I apologise for interrupting my planned series but it would be amiss of me to be writing about what business leaders can learn from sports and to ignore the huge media circus regarding the England Football team with Fabio Capello and the FA.
So…if you have clicked here expecting to see something about talent, hard work and dedication you will just have to wait till next week! In the meantime, I wanted to outline some of my thoughts about how the farce that now enshrouds the England football team has the potential to become a blessing in disguise for the new leader.
This article is part of a series by Vikram Banerjee on “What can Sports and Business Leaders learn from each other?” – click to subscribe to his articles.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, has gone from what must have been a very tough time for him and his family, to being at the front of a very short queue of contenders to replace Capello. However, whoever the new manager is, he will have to move fast, with the clock ticking down fast towards the Euro 2012 tournament this summer. The new manager will have to show evidence of a new England, with a new culture taking shape less than a few months after taking charge.
One thing that I must point out from the outset is that I am not in the inner circle of the FA and their leadership team (how I wish I was at times), nor have I been a fly on the wall during their discussions. The media, as much as they have hyped the story and devoted column inches to the case, have not yet agreed on the exact facts of what actually happened behind closed doors. Therefore, perhaps due to my lack of knowledge about what actually happened, I will try and steer clear of the events that have caused this and instead look forward to the future for England and the opportunities that lie ahead for the new manager.
England have no captain, they were a complete embarrassment at the last world cup and have been under performing for many years. There is also the thorny issue of Terry himself as a player, and whether he should be selected, and what about Rio Ferdinand’s place? The culture of England football at the moment is toxic in so many ways; top players not seeming to want to play for their country, a massive lack of pride and teamwork not even on the radar. There’s not much lower the England team can sink at the moment.
While it may seem like an impossible task for the new leader, I actually believe that it might be easier than it seems, given just how bad a state the England team are now in!
England can benefit from strong and brave leadership
I believe the timing is perfect for England to benefit from some strong and brave leadership. Not to say that Capello’s leadership wasn’t strong or brave (that’s for another time) but a fresh start, with a completely blank piece of paper, free of any pre-conceptions, is very powerful and easier to instill when the team has their backs to the wall. A crisis this might be, but this crisis could yet be transformed into an opportunity.
When a team hits rock bottom, a leader is able to start again and ignore ‘what we’ve always done’, they are able to hold up a mirror to those involved. The uncluttered mind of a new leader can see a team for what it really is, where it really is and the changes that need to happen to ensure the ‘right people are on his bus’ and to align them against the common enemy – the crisis itself. People have to accept that the direction the England team were traveling in was not the right one, so there is no other option than to change it.
Martin Samuel (Daily Mail – 2010)
It can be argued that the situation of English Football is similar to that experienced by the England cricket team not so long ago. In 1999 they were ranked the worst team in the world, derided on and off the field. After some improvements England suffered from the Pieterson-Moores falling out and subsequently were bowled out for 51 in Jamaica. At this point it took some strong leadership from Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower, who decided that a new direction was required, similar to that required of England Football.
It is also nowhere near as bad as the situation Pakistan Cricket found themselves in a few years ago, after years of exceptionally poor leadership lead them down the darkest of paths.
Culture is fluid and not fixed
Institutions, teams and organisations do change. Culture in sport or executive teams can be created and influenced by those in leadership roles.
Both England and Pakistan Cricket can now be displayed as examples of how culture can be changed and changed quickly. Everything that England Cricket have achieved since then can be traced back to that afternoon when they were blown away. Pakistan are now riding a wave having whitewashed the world number one team having almost being ostracized from the world stage in 2010.
In both cases it took a cataclysmic event (in sporting terms) to provoke change. Culture change cannot come without such a catalyst, be it in the from of an outside event or internally, through strong leadership. As a leader, you have to be brave and sometimes force change to happen, otherwise culture will just drift along in a never ending cycle.
England have been blessed with leaders such as Flower and Strauss, but perhaps more impressive is the change that Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohsin Khan have instigated, given where they came from.
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Alongside accepting that culture can change, and accepting that it is the leaders and their people who do the changing, it is worth noting that all of the above examples waited too long. For whatever reason they allowed flabby thinking and a lazy culture, steering the teams headlong into a brick wall. Leaders in the business world have similar pressures to keep the status quo (often from stakeholders rather than media) but need to make sure they are brave enough to force the change before their team hits rock bottom.
It might be the only option to change once you hit rock bottom, and so in many ways easier for a leader – but it’s not a nice place to be. Why wait for it? Instead of waiting for the outside event, to jolt you as a leader into evaluating the culture of your team, leaders need to be a driving force for upholding the positive culture within the team, tweaking and altering it where necessary to ensure it stays en route.
Leaders need to be continually checking the culture of their team to ensure it is a vibrant, energetic and happy one, driving the team to where they want to be. That way, if an outside event does occur from left field, you are in the best place possible to deal with it.
English football haven’t been able to change their culture from the inside, but the current debacle gives the chance for English football to start again? Is it the ‘cataclysmic event’ they needed? Is it the 51 all out, or the spot betting trials that will give rise to a new strong leadership, who will provide the impetus to utilise and empower the emerging young talents such as Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and Jack Rodwell to form a new England, with a new – winning culture.
What is your culture like now? Are you about to be bowled out for 51? Are all team members happy or is one on the verge of walking out? As a leader you need to be aware of whether the culture is the same as the one you wrote on the flip-chart during the last team-building session you had. Otherwise, as the old adage goes, it’s not even worth the paper it was written on!