When one of the most successful football managers of modern football teams up with Harvard Business School to develop a case study about his leadership style and methods, I think it is worth taking note.

For the record, and taking nothing away from Sir Alex Ferguson bearing in mind the title of my article, he has won with Manchester United the English league an unprecedented 13 times, the FA Cup five times, the League Cup four times, the Uefa Champions League twice and the Uefa Cup Winners Cup once, not to mention winning 10 major trophies in six years at Aberdeen including a European Cup over Real Madrid. He is arguably one of the best and definitely the most successful football manager in modern history.

I therefore read with great interest his exposition on his management methods and leadership style. I also think the Harvard Case Study is highly valuable for business managers and leaders wanting to learn about leadership and management in a highly-stressed environment.

Ferguson breaks his secret formula down to eight ‘leadership lessons’ which capture the crucial elements of his approach:

1. Start with the foundation: Ferguson set out to build a club rather than just a team and he did so by thinking long term even if in the short term he didn’t deliver or weakened his position;

2. Dare to rebuild your team: Ferguson assembled and rebuilt five distinct league winning squads during his 26-year tenure. He explains that the planning of the next cycle would happen at the peak of success and not when decline was already evident or just round the corner since that would be too late;

3. Set high standards and hold everyone to them: Ferguson talks of never allowing a bad training session. “What you see in training manifests itself on the game field”. “If you give in once, you give in twice”;

4. Never, ever, cede control: I think the words “I told myself I wasn’t going to allow anyone to be stronger than I was” says it all and explains the choice of the title for my article. Ferguson was obsessed with ‘comprehensive control’ and ‘having control and being authoritative when issues do arise’;

5. Match the message to the moment: Ferguson is well known for giving his players the now famous ‘hairdryer’ treatment but this is a misconception. In reality, he would play different roles at different times. In the case study, what comes out is his dedication to instilling confidence in his players and focusing on their individual and team strengths. In fact, he says “few people get better with criticism; most respond to encouragement instead”;

6. (Always) Prepare to win: Ferguson would frequently practise how his team should play if a goal was needed with 10, five or three minutes remaining. In his words, “we practice for when the going get’s tough”;

7. Rely on the power of observation: Ferguson would let other members of his staff take coaching sessions while he would always focus on observing his players train. The idea is that you get to know a lot about your players and team by simply observing them from a distance rather than getting stuck in yourself in the training sessions;

8. Never stop adapting: Ferguson never stood still. He never looked back or gloated about his successes. He tirelessly adapted and innovated, always staying ahead of the game and not allowing him self to stagnate.

What I am not sure of is the overly positive angle the case study takes. Granted these eight leadership lessons are gold. We should all memorise them and learn from them since they apply to any organisation (not just managing a football team) but I think that on their own these ‘lessons’ leave out other methods or traits which Ferguson employed to achieve his success.

To my mind Ferguson was a dictator. I think the words “It is either my way or the high way” sum up the Ferguson method perfectly. This is not to say that being a dictator in an organisation built for success is necessarily a bad thing but we can’t ignore it when trying to understand what made Ferguson great. The man was a dictator. Period.

I also believe that his style of leadership is a bit outdated and I certainly wouldn’t advise any business leader to try and emulate it. Contemporary thinking advocates leaders to try and act out different styles of leadership depending on the moment or challenge. The great leaders have 4+ leadership styles which they employ according to the moment. Daniel Goldman, for instance, talks of six leadership styles: ‘Command & Control’ (Do what I tell you), ‘Visionary’ (Follow me), ‘Affiliative’ (People come first), ‘Democratic’ (What do you think?), ‘Pacesetting’ (Do as I do, now) and ‘Coaching’ (Try this). Sometimes, you do have to be a bit of dictator to push things through and achieve success but you can’t always be a dictator.

I don’t want to take anything away from Ferguson. I repeat he was a great football manager (arguably one of the best) and his methods make perfect sense and can definitely be applied to business. I mean, the advice of constantly adapting and improving, especially when in the midst of great success, is sage business advice. Or the idea that there should be no difference between a training session and a competitive match could easily be applied to a business setting; one must always be committed and give his best.

Yet what made Ferguson hugely successful, ultimately, is his dictatorial approach to leadership involving total and compete control of everything and this to me is unrealistic in a modern-day organisational set-up, especially a business.

www.fenci.eu

Kevin-James Fenech is a director consultant at Fenci Consulting Ltd.