on making a good start in the league and getting through a couple of rounds of the cup in order to gain momentum and confidence.

Going into Sky Bet League One I felt that Wolves had fantastic potential.

It was everybody’s cup final. There are certain challenges that big clubs with a long history face in that league, other recent examples being Leeds United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest.

So we faced our own set of problems compared with other clubs that had spent more time in the division. We had to recognise those challenges and make sure we could come up with the answers straight away.

The pressure to succeed is no greater or lesser when the organisation is already at rock bottom; most pressure comes from inside. There is always going to be pressure on football managers to get results, because the turnover in this profession is so high. It is something managers have to accept. I don’t think you ever get the better of it, but you do come to terms with the fact. I also don’t think the pressure is any greater when you’re at the helm of a big club than a small one. If you are bottom of

Leadership & Management

the league with a small club you may still get the sack.

Motivating yourself when the wins are in short supply and you know it will be a long journey back to greatness can be tough. The motivation comes from the belief that you can win the next game and the need to figure out a way to do that. Whether that means changing the system or the players or simply putting your faith in the team and helping them believe that they can get through that bad period. It is looking forward that motivates you.

When the methods you have implemented enable you to turn

“IT OFTEN DOESN’T HELP TO LAY YOUR HEAD ON THE LINE BY MAKING BOLD PREDICTIONS” things around it is very satisfying professionally, but it is still important to keeping looking forward. Wolves, for example, had a good year last year, but we are focused on the future and are not looking back. What we achieved

last year should give the players the confidence that they can be successful, but now it all starts over again. Once again we have to prove ourselves, and that includes me. That’s what makes looking forward so exciting.

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Leadership & Management

SIMON WILKINSON CEO, LA TASCA

t’s always advantageous to take over a business that isn’t yet top of the league as there is so much upside to go for. However, it is often only once you’ve got under an organisation’s skin that you discover just how broken it is. It can then quickly lose its attraction.

Running any business, no matter how well or badly it is doing, is always an opportunity to show your worth as a leader. But when the conditions are tough it can take a long time before you have anything to show for your efforts. You have to give it time and trust in yourself.

At La Tasca we had a long-term vision and then a quarterly plan of what we wanted to achieve sequentially towards that goal. As in professional sport, you need to communicate your expectations of how long the journey will take; it took us 18 months to make significant changes and arrest the top-line performance.

I prefer to set the bar high when setting goals and making expectations of my team. You have to talk through your vision for the business over the next, say, three years and ensure that your strategy for getting there includes everybody in the organisation. Then it’s a case of execution and constant communication. There will always be low points, but you can never lose sight of your vision. With hard work and passion and the support of a high-calibre team you will get there eventually.

When the organisation is going through tough times I find the pressure to succeed greater. At La Tasca the livelihoods of 1,500 people depended on it. There were also cash-flow pressures, and morale was low. It is a challenge to keep people motivated when your results are poor everyday for 18 months.

Addressing morale was a priority when I joined La Tasca, as people are key to the success of our business. You can do that through the cultural vision you set for

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“IT CAN TAKE A LONG TIME BEFORE YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SHOW FOR YOUR EFFORTS. YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT TIME AND TRUST IN YOURSELF” the business, how you conduct yourself and how you walk the talk. You also need your senior team to buy into that culture and demonstrate the company’s values. It takes a lot of time and it is a continuous journey.

It can also be a challenge to motivate yourself when the wins are in short supply. I did it by looking at all the improvements we were delivering, even if they hadn’t yet made an impact on the

top-line sales figures. In three years, our staff turnover has gone from 150 per cent to around five per cent and our food, which was once 85 per cent frozen, is now 85 per cent fresh. Our guest feedback also continues to improve.

There are low times and sleepless nights, but as a leader it is essential that you keep morale high. And we knew we would get there if we kept doing the right things.

Leadership & Management

JULIE PALMER

REGIONAL MANAGING PARTNER, BEGBIES TRAYNOR

here are many companies that find themselves struggling through no fault of their own. In many cases, particularly in smaller owner-managed firms, the fact that the company’s director or manager has to spend large amounts of their time firefighting can have a further detrimental effect on the business.

This is one reason that bringing on board an expert adviser, who is well used to this process, can help. It is always more satisfying for us to be able to rescue a business and see it survive and prosper as a going concern. This is particularly so with a local business, especially as the failure of one company can cause a domino effect whereby other businesses reliant on the trade of the failed company run into difficulties too.

Implementing a business turnaround plan can be a challenge, but a qualified expert can help guide the management team through the difficult decisions that have to be made to get the company back on track and offer a reassuring sounding board to work alongside.

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“THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS ARE VERY DIFFERENT TO THOSE FOR MANAGING ONE IN DECLINE” From our own experience, managerial practices and attitudes towards business management haven’t kept pace with changes in economic conditions over the past few years. In some cases, the leaders themselves are not accepting mistakes and correcting them, but ploughing on with the blinkers on.

The main challenge is often the sheer pressure created by a prolonged period of firefighting. For owner-managed or family businesses there is often also a

real personal element, as many of the employees will be longstanding and well known to the management team.

As members of the team often also know what the situation is, maintaining motivation – while potentially difficult – is vital to the business’ survival. Open communication of key information with employees can often help everybody pull together and take responsibility for getting out of the predicament.

Choosing the right management team for a turnaround can be difficult – the skills needed for managing a successful business are very different to those for managing one in decline, and not always do they both exist in the same individual – a particularly difficult issue when dealing with owner-managed businesses.

Setting short-term targets gives a better idea of what is achievable, and small successes along the way can keep spirits raised. It is also important to look at the longer-term aim, which is often a turnaround strategy – but this itself can only be achieved through a number of short and medium-term changes.

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Leadership & Management

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Time abroad can broaden your leadership knowledge and coaching skills, provide a valuable alternative perspective and widen your professional circle. But it’s no holiday. magine you could draw the world based on where people see the centre. “For someone who spends their life living and working in the same country, the world spins around their home. Time spent working abroad helps you realise the UK is just a small island on the edge of Europe,” says Dominic Irvine.

As founder of Epiphanies, a consultancy that provides learning development programmes in the areas of leadership and performance for blue chip companies globally, Irvine regularly travels all over the world and works with senior level managers who have

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been through the process of relocating.

“Different parts of the world have different values, customs and traditions, and experiencing these helps you realise that much of what we call ‘normal’ is just our way of doing things.” he says. “There is almost always another way things could be done.”

When Derby County manager Steve McClaren first went abroad to work he took with him a distinct football philosophy and a tried and tested set of methods. He soon discovered, however, that the culture and style of play in his new environment were very different.

“I quickly realised that I would have to

change and adapt,” he says. “I learned to be flexible and pragmatic, rather than being inflexible and dogmatic, where my way is the only way.”

As a coach in Germany and Holland McClaren gained a new perspective on tactics, training and discipline, but one of the biggest differences was the attitude of the fans and media. “Adapting to the knowledge of the press in Holland was both enlightening and difficult,” he says.

“The Dutch would question my team line-up, tactics, formation, system and substitutions. It was a lot more in-depth than simply whether you won

Leadership & Management

or lost a game and this was difficult to adapt to, because the English mentality is very much focused on the result rather than how you played.”

Sometimes the contrasts in approach abroad can be very obvious, while at others times the differences are more subtle. The key is to not get frustrated or anxious when you realise you’re out of your comfort zone, don’t be afraid to hold your hands up when you don’t understand or want to find out more, and ask lots of questions. Focus on absorbing everything and assessing what might and might not work on home turf.

FRESH THINKING This applies as much to management and leadership as it does specific business processes or coaching techniques. “Experiencing the rich tapestry of cultures that makes up our planet can show you that most of the ideas and philosophies you’re familiar with around management and leadership are Western,” says Irvine.

“That doesn’t make them wrong, but it does emphasise that they are not the only ways of doing things. Hunting for the other perspectives is what helps us become better leaders, businesspeople and colleagues.”

“It makes you change and be flexible and adaptable, which are key facets in successful leaders,” agrees McClaren.

Carol Pearson, poet, author and playwright, once said, “Heroes take journeys, confront dragons and discover the treasure of their true selves.” Jo Clay decided to take time out from her job as a senior officer at Sport Wales to embark on such a journey, volunteering initially on a conservation project in India for four months, before working with vi-ability to support a new volunteer organisation in the south of the country.

“I hoped the time away would give me a fresh perspective, time to think about what next and return with renewed energy,” she says. “I didn’t really come with a list of things I wanted to achieve. I wanted to keep an open mind about opportunities that presented themselves.”

“TIME SPENT WORKING ABROAD HELPS YOU REALISE THE UK IS JUST A SMALL ISLAND ON THE EDGE OF EUROPE” And the opportunities have been many and varied, requiring Clay to put her mind to everything from devising a marketing strategy and building websites to public speaking and business planning. “It has made me realise that I can adapt to a very different environment, and that the skills I’ve learned in the sports sector can easily be transferred to other sectors,” she says. “The principles of development, growth and business planning are the same. It’s the approach that is different.”

THE GREAT UNSPOKEN Of course, it isn’t just how things operate within your line of work that will be different abroad, nor is it likely to be your primary challenge. Cultural, social, economic and environmental nuances can all combine to make you feel like a

fish out of water and, if not dealt with well, can prevent you from exploiting your opportunity to the full.

Researching the business and social culture before you leave is a no-brainer.

As well as helping you to hit the ground running in whatever venture you are embarking on, it could avoid blunders that might damage your reputation as a respectful and professional individual.

Following the correct dress code, etiquette, hierarchy and things like timekeeping and when it is polite to refuse hospitality shows that you know where you are and that you are open to local ideas and methods.

For Irvine, the hardest part of working abroad is figuring out what are the unspoken, ‘taken for granted’ behaviours are that are not the norm

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Leadership & Management

at home. “For example, in the Middle East the person on the right always goes through the doorway first. This is so ‘obvious’ that no-one ever mentions it and not to do it is a little bit rude,” he says. “In Russia, the brusque style of communication can be a bit daunting until you get to know people.”

A particularly important and powerful encounter came when Irvine was running a workshop in Vienna for a multinational brewer. After a day that had not gone as well as he’d hoped, one of the delegates – from a group from the former Yugoslavia – approached him. “He took me for a little walk and said, ‘The thing you need to realise is that until last year we were two separate breweries, in different regions with different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Not so many years ago, friends and family of colleagues from the other brewer were trying to kill us.

My friends and family were trying to kill them. So you talk about building a team - our journey is far older and begins with forgiveness.’ I had to revise my view of what was important and significant.”

However, while it is important to understand and respect local tradition, historical context and etiquette, Clay has also learned not to try to copy it.

“The most important thing I’ve learned lately is that despite the differences I shouldn’t change my approach to try to fit in; if nothing else you become exhausted trying to maintain a persona that isn’t you,” she says. “Instead, I’ve become much more up-front and honest about things, and I ask more questions to understand what is going on so that I can be supportive in the best way.”

GOING SOLO While it would be easy to use the language barrier and unfamiliar surroundings as an excuse to stick

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LANGUAGE

Many academics now agree that the most effective way to pick up a new language quickly is to learn it as a means of communication rather than trying to master a set of vocabulary, rules and verb tables. Key to this is immersing yourself in the language. That might include attending regular group lessons and conversation groups, using personal learning tools at home or on the move, listening to language and radio broadcasts and even surrounding yourself in newspapers or magazine literature.

Consider prioritising the kind of vocabulary that will be most useful, both in social situations and professional ones, so it may be that you will need to be able to understand and discuss tactics, talk about how the club or organisation is organised and funded or about recruitment and development of talent. Many of the words that traditional language learning books would have us learn may be less useful to your particular visit, so if short on time be selective.

A range of self-study resources are available online, such as Busuu, Duolingo and Memrise, which uses mnemonic flashcards to build your vocabulary. There are also a wide range of translation apps available, featuring full online or offline dictionary capabilities, instant translations and even text-to-speech functions so you can hear how a phrase should sound.

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Leadership & Management

“ONCE YOU BREAK INTO THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA YOU START TO BUILD A REPUTATION FOR BEING ABLE TO OPERATE INTERNATIONALLY” like glue to any team-members who have joined you, networking is as important when you’re abroad as it is at home. Allowing the locals to show you around and put you in touch with others who might have ideas and experiences to share can be invaluable, both in enhancing the whole experience and potentially widening your professional circle, which can prove useful in the future.

“The best advice I received was from Sir Bobby Robson,” says McClaren. “He said to go on my own and don’t take anybody with me, because I would learn

far quicker and far better from the others than from having any form of sounding board. When you go out on your own you sink or swim, but it is a great experience, which helps you to mature as a professional and an individual.”

Irvine adds that it’s a virtuous circle.

“Once you break into the international arena you start to build a reputation for being able to operate internationally, this in turn leads to more work and more experience and hence more opportunities.”

What’s more, if you have made an effort to learn the host language, you’ll need to put it into practice,

which is less daunting within a circle of trusted local friends who will make an effort to understand you and correct you diplomatically.

Ultimately, if you don’t immerse yourself in your host country, engage with its people and work within its cultural parameters, you may as well be watching from inside a glass box. The real opportunity to learn and to open your mind to new ways of doing things comes from stepping outside your comfort zone.

That’s how you end up on the plane home with a notebook brimming with new ideas and a contacts book full of new numbers.

AITOR KARANKA, MANAGER, MIDDLESBROUGH Spending time abroad has certainly helped to broaden my coaching skills. It gives you a different perspective on things such as football culture, playing and coaching styles and development, which is very important. While I am just starting my coaching career I have already had great experience working with José Mourinho at Real Madrid, as well as with the Spanish youth teams.

Working overseas also enables you to widen your professional circle, which can help to progress your career. No coach should think he knows everything or everyone. I have benefited from attending pre-season meetings with other managers, as I have from looking at other countries’ mentalities and points of view. It all makes you more rounded as a person and as a coach. I think the greater your range of experiences the greater your chance of success.

It’s important to take all you can from every new experience, and to do that you have to learn to adapt quickly to your new environment. Hold on to your values and beliefs and learn to use your new knowledge to your best advantage.

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Leadership & Management

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Leadership & Management

TRADING UP There can’t be many football coaches worldwide who can count currency trading among their skills and experience. But not even a successful career in the City could keep Mark Warburton from the dugout.

Matthew Amos met him to find out more about his unusual route into management and how he achieved promotion to the Championship for his club, Brentford, after his very first season in charge.

Photography: Matt Sidebottom

oing from City trader to football coach seems quite a leap, but are there parallels between the two roles or skills that you found were transferable?

A real knowledge of your business is, of course, fundamental in both roles, but there are also many parallels in terms of skills, the most obvious being teamwork, communication and decision making. As a trader I would work with around 15 men of a similar age to football players and similarly hungry for success.

I was responsible for buying and selling very large volumes of currency, so there were big risks involved and I had to use all the information available to me to assess those risks and balance them against the potential rewards.

I also see parallels in the fact that success in both jobs is sometimes out of your control. You can do all the right things, for all the right reasons, but

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because of fluctuations in the market or the randomness of a football game, you don’t always get your just rewards.

To deal with the peaks and troughs in both fields I believe demands mental resilience, patience and self-belief. You have to believe in your methods and principles and be able to instil that belief in your people.

Do you think that experience outside of the world of football has given you a unique perspective on things or influenced your approach as a manager?

I live and breathe football, but I also know that there is a big world out there and many sources that we can draw knowledge and inspiration from. There are also lessons we can, and in truth must, learn.

For example, since the financial crisis of 2008, the banking industry has undergone a period of radical change; processes have been amalgamated

and there have been many takeovers and mergers, resulting in a far more streamlined end product.

There is a risk that if clubs continue to operate with such high levels of debt and to buy players unchecked despite that debt, that we will follow the same route as the banking industry. Alarm bells should have been ringing for a long time. I fear we will see 92 league clubs reduced to 60, which would mean even fewer opportunities for our young players. It would only take one big club to disappear for many others to follow.

Because of my experience in the City, I also tend to look at certain behaviours in the game and ask whether they would be tolerated in a different environment.

In the City we worked under enormous pressure and there was undoubted passion in the work, with much shouting and screaming, however we always conducted ourselves in a manner that was conducive to a positive end product. If you

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Leadership & Management

look at the emotion in football, the obvious rewards for success and the inevitable outcomes for failure, I sometimes wonder if the quality of decision making is affected by that passion.

Football is, of course, particularly stressful and high pressure, because you have thousands of fans observing your each and every move, but I still believe we can and must learn from how top professionals work in different spheres of business.

I took some of my staff and players to the top of Canary Wharf to observe a global banking trading room so that they could see the work ethic, teamwork, subject knowledge and other such factors that are so essential to high-

30

level performance. I’d encourage any club to do something similar as part of their CPD process.

Why did you want to move into football coaching and did you have a plan for how you would do that?

Working in the City is rewarding in many ways, but you can feel trapped.

Also, I always loved football and wanted to achieve something in the game. I wasn’t sure what that would be, but having risen to a decent level in the City I knew I would only be satisfied in a position where I could instigate positive change.

Wherever I worked as a trader – be it Charlotte, North Carolina, Chicago,

Singapore or Tokyo – I always tried to coach football, whether an U9s team, bank team or high school team. By the time I was 38 the ache to work in football was very strong and I realised that if I didn’t earn my coaching qualifications then, I never would.

I made a 10-year plan, starting with a year off. I was fortunate that I had a little money saved, so after researching which clubs seemed to be the best developers and educators in football – the likes of Sporting Lisbon, Valencia, Inter Milan and Ajax – I travelled to Europe to learn from some of the outstanding work going on there.

I did something similar when I was at Watford, but I identified clubs in

Leadership & Management

Europe that were comparable to us in terms of size and budget. For example, Dutch side Willem II had the same academy budget and similar crowds and stadium capacity. Over the course of a year I spent time with these clubs, broadening my knowledge and meeting people with fantastic vision and experience, many of them still close friends. I observed them in their work, facing their daily problems and learned from what they did well and not so well. I was then invited by Aidy Boothroyd to take a full-time position at Watford’s academy.

He gave me the freedom to experiment and put into practice the things I had learned from my travels. I had seen clubs use partnerships with local schools and in association with Harefield Academy we were able to introduce a European model. It was enormously rewarding to see these 11 to 18-year-old boys develop and prosper, with many earning careers in the game.

You were sporting director at Brentford before becoming manager.

What are your views on the use of this management structure?

I think it is essential and a growing number of clubs are recognising its benefits. You have to get certain fundamental aspects right though.

There has to be honesty, trust and respect between the manager and the sporting director. First and foremost you have to get on well with one another. Uwe Rosler and I had a good, tight working relationship and were very honest and forthright with our opinions.

It’s also essential to have clear boundaries between the roles, and respect those boundaries. I now have Frank McParland supporting me as sporting director and it is very helpful to have him take care of certain responsibilities, such as on the financial side and dealing with agents, which can be very time-consuming.

Fortunately, when I became manager Brentford were in decent shape so no major changes were needed. It was

“I ALWAYS LOVED FOOTBALL AND WANTED TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING IN THE GAME” more important for me to try to raise the players’ self-belief and win their trust in me and my ideas. It also helped that I had been involved in signing many of them, so they knew me already and the transition was quite smooth.

What is your approach to motivating players to achieve their individual potential?

Discipline for the team is important and

naturally we have a code of conduct and level of behaviour that we expect from all players and staff. However, on top of these group standards every player has their own needs and requirements and we must provide the support network to service them.

I believe very much in giving people ownership, so I seek the opinion of the senior players and involve them in decision making where possible. It would

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Leadership & Management

be foolish to ignore their knowledge and experience and if I disagree with them I always make sure I tell them why. The senior professionals helped to prepared the code of conduct. If you involve people and give them ownership in this way, they are more likely to give you their respect and want to move forward as a team.

Our players have tremendous character, strength of desire and determination, and it was this that helped them earn promotion to the Sky Bet Championship last season. We

32

suffered some serious disappointment the season before, which can cause many clubs to struggle the following year, but our players responded so positively and we were in the top six from the outset. You could sense that everyone felt the injustice of the previous season and wanted to right that wrong.

What’s next in your career? Do you have any long-term goals or a plan?

When I said I wanted to achieve something in football within 10 years I

could never have predicted what has happened at Brentford.

We have a big project underway with the new ground, the team is in good shape and I have very clear goals for the team.

But who knows what will happen next. It may sound cliché, but I’d like to be able to look back and say, ‘no regrets’. I want the team to play in the way I believe is right.

Ultimately, whether you’re a City trader or a football player battling to return after a long injury, achieving your potential is about staying true to your beliefs and working hard.

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Leadership & Management

HOW TO

DELEGATE

The modern manager is now expected to be a master of multi-tasking, but in order to be effective, one of those tasks must be delegation.

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et off your pedestal Accepting that you don’t yet know everything and that other people are more expert than you is essential if you’re to deliver the best possible service, product or performance. It’s also necessary in order to improve. You have recruited a team of highly talented individuals, so use them.

Don’t be ashamed Asking for help is not an admission of defeat nor does it mean you are shirking responsibility or have somehow mismanaged your time. Knowing your limits in terms of time and expertise is a key leadership trait. Pride, as they say, comes before a fall.

Offer carrots Reward is a crucial element of setting targets, because it builds camaraderie, raises morale and fosters determination among your team.

You can’t achieve your targets alone, so constant motivation, specifically tailored to your people, will be essential in achieving them together.

Be proactive When a heavy workload and the weight of responsibilities become simply too much, a little help goes a long way. But people are not mind-readers and however supportive your team, they may not realise just how much pressure you are under and how, if at all, they can help.

Don’t delay and be direct about what you need and from who.

Don’t be a dictator There are often multiple ways to achieve a single objective and it is important not to enforce your own processes and methods unnecessarily.

Doing so can ruffle feathers, cause you extra stress and prove counterproductive.

If you are going to trust someone to take responsibility for a task, let them get on with it in their own way. You may even find their methods are better.

Do give guidance Investing a little time to properly explain the objective of a task and the process, where necessary, can pay dividends in the long term. Not only is the helper more likely to do the job well, but they will be a reliable go-to person next time you need assistance.

Make sure the person has all the resources they need to complete the task, such as contacts, passwords, and facts and figures, without continually asking for your help.

Give and take The benefits of delegation are two-way. While it frees up your time to focus on more pressing matters, it can also be a valuable learning experience for the other party. Make sure you provide ample instruction, be patient so that they can ask questions and have time to improve and, most importantly, give them your trust.

Be gracious Some of the tasks that you delegate may be monotonous, timeconsuming or even unpleasant. Don’t feel guilty about it, but also don’t take their

help for granted. Be polite, gracious and considerate in your request, emphasising why you need their help and how valuable it is to you and the organisation.

Choose carefully When you are overwhelmed with work and stress any help is welcome, but be careful who you turn to. Delegating to someone with the right skills or experience can be of huge value, but getting it wrong can backfire.

You may find that you waste time repeating your instructions, correcting errors or redoing work that you’re unsatisfied with. It is also important to check what they would have been working on, as that will need to be put on the back-burner while they assist you.

Say thanks It might seem obvious, but when you are busy and stressed it’s easy to forget. Let the helper know the outcome of any project they were working on and make the importance of their part in it clear. Help will be harder to come by in the future if you are perceived as being ungrateful.

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Leadership & Management

MY WAY

The CV of successful businessman and serial entrepreneur Simon Dolan might surprise some people. No silver spoon, no easy foot up into the City and no university education. Yet his business empire, which he started by setting up his own accountancy firm, now encompasses aviation, motor-racing, publishing, recruitment and lifestyle products. olan has been as unafraid to find his own route into business as he has to use unconventional methods, becoming known as the Twitter Dragon after he invested in start-up companies that pitched their ideas via the social networking site. He focuses less on prescriptive methods of management and more on careful recruitment and honest, hands-off leadership. Alice Hoey met Dolan to find out more.

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Even back at school you were doing business, buying and selling scratchcards. Do you think you were born with an entrepreneurial spirit or is it something you’ve picked up along the way?

I’m not sure anyone can really tell whether a skill they have, be it entrepreneurial spirit or great leadership, is innate or has been learned. If you are brilliant at playing the piano, for example, is it because you

36

are naturally gifted or because you had lessons from the age of three?

What I do know is that I was fascinated with numbers from a very early age. On one occasion, when I was two or three years old, my parents searched the house, high and low, but couldn’t find me anywhere. Frantic, they eventually discovered me in the cupboard under the stairs watching the numbers go round the gas meter.

If anywhere, my entrepreneurship stems from that. After all, it isn’t a massive leap to go from being obsessed with numbers to being fascinated by money. The rest, however, comes from a great deal of hard work, many mistakes, necessity and constant learning. I have always been interested in the psychology behind business and decision-making, in deals and how other people have done deals, and I’m an avid reader of the biographies of fellow leaders and entrepreneurs.

Although I’m a naturally inquisitive

person and always have been, I’m not fascinated by anything and everything.

But when I am interested in something, be it motor-racing or some kind of legislation that affects one of my businesses, I’ll go to great lengths to learn everything I can about it.

You have some impressive sporting credentials to your name, being a former kickboxing title holder and currently motor-racing champion with your team, Aston Martin Jota Sport. Do you have a very competitive personality?

I’m interested in winning and being better than everyone else, yes, whether that be at kickboxing, motor-racing or in business. It stems from an insecurity, which I believe is common among entrepreneurs. We tend to be quite insular and we’re driven to succeed and to improve by the need to prove something to ourselves, rather than to anyone else. However, when you’re trying to meet your own expectations

Leadership & Management

it’s likely that you’ll never really get there, so you are pushed on to become better and better all the time.

Your motor-racing business crosses the line between business and pleasure. Do you think it helps to have a genuine passion for your line of work to excel in it?

In terms of success in business I don’t think you have to have a particular passion for the company or industry that you’re in, but I do think you need to be passionate about doing business, whatever form that might take. With entrepreneurs, it tends to be the business itself that we enjoy rather than the things we are trading or offering, and certainly that’s often what separates people like me, who have a number of businesses, from those who are obsessed with one thing, such as technology.

How important and how difficult is it to recruit people who share your attitude?

It is insanely difficult. You just have to keep going until you find them. I have probably come across half a dozen people in the last 20 years who have genuinely shared my enthusiasm and desire to win in the business.

But even if you only find one person it is invaluable. A business is just an assortment of people and if you can get the right ones you’ll have something that works.

The characteristics and skill-sets you look for in new recruits does, of course, depend on what positions you need to fill. You couldn’t have an organisation full of people who are talented, but hungry and insecure; it just wouldn’t work. You need stable individuals at the heart of the business as well.

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“I’M INTERESTED IN WINNING AND BEING BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE, YES, WHETHER THAT BE AT KICKBOXING, MOTORRACING OR IN BUSINESS” When your recruitment process is right you don’t need to micro-manage or interfere with people, you just point them in the right direction, treat them like adults and let them get on with it.

The right people thrive with that kind of autonomy and trust. The lower down the chain you go, the more guidance you need to give people, because you are teaching them to do a job, but you are not teaching them how to be human beings.

My leadership style is very hands-off; I try to be there when people need me and be a nice, kind person. I find that makes a massive difference. You can’t force people to do things; it never works. If someone makes a mistake I don’t come down hard on them – we all make mistakes and most are quite inconsequential. You move on and hopefully everyone learns from it.

What about cultural fit? Is that something you look for when recruiting new talent or that you communicate to new people in the company?

I don’t believe you can impart a

culture on people or tell them how to behave or feel; it’s artificial. I think it’s more important to articulate your goals, and by that I don’t mean some mission statement dreamed up by the marketing department but your reason for existing. For us, there will be an underlying goal for the organisation – what we are trying to do – as well as more specific, shorterterm goals. We will put one thing in the spotlight that we believe could be improved upon and, when we have worked on that and made it the best it can be, we will turn our attentions to something else.

Some people try to make an academic subject out of business.

They examine different businesses and how they’re run and they theorise about why they work or don’t work.

Then they try to use these things as a kind of checklist or blueprint that you can apply to other businesses.

It doesn’t work like that. Business is about people and how well things work depends on how those people respond to your requests, to each other and to different situations.

Ready for kick-off?

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Leadership & Management

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever

MAHATMA GANDHI

REMARKABLE:

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

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GALILEO GALILEI

BRUCE LEE I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

LEARNING He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning

BILL GATES

In youth we learn; in age we understand

MARIE VON EBNER-ESCHENBACH I never learned from a man who agreed with me

ROBERT HEINLEIN You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and by falling over

SIR RICHARD BRANSON

On the bench …

You have to take time out every now and then.

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Leadership & Management

TRUE BLUE

Thanks to a genuine passion for his team and a broad and in-depth knowledge of the sports industry, CEO Robert Elstone is ensuring Everton is not just a football team but a club that everyone can be proud to be part of. Alice Hoey met him to find out more.

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iven your background in sports business and, in particular, football, you know the industry inside out. How does that help you in your current position as CEO of Everton?

I worked for nearly four years at Everton as deputy CEO/COO before taking up my current post, gaining a good understanding of the commercial and operations side of football. But my career prior to joining the club also gave me a taste of almost all areas of the business. I trained as an accountant, I’ve worked inside a governing body with all the tensions

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Leadership & Management

and politics that come with that, and I’ve worked in a leading sports business consultancy with a variety of international clients. I’ve also had a stint in sports marketing at BSkyB. I was a non-executive director for rugby league club Castleford Tigers for a while and saw first-hand the buying and selling of players. But it was probably my obsession with that team that has proven most useful in my current position.

I often say to students asking about how to get into football that the best training course is an away season ticket. If you can understand the emotions that drive fans and, ultimately, drive value then you’re halfway there. If you’ve actually felt those emotions for yourself, even better.

All of this has, in a non-planned way, equipped me for where I am today.

Although, on reflection, I doubt there’s anything that can prepare you for the real business end of the club, the tailend of the transfer window.

When you’re working at the business end of a club is it still essential to have a love of the game or can too much passion get in the way of good leadership?

Naturally, I’m hugely competitive, often painfully so, and it didn’t take me long to feel exactly the same obsession for Everton. It can be a nightmare keeping my emotions in check in the Directors’ Box and resisting the urge to kick the padded chair in front of me. Unashamedly, I’m hugely passionate about the club and I have a burning desire for us not only to be a great club, but to win every game.

Does that get in the way of being a good leader? I hope not.

Our objectives and strategies are clearly set out and are shared and understood across the club. And they’re all about football and winning games. Are we competitive and passionate off the field? Of course we are. I hope everyone who works here is passionate, not just about the game but about Everton.

Working for the club is fantastically exciting and a privilege, but it is also very demanding, with long hours, working weekends and the odd moments of stress! If you’re not passionate about it,

then you’re in the wrong place.

How important is it to build links with the local community, both emotional links and more tangible connections, such as working with schools or youth football clubs, local businesses, etc?

It is at the very heart of everything we do. It’s how we tell the world what we stand for and who we are. It’s how we build loyalty and how we make fans proud to be Evertonians. As I said, we have a very clear strategy and one of our core principles is engagement; giving fans a chance to participate in what we do and a sense of ownership. Ultimately, it’s about being a club in the truest, most traditional sense of the word. It’s also about remembering our origins and living up to the reasons why St Domingo’s was first formed all those years ago.

The team tasked with all this are exceptional. Five years ago they were asked to dominate our city, to be omnipresent, to be on every street corner. They’ve achieved that. I saw a map of the city with blue dots wherever we had a presence, and we were everywhere.

Do you think clubs are getting better or worse at doing this? Is it difficult to find a balance between focusing on the success of the team and the development and status of the club in the community?

I get the impression that many clubs

are beginning to realise that such work doesn’t just generate a good feeling and self-satisfaction but can also have tangible marketing benefits.

It’s also a myth that such strategies are incompatible with global objectives or the short-term aims of first team football. Indeed, I would argue they’re complementary and a natural fit. Our work in the community in Bangkok, in partnership with Chang, shows how a willingness to roll our sleeves up and make a difference can work way beyond Merseyside.

I do think Everton is ahead of the game. Community is at the heart of our club and our willingness to tackle any social challenge and inspire neighbourhoods really sets us apart.

That has another tangible benefit. It gives us a point of difference and being able to be distinctive and memorable is so important; it’s good for our partners and great for Evertonians.

How do you define your own success?

What gives you most sense of achievement and pride?

While for the club we have very clear targets, I have also presented my personal challenges for 2014/15 to the management team. A full stadium is a personal obsession. A fan-focused, fan-led culture within the club is also something we’ve worked really hard on over the years. Ultimately, a sense of

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Leadership & Management

“OUR INTERNAL, DAY-TO-DAY YARDSTICK IS ‘TO MAKE EVERTONIANS PROUD TO BE BLUE” pride and achievement comes from the respect of our peers and the game at large. I hope people say Everton is a good club and does things in the right way. That’s what drives me.

While you are less in the limelight than the manager, your job is as important in ensuring the long-term security, stability and therefore success and growth of the club. From where do you feel most pressure to deliver? Do you feel the weight of responsibility not to let the fans down?

Very genuinely. It is about giving the fans something to be proud of. Our internal, day-to-day yardstick is ‘to

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make Evertonians proud to be Blue’.

It’s how I ask staff to measure their performance at the end of the week. If we do that we’re building loyalty; we’re growing our fan base and, accordingly, growing the bedrock and underlying value of the club.

We will make Evertonians proud if we win games, and win with style and the ‘school of science’, if we win with homegrown players, but also if we commit to communities, if we make it easy for them to bring young fans to Goodison, if we listen to them, if we invite them to join in with their club, and if we’re professional in everything we do. These are the pressures.

How important is the relationship between the CEO and the manager of a club?

Very important, but there is a key leg in the triangle missing there and that’s the chairman. For us, it’s a really strong three-way relationship based on trust, communication, shared objectives and hard work. Someone once said to me that football clubs are ‘10-decisionsa-year businesses’, who you buy, who you sell, and how much you pay them.

Get eight out of 10 of those right and you’re in good shape. Those decisions are taken by that triangle at Everton and I’d say our track record suggests it works well.

Leadership & Management

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Health & Wellbeing

GETTING TO KNOW YOU Great teams are made up of people with a diverse range of skills and personalities. That makes understanding who people are and what makes them tick an important skill. Jeremy Snape looks at how we can find out more about individuals and then use that information to improve their performance.

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ecent advances in technology mean it is now possible to analyse huge data sets on a player’s every movement on the pitch, helping us to assess their technical fit.

Yet decisions around behavioural fit are just as crucial. In the constantly changing world of elite football, motivations can change daily and the manager needs to be a performance detective, constantly searching for clues.

Having an instinctive feeling for what someone is like is essential, but there are also other tools at the manager’s disposal. Means of assessing personality have been used in business for some time as an aid to recruiting, assessing

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and developing talent, but they are increasingly finding their way into the world of elite sport.

TESTING TIMES The popular Myers Briggs Type Indicator is one example. Based on the idea of opposites, the system involves giving an individual a series of choices and then placing their preferences into one of two categories along four dimensions.

This approach is not going to directly impact on someone’s goal-scoring, but coaches and managers can create the optimum environment for their success by helping them to develop their self-awareness.

Health & Wellbeing

Try asking yourself or your players the following questions:

Where do you put your attention and get your energy?

EXTRAVERSION I am seen as outgoing or as a people person

INTROVERSION I am seen as reflective or reserved

Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning?

SENSING I solve problems by working through facts until I understand the problem

INTUITION I remember events by what I read between the lines about their meaning

When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or at the people and special circumstances?

THINKING I look for logical explanations or solutions to almost everything

FEELING I look for what is important to others and express concern for others

In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or to stay open to new information and options?

JUDGING I appear to be task oriented

PERCEIVING I appear to be loose and casual. I like to keep plans to a minimum

The result of the Myers Briggs profile is a four-letter acronym that should be used when discussing individuals. Terms like ISFJ or ENTP therefore become shorthand when summarising someone’s natural style.

Often we need to search beyond visible behaviours to understand what’s really going on inside someone’s head.

For example, while some players might be happy to brainstorm and will instinctively come out with ideas and answers during a team meeting (extraversion), others may need time to reflect on what’s been said before they share their reasoned responses (introversion).

There is value in embracing both styles,

but often it is the extroverts who capture our attention as their opinions lead the pack. Some players need the granular detail, while others just need our simple and high-level intent, but if we get this wrong we risk losing both groups. A simple personality profile can help us to shape our approach to communication.

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Health & Wellbeing

“THE STRENGTH OF USING PROFILES IS IN THEIR ABILITY TO START A DISCUSSION” STYLE AND SUBSTANCE People are also motivated by different things. Some players enjoy spontaneity and the call for creativity and change in the moment, but for others the fear of being underprepared causes a crippling tension.

Having an awareness of these differences can be useful, for example, in deciding when and how to inform people about changes to the next day’s training plans.

The way in which players learn is just as important. Do they need to feel the difference that something can make to truly understand it (kinaesthetic) or do they respond best to audio or visual presentations? Considering these different learning styles when choosing coaching and teaching techniques and strategies can help to maximise the impact and retention of your message.

As we survey the multitude of personality and learning preferences out there, the complexity can be daunting.

EXAMPLE LEARNING STYLES (influenced by Gardner, 1999) REASONING: using intellectual challenges and real-life problems SOUND: involves discussions in pairs and groups, presentations and story-telling VISION: using images, diagrams and flowcharts, workbooks, DVDs and videos PHYSICALITY (KINAESTHETIC): involves movement, changing positions and acting out different scenarios

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But the strength of using profiles is in their ability to start a discussion. When you discuss the results with a player and they say ‘it’s just like me’ or ‘that can’t be right’, it is as valuable as the profile itself.

Coaching, after all, is a communication process, not the outcome of a report.

It is at this point that team psychologists can make a real difference as, while there is value in discussing personality profiles in groups, the biggest impact often comes from one-to-one sessions. People tend to have questions about their profiles and, with the help of a qualified facilitator, they can reflect on past choices and start to set future goals.

BIGGER PICTURE Of course, getting to know your teammembers is an iterative process rather than a single event. To counterbalance the self-assessment nature of most profiles, the traditional method of seeking the opinions of respected peers can be key. Recollections about how

someone has behaved under pressure provides a window into their character; how did they gel with their previous managers and what personality clashes have they had? The steady accumulation of these insights over time provides the pattern on which a manager can make a fast decision when it counts.

But using profiling solely as a means of understanding the individuals in your team would be a mistake. By profiling ourselves we can better understand our coaching chemistry, whether that be with players, staff or the chairman. This starts with our own self-awareness.

When managers understand their natural preferences they make more informed choices. In a world of highstakes decision-making, knowing yourself and those around you could give you an invaluable edge.

Find out more about Sporting Edge at www.sportingedge.com or follow Jeremy Snape on Twitter @thesportingedge

Health & Wellbeing

HAVE YOU TRIED...

HYPNOTHERAPY?

While most of us are familiar with hypnosis as a non-medical treatment for addictions and phobias, its uses are much broader, says Aaron Surtees, Director of City Hypnosis.

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hether it is a lack of selfconfidence, an unshakable addiction, fear of failure or a susceptibility to anxiety and stress, the mind can create a formidable barrier that prevents us from performing at our best.

“Hypnosis can be used for practically anything where the mind is causing an issue and limiting a person’s potential,” says Surtees, a highly experienced and sought-after hypnotherapist who has worked with everyone from top footballers to racing drivers and business leaders.

“Hypnosis techniques such as suggestion, anchoring and visualisation can be used to help reprogramme the subconscious mind and let unnecessary feelings and thinking dissipate,” he says. “This helps individuals to develop greater self-confidence and self-belief, stay in control of stress and become more resilient, so that nothing adversely affects their focus or causes them to choke under pressure.” Because mind and body are connected, there are also likely to be positive impacts on physical wellbeing and performance.

A hypnotic anchor or visualisation, Surtees explains, is an image that you picture or a physical act, such as pressing

50

the thumb and finger together, that you do when you imagine performing at your best.

“For example, when a golfer is hypnotised using anchoring or visualisation they might imagine hitting the perfect drive, chip or putt, where everything works smoothly and feels natural, no matter the pressure they are under,” he says. “These anchors then become consistent habits, often for the long term.” Techniques such as these are tailored by the therapist to the needs of each individual, with additional sessions further reinforcing the outcomes.

YOU ARE FEELING SLEEPY When someone attends a hypnotherapy session they will first discuss exactly what their issues are and what they want to change before being hypnotically induced. During this process the person is physically relaxed, but mentally fully alert and ready for the hypnotic suggestions to take effect.

“Some people are naturally more susceptible and open to hypnosis than others and, in general, they are more likely to feel its positive effects,” says Surtees.

“It tends to be less effective on those who are more closed-minded, negative, resistant and less driven to rectify their

issues.” However, he adds, it also has the power to work on sceptics.

Others might be concerned about letting themselves go too much during the induction. “Hypnosis can’t get people to reveal anything or do anything that they wouldn’t normally do or that is against their moral code,” reassures Surtees. “It is a highly natural state of focused mental alertness and, as such, is completely safe.”

There will always be cynics who question the efficacy of hypnosis and those who confuse hypnotherapy with the showmanship of stage hypnosis, but Surtees urges them to try it before passing judgement. “I have helped professionals from a wide range of sporting and non-sporting backgrounds gain total belief in their ability to win or succeed, do under pressure what they do in training, use adrenaline for better performance, and envisage winning and look forward to enacting it for real,” he says. For leaders seeking to remove the mental barriers to their performance or that of their team, professional hypnosis may well provide an effective tool.

Aaron Surtees and his team can be contacted via cityhypnosis.com

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Health & Wellbeing

STRESS IS THE PITS

Dr Dorian Dugmore reveals the results of a recent programme of testing with the British Superbike team and why we can all learn from them. everal years ago, I led a programme in association with the LMA to test the heart and cardiovascular responses of some of its members. We found that the managers’ heart rates, blood pressures and the prevalence of irritable heart rhythms were higher during a Barclays Premier League relegation battle than in a clinical laboratory. In other words, the stress they felt from managing under pressure was even higher than when they were pushed to the point of exhaustion in the lab.

S

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When I was asked to conduct similar testing on elite British Superbike riders and their pit teams I knew it would be an exciting insight into how teams perform under pressure. Could there be parallels with football and its pressures or transferable lessons between the two sports?

READY, STEADY, GO Two leading riders from the Buildbase BMW Motorrad team and three members of their pit team took part in the testing, just before a race

meeting at Oulton Park. They received comprehensive clinical, cardioperformance and musculoskeletal assessments at the Perform medical centre, St George’s Park, and then also over the three days of the competitive race weekend. For this, a Sense Core body vest, complete with electrodes, was used to measure their cardiovascular responses, blood pressure, lipids and glucose.

During the race weekend, resting heart rates were found to be higher in the members of the pit team, at a

Health & Wellbeing

“ON RACE DAYS, IN PARTICULAR, WHILE THE SUGAR LEVELS OF THE PIT TEAM WENT DOWN, THEIR CHOLESTEROL TENDED TO RISE, A WELLREPORTED SIGN OF INCREASED STRESS” pit team went down, their cholesterol tended to rise, a well-reported sign of increased stress.

mean average of 82bpm, compared with 67bpm for the riders. Resting systolic blood pressures (when the heart contracts) were also significantly higher in the pit team at 147mm.Hg, compared with 126mm.Hg for the riders. The same went for diastolic blood pressures, when the heart relaxes and fills.

Interestingly, on practice and race days the blood glucose of the pit team decreased, while it was stable in the bikers, as the latter took supplemental drinks to maintain their energy, while the former often did not eat or hydrate well enough during the day. On race days, in particular, while the sugar levels of the

RACING HEARTS How, then, did the results on race day compare with those from the lab tests? As might be expected, the heart rates measured before races over the competitive weekend were higher in both bikers and the pit team. Interestingly, as we found when testing football managers, despite being pushed to exhaustion in the lab tests, the bikers’ heart rates were still higher during the race weekend. This was also the case with the pit team, one member’s heart rate jumping from 90bpm to 165bpm when there were problems with one of the motorbike engines.

During the same period, another pit team member’s heart rate shot up to 158bpm coupled with atrial rhythm disturbances (in the upper heart chambers).

There were similar dramatic jumps in one of the biker’s heart rate, leaping from 90bpm to 189bpm when he slid off the bike at a turn. Another biker’s respiration rate went from 15 breaths per minute to 28 at the start of the final race, accompanied by a jump in heart rate of 55bpm in a split second. When he was battling for sixth place at the end of the race his heart rate reached 172bpm, higher than during the highly demanding lab tests.

In general, while the bikers’ vital signs returned to resting levels relatively quickly, this was not the case for the pit team. Our testing also confirmed that while the bikers were very fit, all but one of the pit team were not. Using innovative monitoring technology we also examined the quality of their sleep and found it was more disturbed in some of the pit team members.

OFF THE PITCH There are some important lessons that we can learn from these results.

In football, the focus tends to be on the health and fitness of the players, because as with the bikers they are the ones who must perform on the day. But what about those supporting the game, the coaches, medics, support staff and, of course, the managers?

As with those in the pit team, these people may be quite stationary during a race or game, but the pressure they feel and the impact of that on their bodies can be just as great. When the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released they raise blood pressure and heart rate and may even cause heart rhythm disturbances. It is essential that we don’t ignore the wellbeing of those who support the game at the highest levels, and even more so at those clubs fighting to get into the Barclays Premier League or simply to survive.

Regardless of the nature of the performance required of us, we all need to keep in shape, eat well to maintain our energy reserves, keep well hydrated, and respect the need for quality sleep.

Resources such as the LMA’s Guide to Health & Wellbeing can provide the information and support leaders need to look after their own mental and physical performance and that of their teams, on and off the pitch.

Special thanks to: Will Brooks and James Haydon, EuroSport; Kevin Parr, MD of the PGS team; Perform at St George’s Park; the Wellness Academy monitoring team; Brendan O’Reilly, Sense Core 7; and the Buildbase BMW Motorrad Superbike bikers and pit team.

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Health & Wellbeing

THE ESSENTIALS 01 LISTEN IN

Yurbuds.com

When you’re running or working out at the gym, listening to music or watching TV can really help stave off boredom.

But not all of us get on well with standard earphones; they either fall out repeatedly or hurt your ears if you keep them in too long. Well, not these earphones, say the manufacturers of the yurbuds Inspire Pro. As well as the promise of comfort and a snug fit, the earphones feature a sweat and waterresistant three-button microphone, which gives you control over the track, volume and receipt of calls. They are designed specifically for use with Apple devices and are fully integrated with Siri and other voice-control features.

02 TIME TO GO SLOW? Slow-watches.com

Given that there are 24 hours in the day, isn’t it odd that our clock faces show only half of them?

The makers of the slow watch think so. Each of the various watches in their range has only one hand and shows all 24 hours of the day, with indexes dividing every hour into four 15-minute sections. This, the inventors believe, is a much more natural way of telling the time that frees the user up from watching the minutes and seconds and allows them to live in the moment.

The Swiss-made watches are water resistant to 100m and feature extra-hardened K1 mineral glass, plus a 45-month battery life. Will it catch on? Only time will tell.

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Health & Wellbeing

THIS SPACE 03 WATCH http://kck.st/V5glFO If the slow watch aims to stop you clock-watching, this one will have you glued to its screen. Created by experienced watchmaker and designer Richard Hoptroff, Hotblack is the first luxury watch of its kind to display real-time football results alongside the time.

The watch’s four dials each have a different function, the main one giving the time and the others having different tasks depending on whether a match is in progress. When there’s no game going on the date and seconds are displayed, but during a match two of the dials display the score while the other shows how much time is remaining.

Hotblack works using Bluetooth technology, receiving data from the user’s mobile phone whenever a match is about to start. When you purchase the watch you also get access to its app, which is compatible with iPhone and Android devices, through which you can choose your favourite teams to follow.

The minimalist black and white watch is made from 316L brushed stainless steel, which is tough and has a high corrosion resistance, while the face is hand-cut from scratch-proof Sapphire glass.

04 THE BIGGER

PICTURE

theta360.com

Use it wisely and today’s always-on, all-pervasive media can be an incredibly powerful tool, especially for engaging team-members, supporters and stakeholders. For example, in just a few clicks you could provide a window into your club or organisation’s activities, bring a presentation to life or show potential new recruits or investors around your facilities from halfway across the world.

The Ricoh THETA digital camera takes 360-degree images at the touch of a button, automatically adjusting the orientation so you don’t even have to worry about how you’re holding the camera. Download the Ricoh THETA app and the camera can also be used to capture images when you’re standing away from the camera. Why not take a 360-degree selfie of your team on tour, and then share it via social channels direct from the app?

SYMBOL OF RESPECT 05 Awww.poppyshop.org.uk To commemorate the centenary of the start of WWI, the Royal British Legion has commissioned a bespoke set of cufflinks, created from the solid brass of original artillery shell fuses found on the battlefields. Hand-crafted using the traditional method of lost wax casting, the cufflinks are engraved with ‘1914-1918’ and ‘Flanders Fields’.

The design is based on a 100-year-old dried and flattened real poppy from the illustrated diary of Private Len Smith, a veteran who lived until 1974.

Smith plucked the poppy from No Man’s Land in 1915 and preserved it in his private diary.

Each set of cufflinks is accompanied by a certificate of provenance and profits from sales go directly to the Royal British Legion.

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Health & Wellbeing

ESSENTIAL READ

Hunger in Paradise by Rasmus Ankersen The follow up to Ankerson’s bestseller, The Goldmine effect, Hunger in Paradise examines the phenomenon of success and how organisations struggle to stay on top.

An author, renowned speaker and trusted advisor to businesses and athletes around the world, Ankersen is also a former professional football player and A Licence qualified coach.

“There is no doubt that at the heart of success lies the reason for failure,” he says. “While we talk a lot about how to achieve success, we talk way too little about the consequences of success, about the complacency and arrogance and the fear of losing it all again, which often follow as a shadow of success.

Success produces complacency. It happens to individuals, companies, sporting organisations and nations.”

The idea that organisations must remain honest, humble and hungry when riding high is at the core of this book.

Ankersen offers a compelling metaphor

in suggesting that we must provide our people with the feeling that they are standing on a burning platform when there are no flames in sight. “How do you create hunger in paradise?”

Ankersen travelled the world to discover the answers to these questions.

Based on impressive and authentic case stories about Apple, LEGO, Blockbuster, Manchester United, Southwest Airlines, restaurant NOMA and Nokia, he presents four key lessons in order to avoid becoming another victim of complacency. Among them are ‘never trust your success’, because you cannot consciously repeat success if you do not fully understand or recognise what really created it, and ‘burn your trophies’, because whereas struggling companies are forced to evaluate themselves critically, successful ones are often too comfortable with the status quo.

From Ankerson’s ongoing research we learn that doctrine biases compel companies to leverage what they have put

PGA TIPS

Stop that three putt We’ve all done it. Faced with a three-foot putt to win, we flick it wide of the hole. By holding the putter in a pistol grip, it decreases the amount of rotation possible in the club-face, hopefully ensuring the ball will scrape in the edge instead of slipping by. Simon Wordsworth, chief executive of the Aspiration Group, fellow of the PGA and R&A-qualified referee, explains how.

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est the club against your body and make your front hand into a pistol; think back to when you were a kid. Place it on the club, pointing the first finger straight down the shaft and place your thumb on the flat front of the putter. The top three fingers can now be placed on the club; if this is done correctly there will be a

56

gap between the putter and the little finger.

Do exactly the same with the bottom hand, then slide your hands together as close as feels comfortable. To test out the grip simply waggle the club. It should go back and forth with the face of the putter staying pointing at the hole. Now when you make that twitchy putt, it should still go in.

in place to succeed in the past, instead of guiding them to create the capabilities they’ll need in the future. If we knew the future would be exactly the same as the past that approach would be fine, but if the future’s different – and it almost always is – then it’s the wrong thing to do.

Hunger in Paradise is the final showdown to complacency. This book is for the people, companies and communities that have the courage to have less comfort and more development.

Barry McNeill

YOUR PERSONAL

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Every coach is under intense pressure to deliver results – every week.

Coaches are always on the look-out for sessions that give them an edge. Not many people know that the same coaches share this knowledge freely – to help others.

Elite Soccer is the professional’s choice that helps thousands of ambitious coaches across the globe achieve new levels of success – all for the good of the game.

To contribute, or to secure your personal copy of Elite Soccer call Duncan Heard on 01483 892 894

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Health & Wellbeing

LUCKY US After a great World Cup we’ll just have to settle back and enjoy the most exciting league in the world!

Words: David Wheldon, Managing Director of Brand, Reputation, Citizenship and Marketing at Barclays he World Cup is over for another four years, with Germany deservedly crowned world champions for a fourth time and feted by commentators for their brilliant campaign.

For others, of course, the World Cup didn’t end quite so happily - whether you reached the final like Argentina, fell from grace like Brazil or out-performed expectations like Costa Rica.

England was also one of those countries. As England fans we did not have any great expectations of the largely young and untried team, yet it’s always disappointing to be eliminated, at whatever stage.

The great thing about being a football fan, however, especially here in England, is that no sooner has one great competition finished than another starts. Just over a month after the World Cup final, the Barclays Premier League kicked off once again, complete with the 100-plus participants from the World Cup (more than any other league), for another 380 games of excitement, passion, skill and sportsmanship.

As a representative of the title sponsor of the Barclays Premier League, I might be a little bit biased, but as a competition there is little doubt

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that it is the most popular and exciting football league in the world. It has the added draw of being played over a whole season, and whether you are winning or losing there will always be something to fight for - the title, Europe or the opportunity to avoid relegation.

Week in, week out, the competition continues, drawing in support from fans from over 200 countries and being beamed to more than 700 million homes. Stadiums are pretty much full every week, the pitches are pristine, and fans at the grounds or on TV are watching some of the best players in the world.

It’s not just the Barclays Premier League. The Championship continues to be one of the top five supported leagues in the world. And at an amateur level playing fields across the country are full of teams from the U7s through to veterans. As a country, we love our football and we love the football on offer. Something must be right.

CHAMPIONS To recognise this inherent good in football, last season we launched a campaign called ‘Thank you’. It aims to highlight all those people in football who champion the true spirit of the game - from the loyal fans who travel

up and down the country to away matches to those that tune in in the middle of the night in Singapore and Hong Kong, through to the ground staff who produce the best playing surfaces in the world, the volunteer coaches who take the U11s on Saturday morning (and train them on Tuesday evening and do all the admin on Wednesday) and the players and managers in the Barclays Premier

Health & Wellbeing

League who bring us the best games, great commitment and passion, for 380 games a season.

The point of ‘Thank you’ is to recognise all those who embody the spirit of the game, playing it or following it in the right way. We realised that this spirit was one of the great things about English football, and we believe it’s absolutely right that we at Barclays, as the sponsors of the

league, champion and celebrate the true spirit of the game.

Last season we thanked fans through TV films, rewarded them with travel to games and gave away thousands of tickets to fans and the community heroes who make the game at grass roots level. On the final day of the season, Paul Kelly (pictured), a Manchester community hero, presented his heroes with the trophy, something

that has never been done before.

This season we will continue with the campaign, but look to make deeper engagements with all of football.

We are lucky in this country to have fantastic football to watch and play.

It’s not perfect, we will continue to debate its merits, but what we have contributes massively to the world’s game, and that’s something we can all be proud of.

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Pitch Side - In association with The FA

is name may not be well known outside the walls of Villa Park, but George Ramsay’s record as a manager puts him among the game’s greats.

Ramsey was in charge of Aston Villa for a remarkable 42 years and his impact was so considerable that the Scot was given the moniker ‘Mr Villa’. His gravestone even bears the inscription ‘Founder of Aston Villa’.

However, Ramsay’s involvement with the club came about by accident.

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HALL OF FAME

GEORGE RAMSAY MARCH 1855 – OCTOBER 1935 60

Pitch Side - In association with The FA

Having moved from Glasgow to Birmingham for a job in a brass foundry, he was passing Aston Park where the players were training and was invited to take part to make up numbers. So impressed were the players with Ramsay’s abilities that not only did they ask him to be part of the team, they made him captain as well.

Once on the team, Ramsey contributed to the club a whole new style of play. Conventional wisdom in England

had resulted in a style of football known as the ‘running style’, but Ramsay placed more importance on technique and ball control. This ‘passing style’ of play from north of the border was nigh on revolutionary. As was written at the time: “The science of passing and continuous combination in the vanguard [the attack] was an exhibition that first puzzled and then dazzled the comparatively few spectators, and when it was brought to something like perfection, it ‘took the eye’.”

It’s clear that as well as being attractive Ramsay’s new style of play was effective, as just a few years after that initial training session he was leading Villa to their first trophy, the Birmingham Senior Cup. Two years later, Ramsay’s playing days were cut short by injury, but his connection with the club was just getting started.

By 1884 he was club secretary, the precursor to the modern manager’s role, training, selecting and recruiting

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Pitch Side - In association with The FA

Ramsey (pictured left and right) was committed to Villa throughout his career players and carrying out more general administration. For Ramsay – whose commitment to the club was total – a job with a less tasking brief would have been inadequate. This was a man who lived for the football club.

Once at the helm he succeeded in filling the club’s trophy cabinet, starting with the FA Cup in his second year in charge. What followed was an unprecedented period of success, still known today as Villa’s ‘golden age’.

Only Sir Alex Ferguson has won more league titles than Ramsay and no one has topped his six FA Cup wins.

What stood Ramsey above his peers was his deep knowledge of the game and his superior technical mastery, says club archivist Laura Brett in an interview with the Birmingham Mail. “With his tremendous football knowledge he was instrumental in bringing success to Villa both on and off the pitch in the club’s early golden era,” she writes. “While there was no official position of manager at the time, as secretary George Ramsay ran the team for 40 years. He could spot potential easily and his reputation was such that he could attract star players to the club.”

Indeed, the Scot was as known for his skills in recruitment as he was for his tactics on the field. Compatriot James Cowan once travelled down

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“WITH HIS TREMENDOUS FOOTBALL KNOWLEDGE, HE WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN BRINGING SUCCESS TO VILLA BOTH ON AND OFF THE PITCH IN THE CLUB’S EARLY GOLDEN ERA” from Scotland to trial with Warwick County only for Ramsay to hold him hostage in a pub until he’d agreed to sign for the club.

It wasn’t until 1926 that Ramsay resigned from his role as secretary.

He remained a part of the club – it was in his blood – but he moved to the less hands-on role of vice-president.

He died in 1934, aged 80, and the following year his beloved Villa, the team he’d revitalised, rejuvenated and re-homed, had dropped down to the second division of the football league.

Ramsay’s huge role in the shaping of Aston Villa is perhaps summed up best

by Jack Urry, programme editor at the club in the early 1900s: “In season and out of season, through fair weather

and foul, when the club was soaring into such success as winning the league or carrying off trophies galore; or, on the other hand, when ill-fortune and indifferent play had tumbled them down the ladder until they nearly bumped the bottom, and goblets were disappearing swiftly from the club’s sideboard, when good players were going and others were hard to find, when critics were severe and not always fair, when rivals jeered and fair-weather friends grew cold – under all circumstances, happy and unhappy, George Ramsay looked serenely into the future, retained his confident belief in Aston Villa, and knew that if there were downs there were ups. He stuck to his job and his optimism.”

Pitch Side

PARK LIFE

1

2

4 1. Barcelona players warm up before a pre-season training session 2. Norwich’s high-intensity preparation begins 5

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3. Steaua Bucharest enjoy pre-season training

4. Stoke City kick off their pre-season campaign with a day of physical checks and tests in the high performance lab 5. The new outdoor leadership centre is officially opened

Images 2-5 - Thomas Coupland, FA Learning.

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Pitch Side

THE ANATOMY OF A WORLD CUP-WINNING TEAM

With the dust now settled on the 2014 World Cup, the data scientists in Prozone’s Performance.Lab look back at the tournament, analysing what set the winning German side apart from the rest. aving identified the key areas in which Germany excelled, the data scientists looked at the figures behind their performance in a wider context.

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POSSESSION Central to the side’s signature style was the players’ ability to dominate possession and yet retain a high level of proactivity. Their triumph in Brazil was not built on sterile domination, but the constant application of pressure in key areas of the field. Joachim Löw’s team used their possession creatively for the most part, constantly seeking to exploit the weaknesses of their opponents in Brazil rather than suffocating games once they had taken the lead.

Averaging 56 per cent possession and 502 passes per game (the second highest at World Cup 2014 and yet still 121 fewer than Spain averaged in 2010), Germany proved to be highly accomplished in possession as they progressed through the tournament in Brazil.

Relatively direct for a team that dominated the ball to such an extent, Germany averaged 212 of their passes per game forwards (42.2 per cent), with 54.3 per cent being made in the opposition half. This compares favourably with the Spanish side of 2010, which made 40 per cent of its passes forward and 48.3 per cent in the opposition half as they played a less direct, but similarly effective brand of possession football.

When the Germans did lose possession against their World Cup opponents, they proved very strong at winning it back

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NET HEIGHT OF POSSESSION REGAIN (M): Average height of regain - Average height of opposition regain (World Cup 2014) Japan France Germany Spain Belgium Brazil Greece Bosnia-Herzegovina Argentina Portugal Croatia Russia Ghana Uruguay Korea Republic Cameroon Netherlands Ecuador Nigeria Honduras Chile Australia England Iran Costa Rica Mexico Algeria Ivory Coast Switzerland Colombia Italy United States -12.5

9.0 9.0 8.8 7.0 5.8 4.4 3.3 3.3 3.1 3.0 2.7 2.0 1.9 1.8 0.3 0.3 -0.4 -0.7 -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 -1.3 -2.7 -4.0 -4.0 -5.0 -5.3 -6.0 -6.8 -6.8 -9.7 -10

-5

5

10

Net height of regain (m)

high up the field. In terms of net height of possession regain (average height of regain in metres minus average height of opposition regain in metres), Löw’s team were one of the strongest sides in the competition, forcing their opponents to defend deep, while playing with a notably high defensive line themselves.

THE RIGHT FLANK Having deployed Phillip Lahm in central midfield for the opening four games of the tournament, Löw moved his captain back to his usual position at right back during the knockout stages.

Completing 559 passes (15.9 per cent of Germany’s tournament total of 3,514),

Pitch Side

BALLS GIVEN

BALLS RECIEVED

4 19

6 19

11 13 24 8 6 8 11 18 7 3 5

2 9 16

23 20

11 18

16 13

13 8

3 16 7

6 5

23

16

19 20

10 1

Lahm was integral to his team’s strategy wherever he played, but it was from right back that he was able to exert the most influence on their enterprising attacking play. A key player against Argentina in the final, Lahm linked up with Schweinsteiger 37 times and Müller 27 times (see above) as he acted as the glue that connected all elements of the team unit.

Germany’s right-sided bias was most noticeable in games against Brazil and Argentina, during which Lahm was able to link up effectively with the likes of Kroos and Müller as the Germans looked to exploit perceived weaknesses down the left sides of both South American teams.

In fact, 21 of Germany’s 27 attempted crosses over the course of the two games came from the right side, with Lahm making eight of them.

Playing to their strengths and using Lahm both to retain possession and act as an attacking outlet, Löw’s side overloaded opponents in the left back position to great effect, overwhelming the likes of Brazil’s Marcelo and Argentina’s Marcos Rojo to create highquality chances.

As a team, Germany took 100 shots in their seven games in Brazil (14.3 per game), finding the target with 54 of them and scoring 18 goals for an impressive conversion rate of 18 per cent (better than Brazil who converted at 15.8 per cent when they lifted the trophy in 2002). In terms of percentage of shots on target, this puts Löw’s side well ahead of 2010 champions Spain, who hit the target with 43.6 per cent of their 110 shots four years ago and had a conversion rate of just 7.3 per cent.

No player better exemplified this efficiency in front of goal than Thomas Müller. Taking a total of 18 shots during the tournament, the Bayern Munich forward hit the target with nine of them, scoring five goals in the process (a conversion rate of 27.8 per cent).

HARD TO BEAT With their clear style, proactive use of high volumes of possession and adoption of a high line, the performance of Löw’s team stacks up favourably in an immediate as well as historical context.

The most efficient side in terms of goal scoring of the last five World Champions, Germany’s intelligent use of the ball and ability in front of goal set them apart from the rest of the competition and were central to their success.

30.0 25.0

Shots Shots inside box Shots on target

23.8

20.0

18.1

16.8

15.0 GOAL-SCORING EFFICIENCY It may be a cliché to talk about Germany and efficiency in the same breath, but one of the hallmarks of Die Mannschaft’s success over the summer was their ruthlessness in front of goal.

Miroslav Klose, one of the greatest poachers in the history of the game, was equally clinical. Taking seven shots in his five appearances in Brazil, the 36 year-old hit five of his efforts on target and scored two goals to finish the tournament with an impressive conversion rate of 28.5 per cent, as well as becoming the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer.

They may not have created a particularly high volume of chances, with 100 shots in the tournament putting them well behind the likes of Spain four years ago (127) and 1998 champions France (167), but Germany generally took their chances when they presented themselves. Indeed, with 26 World Cup goals between Müller (10) and Klose (16), it is perhaps no surprise that Germany were extremely efficient at converting their opportunities, with strikers of their calibre able to benefit from excellent supply from the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos in midfield.

14.3

10.0 5.0

France (1998)

Brazil (2002)

Italy (2006)

Spain (2010)

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Pitch Side

THE REVOLUTION STARTS HERE Success at international level for English managers and football players will only come from a focus on quality coach education, sports science and sports performance, says St George’s Park chairman David Sheepshanks. That, he explains here, is what SGP is all about. eople often ask me if our priority at St George’s Park is football or business and my answer is always ‘both’. They are not mutually exclusive, in fact the very opposite. Our guiding principle is to deliver our football objectives, but in a business-like and business-savvy way. It is essential that we remain financially stable and sustainable and we never lose sight of that fact.

Proving that the project would work financially was always going to be one of our biggest challenges. I felt pressure to demonstrate to those inside and outside the organisation that St George’s Park would not be the white elephant or financial drain on The FA that some feared. Happily, we have shown that the business model works and what we have created has been met with widespread enthusiasm.

All of us at SGP continue to focus on new ways to raise standards of delivery and service. Our new Outdoor Leadership Centre, for example, gives us an added dimension to our focus on leadership as well as team-building, as it features a wide range of equipment designed to challenge visiting teams from the world of sport, business and other fields.

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We also have a masterplan for the site under consultation, which includes additional pitches and accommodation, are examining the possibility of creating some synergistic sports business units and are undertaking a feasibility study for an Elite Golf Academy.

JOINED-UP THINKING I knew that a national football centre of this kind would never work if it was one-dimensional, nor indeed would the numbers have added up.

Our partnerships with Hilton and Spire Perform have been critical to our success, as have been the early pledges of support from the LMA and the football managers in its membership. It has been a key part of SGP’s aspirational factor that staff and visitors regularly have the chance to see these role models.

The PFA was also quick to pledge its support and investment in SGP and we are delighted that it has a satellite office with us and its name above the new library, which opens this autumn.

Since SGP opened, our director of elite development, Dan Ashworth, has masterminded the coaching revolution that is progressively being rolled out

to service the training needs of our key stakeholders: the Premier League, the Football League, our own County FA’s and the grassroots game, the LMA, the PFA and the PGMOL. We have to ensure that we deliver the best coach education and other training standards to fit the requirements of our market: the clubs, the managers, coaches and players. If we don’t do this we will fail, so I believe that in order to stay ahead of the game we must be very collaborative, regularly involving those same stakeholders in our strategic thinking.

It is the quality of our people and the respect that they earn from their peers in the game that will determine our success.

Pitch Side

FROM THE TOP DOWN Investment in coaching is our number one priority and nearly everything else stems from that. We already have some great managers and coaches here in England, but we should never stand still and we must always be looking to find a better way of doing things. We have no shortage of talent or leaders in this country; we simply need to offer better training.

Nearly 14,000 coaches have already come through our doors and taken part in a course here at SGP, and we’ll play a critical role in ensuring they understand not only how to teach, but how players learn, and how to engage them to achieve their lifetime best, as individuals and team

players. Our approach is already starting to see results.

It should be noted that, while it’s easy to focus on the senior men’s team, we mustn’t forget the other teams for which SGP is now home: the senior women’s team, all of the development teams, men’s and women’s from U16 through to U21 and, as important for us, our blind, partially sighted, deaf, cerebral palsy and futsal teams. These teams are already seeing improvements from having SGP as their training home and they too are our future.

It isn’t popular in English football to use the words ‘long term’, but I believe that we reap what we sow. Provided we do what we say, hold unswervingly to our plans and principles, and invest

in the best teachers, then we will bring through a new generation of exceptional English managers.

My dream is that, in time, we will develop such a high reputation at SGP that having been trained or coached here will give you the perfect start to a great career anywhere in the world.

Ultimately, it’s likely that the success of SGP will be measured by the England team’s success on the pitch. But what is most important in achieving that is prioritising coach education, sports science and sports performance. When the French built Clairefontaine it took them 10 years to win the World Cup. It might be the same or longer for us, but we’re interested in sustainable benefits, rather than a one off.

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Pitch Side

A HEADS UP ON NEW RULES

The Premier League’s new policies around head injuries, implemented at the start of the season, include a tunnel doctor to help recognise the signs of concussion. uring the 2013/14 season, the Premier League Board set up a Medical Working Group to look at its rules and policies regarding head injuries. The group was asked to review existing rules and policies and consider ways that medical professionals could be further assisted in carrying out their duties. It consulted with a wide range of experts, including senior medical practitioners from the Rugby Football Union and the British Horseracing Authority.

“Player safety is paramount in all sports and the Premier League has a strong track record of introducing new medical rules and provisions as top-level football has evolved and new

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Don’t play around with head injuries.

If you show any signs of concussion it’s game over

If you have any one of these symptoms you should suspect concussion.

Use your head – stop playing and get assessed by a medical professional.

BLURRED VISION HEADACHE SICKNESS DIZZINESS CONFUSION

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challenges have emerged,” Premier League Director of Football Mike Foster said. “The Medical Working Group that we set up to look into concussion and serious head injury protocols included valuable contributions from the Premier League Club Doctors’ Group, The FA medical team, the LMA and PFA. “Premier League clubs have already addressed a number of recommendations by making changes to the Premier League rule book and we recognise that, with other stakeholders, we have a wider role to play in making all participants in the game aware of the signs of concussion and the importance of following the return-to-play guidelines.”

The group’s recommendations have already been addressed by Premier League clubs, who agreed to the new rules and policies being introduced for the 2014/15 Barclays Premier League season. Going forward, the Premier League will appoint its own central Medical Advisor to work with Premier League club doctors and other stakeholders.

The Premier League and all clubs will be supporting an FA led campaign to help inform all constituents in the game, including coaches, players, clubs and parents, that head injuries should THEFA.COM/USEYOURHEAD be taken seriously and For more information speak to your club doctor or visit

the opinion of a medical professional should be sought.

“With regard to head injuries, there has been a perception in the past that you can tough it out, play on and be brave,” added Gary O’Driscoll, FA Head of Sports Medicine. “What we found from the Working Group process is that in order to inform and educate people you need to make sure that everybody is aware of concussion; that everybody understands that it is just as significant as any other injury and that appropriate management is critical.

“For that reason, we wanted to make sure that everybody – the players, managers, coaches, medical teams, media and the parents – is aware that although it’s fortunately a very rare injury, it’s something that must be managed appropriately and safely.

“That’s why we have come up with recommendations and new rules at Premier League level, and are supporting the wider game to get the message out there.”

THE CHANGES

• According to the new Premier League rules, when a serious head injury is suffered on the pitch (in matches or training) the ruling of the doctor/medical practitioner is final.

• The role of ‘Tunnel Doctors’ (it is a new requirement for there to be a Tunnel Doctor at all Premier League matches) will include supporting the home and/or away team doctors in recognising the signs of concussion.

• It is now mandatory for all Premier League medical staff to carry the Concussion Recognition Tool.

• Annual baseline testing should take place on each Premier League player.

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Pitch Side

EYES ON THE PRIZE

When Thomas Lyte’s master silversmith, Kevin Williams, was commissioned to craft the new FA Cup he knew it would be a challenge, but one he was both honoured and excited to accept.

Words: Lauren Franklin he iconic FA Cup is one of the most famous pieces of silverware in the country, symbolising the rich history and traditions of English football. Working with such a national treasure would be nerve-wracking for most people, but Williams has prior experience, having been restoring the 1992 FA Cup for the last 18 years. With an understanding of its unique construction, he felt confident that he and his team could rise to their new challenge.

After an initial design meeting, The FA decided that the new trophy should be made to the exact design and specifications of the 1911 cup. Working to such a specific brief made the design process more complex, and in creating a perfect replica Thomas Lyte’s silversmiths spent many hours photographing, measuring and moulding the 1911 cup.

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Despite the number of hours required to craft the trophy spiralling beyond original expectations, the silversmiths knew that the deadline – the FA Cup final – was immoveable. “The only way that we could meet our deadlines and maintain the high quality of craftmanship that is synonymous with Thomas Lyte was to work together,” says Williams.

“Whether we are crafting our Spitfire vases, polishing the Sky Bet trophies or casting the FA Cup, each member of the workshop team has a vital role.”

Despite all of the obstacles the Thomas Lyte team faced, the trophy was completed in time and The FA filmed the moment of the majestic piece’s final assembly. As Colin Hines placed the trophy onto its wooden plinth and Williams positioned the lid on top the workshop was filled with awe and pride.

Standing before them was the 2014 FA

Cup, the result of a 250-hour process of casting, hand chasing, hand engraving and polishing, by the hands of 12 different silversmiths.

The sense of pride and accomplishment felt by Williams continued through to the FA Cup final on 16 May, when he got the chance to walk the new trophy onto Wembley Stadium pitch. The press coverage and excitement around the achievement of Williams and his team at Thomas Lyte shows that craftsmanship is as important today as it was 100 years ago.

Thomas Lyte has dedicated itself to its restoration and this unique commission adds to an already impressive trophy case. “The FA Cup is one of the most prestigious trophies that we have had the privilege to work on, but it certainly won’t be the last,” says Williams.

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Pitch Side

GOING FURTHER

LMA member Martin Ling travelled to Burkina Faso in March to host coaching sessions with Coaching for Hope. he former Leyton Orient and Torquay United manager took part in a Coaching For Hope initiative that saw him pass on his expertise to young coaches in Burkina Faso. The LMA-supported charity helps to improve the lives of young people in Africa through the medium of football and 50,000 children have already seen the benefit of its work.

Part of the development and international volunteering charity Skillshare International, Coaching For

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Hope uses the international appeal of football as a vehicle to teach important life skills, including HIV awareness.

So far over 1,000 coaches have been through the course, during which they are equipped with the tools they need to take over once the UK coaches have returned home.

The LMA has an ongoing working partnership with the charity and also with Ling, who the organisation has supported through his recovery from depression in 2010. “I was excited to go

to Burkina Faso,” says Ling, “but also, I felt it was an opportunity for me to give something back to the LMA after everything they’ve done for me over the last four years.”

Ling hasn’t been involved in day-today football since parting company with Torquay in April 2013, and was thrilled to discover his passion for coaching very much alive, even at the lower standard of Level One training sessions. “The last time I did Level One coaching, which is for kids between eight and 12, was when

Pitch Side

I first started coaching in 1996,” recalls Ling. “It is a bit like passing your driving test and then going back to learn again – you’ll find it if you have to. Coaching is coaching and if you’re passing on a good message and you know that message will be passed on again, the enthusiasm is still certainly there.”

The former Swindon Town man, who’s pursuing avenues back into professional management, was delighted with the hard work and co-operation of the local coaches. “The willingness and keenness of the young Burkina coaches was a pleasure to see; they took on so much information and knowledge from myself and Alison Carney – who worked alongside me and was second to none – and even though we were working in 100-degrees heat they stuck with it over the four days,” says Ling. “I’d have no hesitation in going back out there. It was intriguing and very enjoyable.”

A NEW CHALLENGE FOR MOURINHO José Mourinho and his wife, Matilde, have become ambassadors for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger.

“Supporting the work of the World Food Programme on the front lines of hunger is a personal decision about a cause that is very close to my heart and those of my family,” said Mourinho. “If we can harness the spirit and the will to address the nutritional needs of the poor, then we have a real chance of ending hunger in our lifetimes.”

Amir Abdulla, WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, said: “Our team of ambassadors against hunger provides a powerful voice for the hungry.

Their status and the support they draw among millions of fans around the world help us to get the message out that reaching zero hunger is an achievable target and the right target for our times.”

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Pitch Side

INSIDE THE LMA

The LMA’s Annual Golf Day took place in July at The Grove. 80 players, among them LMA commercial partners and members, competed in fours for the team prize, while individual awards for the longest drive, nearest the pin and beat the pro were also up for grabs. Feisal Nahaboo’s Team PB won the stableford competition with a staggering 99 points. Thanks to LG, Miroma and Nike for their contributions and The Grove for hosting.

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Pitch Side

In support of Castrol’s 2014 FIFA World Cup sponsorship, LMA ambassadors and former England captains Stuart Pearce MBE and Terry Butcher attended the company’s internal Braziliant event at its Swindon head office. A half-hour question and answer session, hosted by Mandhir Singh, Castrol’s Regional Vice President for Europe and Africa, was followed by a meet and greet session with employees.

LMA Ambassador David Moyes attended Castrol’s northern Golf Day at Rudding Park near Harrogate. David played with the company’s clients, took part in a question and answer session and led the prize-giving to the best performing players.

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Pitch Side

LMA commercial partner Miroma facilitated an exclusive coaching session for one of its clients at the home of the LMA, St George’s Park. 40 players were put through their paces on the indoor 4G pitch at the football centre, with drills and practices used to develop players such as Cristiano Ronaldo.

The group were also lucky enough to be allowed on the ‘Wembley replica’ pitch by head groundsman Alan Ferguson, a rare treat for anyone who isn’t in the England senior squad.

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Just A Moment

64 matches, 57.6 hours of play, 171 goals, one deserved winner.

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Just A Moment

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To everyone who champions the true spirit of the game.

Thank you. #YouAreFootball

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