Sir Alex and the manager with the red face

Let me tell you a little story about the manager with the red face.

There are two versions, possibly because there are two managers with the red face. One was looking at a way to lead and the other is the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson.

The first felt that the best way to lead was to dictate authority, demand everything from his team, expecting nothing but 110% and offering no thanks or respect in return. The position held great power but power ultimately corrupts in the hands of the wrong person and when things went wrong the frustration was written all over the face of the manager. He grew weary of the constant battles that he faced not just from the external challenges that landed on his desk but from within his own team. Why were people rebelling? Why did he not command respect. As the leader he felt people should look up to him, but he was missing one thing, the one thing that leads to two things, then three, four etc etc etc. Follower's.

Derek Sivers spoke on his well known TED talk about the importance of followers and how this is a critical aspect of leadership, now I am not naive enough to think that it is the one and only thing but without that support in your team, or backroom staff you have nothing and face a struggle to maintain control. I have witnessed this type of person struggle to lead on more than one occasion and if ever they need some lessons on leadership they should look no further than the other manager with the red face, red as in red devil.

Now the image on the right may not seem like much but it is the starting point of the greatest football managerial journey spanning almost forty years. Firs Park may only have entertained Sir Alex for a few months but in that short time he gained a reputation as a disciplinarian and perhaps the origins of the hairdryer had begun? Authority is a critical leadership skill but to be used cautiously even by a trained professional. You can't just dish it out, you use it combined with other attributes. It isn't about being harsh or abusive but just telling it how it is with honest intentions.

His reputation attracted interest from St.Mirren who despite being a bigger club were below East Stirling at the time and failing to attract any more than a thousand or so fans. Sir Alex had another couple of leadership qualities in his kit bag at the time and that was a sense of Loyalty to East Stirling who had given him his first real managerial opportunity and a good Network. Through this network he sought advice from another great manager, Jock Stein, the man who managed the first British club to lift the European Cup and he advised him to join St.Mirren. Loyalty not only demonstrates commitment but also respect and helps to build relationships within networks from which you can look for support in when needed.

His first taste of managerial success came in 1977 winning the Scottish First division and one of the critical aspects of his team and indeed another skill in his locker was being able to recognise and Develop Talent. The average age of his team was nineteen and youth has always been an important part of the his development strategy in all his years of management. You must learn to seek out talent and look to people who you would follow, not just those who could follow you.

He joined Aberdeen in 1978 and in the eight years that followed with him he won further ten trophies including two European competitions.

At Manchester United in 26 years he has coached some of the greatest players in the world, brought out their best and been able to handle their worst. He is not one to suffer fools gladly which has been found out by many a player but he has always been the one left standing. It wasn't all plain sailing and his early years presented some huge challenges but they stuck with him, grew to love and support him and believed that he would get it right and was doing the right things consistently......and oh how it paid off.

Consistency is something that is integral to a great leader. Finding the formula that works, keeping it going and making tweaks that bring improvement and increased performance. Sir Alex remained true to his desire to win and bring success to all his clubs and players. This has rubbed off on players he has worked with, many who have gone on to great success themselves as players and managers alike by adopting his style, they were and are his followers. They brought him the success through their belief in him and he gets to know all them individually. This builds rapport and allows him to bring out the best in them. He never forgets them, and shows empathy with the squad through every battle not just a team but every single player, a real people manager.

There are so many more attributes that Sir Alex has that the red face manager can learn from but the final one I will leave you with is his Legacy. This is a combination of all your skills. It is what you should always consider when building and developing your team. What do you want to be known for? Set out the vision early and work with your team on the strategy that will deliver it. They will be your legacy by way of their actions. Do this and who knows, you could get your own statue.....and maybe a stand, or a CBE....and a knighthood.......why not?

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude

Franchise yourself but learn from Hollywood

I was reading an article the other day that referred to the premiere of Fast and the Furious 6 and what makes a successful franchise. From 50 years of Bond to seven Police Academy movies, Hollywood always has a way of making the most of a good franchise and the worst of a bad one. Often the need to make another movie is driven by the pressure of investors and scriptwriters are called upon to pen a sequel, a prequel and the eyebrow raising reboot but in Leadership, Learning and Life we are always looking for ways to improve and develop, so is there a unique formula that we can learn from? Let's take a look at some of the good and bad lessons

Keep things simple - Okay, so it may have slipped your attention if you are not a regular reader but I like Star Trek, and just last night I was in fully freaky geeky mode at the launch of the latest release Into Darkness, an awesome prequel from a different time line (now there's a twist) . Star Trek has both good and bad examples. In forty plus years the Star Trek franchise has got it right and got it wrong on many occasions, part of the reason was the due to of some of the characters and the story lines they ran with, take Data from next generation for example, a real classic case of Pinnochio syndrome, he wants to be human but then when you hit him with an emotion chip he wants to be android (iOS wasn't available at the time) then he has an evil twin, a crazy "father/creator" a Borg queen stalker and on and on it went. Perhaps if they hadn't tried to replace a Vulcan with an android it would have been better. The reason the latest films have worked is they have stuck with the tried and tested formula. The prequel is sometimes where you can look for help. If you have a situation or something you need to learn from sometimes you have to go back a little further, Data mining if you pardon the pun.

Familiarity - Who doesn't like Toy Story? What makes it so special? It's the association with the characters. We all had or have played with a Mr Potato Head, a Slinky Dog and pretended to make calls with a Fisher Price phone. What is even more incredible is that Pixar were able to introduce us to new characters such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear on the strength of the other toys and they have both become almost more iconic than the original real toys. The success of  Toy Story 3 is unrivalled as the highest grossing animated film of all time, unique in that it is rare for sequels to do better than the original and the formula of a successful sequel can be looked at when wanting to improve ourselves, build better teams and become great leaders. Toy Story believed in its ability to bring a story to life from another perspective. Stepping out of your own perceptions and opinions and thinking about how it looks through someone else's eyes is a good way to become familiar with another persons way of thinking. This will help to build understanding of a situation, relationships and ultimately success.

Warning..........let me advise caution. Rebooting the franchise, repeating mistakes and wasting time. Now first let me say that everything I have saw so far about Man of Steel looks good and I will no doubt be again front of the IMAX queue to see it......but...when you think of Superman what do you think of? Is it the late Christopher Reeve on his perilous journey of milking a franchise whereby the movies descended into farcical sequels? The awful sickly sweet Lois & Clark or the reasonable (if a couple of seasons too long) Smallville? So why didn't anyone think of Brandon Routh? and who is saying "who" right now? Well because it was really a non sequel. Superman Returns tried to think prequel, sequel and a little bit of reboot all at once and by doing so became forgettable and so it comes to pass that the next churn out of Superman is a reboot that will try repair the damage and wipe our memory of all that has went before by telling a story of a boy who falls to earth from Krypton, taken in by a farmer and his wife, struggles through adolescent years, gets looked up in the phone book by General Zod, dons a cape, wears his pants outside his trousers (and you can't go wrong if you do that) and saves the world. Now there is nothing wrong with a reboot but in most cases it's like doing what you have always done and getting what you always get. It's okay to take risks, don't always revert to type if things are tough. If you act too cautious sometimes people can get suspicious that the consistency is a fear of improvement, others a little more cynical that you just can't change. Only reboot if you can add something different.


Movies and Hollywood are great places to learn from, you just have to follow the script, your script.

That Learning Dude @LearningXDude