If you’re a fan of men’s international football, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s all downhill from here. We recently saw two of the most extraordinary games in recent history from Ireland and Scotland, as they qualified for the World Cup playoffs and World Cup finals respectively.
That may not mean much to some of you, particularly in the context of leadership. Yet the two managers of these teams have a lot of attributes in common. The story of these two era-defining successes—and perhaps the greatest ever week of international football—may have something to teach to leaders in every profession.
Winning formula
It’s hard to emphasise quite how extraordinary both the Ireland and Scotland games were. In Ireland’s case, what had seemed a lost cause just two games earlier was suddenly and miraculously revived in the space of a week. Ireland (62nd in the world) defeated Portugal (5th) with two goals from striker Troy Parrott, his first for the national team in a year and a half. He then followed this up by scoring a hat trick away against Hungary, with the climactic winning goal arriving in the 96th minute.
If Ireland were celebrating their first chance to reach a World Cup since 2002, Scotland’s qualification is their first since 1998. The circumstances in Glasgow were perhaps even more dramatic, including a 3rd minute wonder goal, dubious Danish equaliser, dubious Danish red card, a long range winner, and a goal from the halfway line. It was only at this point, with the entire stadium shaking and roofs bursting off across the country, that the manager afforded himself a smile.
Both the Scotland manager Steve Clarke and Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson had come in for some criticism prior to these victories. Both have been accused of being generally dour, and employing boring, negative tactics that fail to make the most of the talent available to them. But both also epitomises a kind of leader that often finds success where little is expected, and who uses cynicism and pessimism as ammunition.
Pressure and performance
Leadership in international football is often painted as being very different to club football. At club level, the team trains together constantly, allowing for complex tactics, strategies and set piece plays to be drilled into players, and executed to the letter. This demands high intelligence and engagement with the game, and how other teams play. At the top level, the motivational aspect often comes down to ensuring teams stay hungry, and continue to be ambitious even when there’s nothing left to win.
In international football, by contrast, cohesion and motivation is everything. With only a handful of training camps each year, it’s almost impossible to imprint any real ideology or complex tactics on a team. While the best countries can summon players of equivalent quality to club sides, their biggest role is choosing a combination that can play with one another intuitively, and keeping everyone happy in a highly competitive and pressured environment.
Both club and international football involve a high level of scrutiny, but club seasons play out over 50 or more games. By contrast, losing your first two games at a World Cup could doom you to crash out early. Without the same strength of tactics, motivating players to perform is perhaps the most important part of being an international manager. It’s about extracting the maximum amount of effort, giving players the impetus to outrun and outfight the opposition.
Leadership lessons
The managers behind these two miracles have been far from universally lauded. Scotland manager Steve Clarke had qualified Scotland for their first Euros in decades, and made them a competitive force after years of underperformance. Yet their performance at that tournament was poor, and the style of football needed to get there has been generally underwhelming. This arguably isn’t helped by Clarke’s demeanour, which is dour in the extreme.
The same can be said of Heimir Hallgrímsson. Prior to the last couple of matches, his job may even have been on the line. The team seemed to have barely improved under his stewardship, losing 5-0 to England, and he had made a series of faux pas that included criticising the quality of the domestic league, and not travelling to watch Irish players in England. While things had been improving, it was these two climactic games which have turned public opinion around.
What characterises both men is their calmness and assuredness. Both are notably unflappable, reacting very little to the ebb and flow of the game on the sidelines, or even in their press conferences. While Hallgrímsson’s players were crying in TV interviews, he sought to downplay the miracle, saying “Sorry, but I have seen this before” (a reference to his previous accomplishments with Iceland).
Both are interesting case studies. Clarke shows the benefit of vast experience, with over 600 games as a player and over 25 years in management. Having seen and experienced just about everything gives him the conviction that his ideas work, but also the steadfastness to stick to them when things are going wrong. For Halgrimsson, inspiration perhaps comes from a different source. As well as having led Iceland to a Euros where they famously beat England, he is also a trained dentist—a practice that demands a steady hand both literally and metaphorically, working with calmness and precision to execute a plan.
Learning from football
Those attributes might seem insignificant. But the leadership of a national football team is one of the challenging positions in sport. Innumerable talented teams have failed at tournaments because of poor management, whether that’s because the atmosphere around the group was wrong, the team wasn’t sufficiently shielded from outside noise, because cohesion wasn’t good enough, or because of poor decision making. The qualities of these two managers have been integral to achieving historic success.
This is something we see repeated in leadership elsewhere, and something we instil in our training. Our Team Leadership & Supervisor Development Programme epitomises this, giving you not only the ability to inspire, but also to understand, encourage, and motivate a diverse group of individuals. It’s a course that wouldn’t be out of place for any aspiring football managers themselves, teaching techniques for team meetings, delegation, and giving constructive feedback in a way that drives people to up their game.
These are also qualities we teach in our Coaching and Mentoring for Managers course. Like football managers, managers in other professions often find themselves riding the line between friendly working relationships and their professional responsibilities. This course helps leaders to develop skills and abilities in others while maintaining a professional working relationship, with actionable advice on coaching and communication skills.
There are leadership lessons from all walks of life, as some of our previous articles hopefully demonstrate. While football may seem like an alien one for anyone ensconced in a boardroom, the examples above—and the courses we offer—hopefully show that there is plenty of crossover, and prove that a cool head, confidence, and conviction are useful qualities wherever you work.
