Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches

by Carlo Ancelotti

  Conclusion

  Chris Brady

  Lessons from the Man

  Emblazoned on the tail of Elvis Presley’s private jet were the letters TCB. They stood for Taking Care of Business. If Carlo Ancelotti had such a plane, the letters would be TCP: Taking Care of People. That single epithet sums up his managerial philosophy. To repeat a quote by Pat Summitt, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’ Similarly, when Fabio Capello advised David Beckham to join Milan on loan, he told him, ‘Carlo will take care of you.’

  Taking care of people is not something that can be learned in the traditional sense. It is a quality that is acquired informally from childhood observations and a natural empathy. Carlo is genuinely patient, almost to the point of stoicism, and he admits that he can hang on to that patience too long at times. He has a serenity in a business of almost perpetual intensity, which enables him to transfer his calmness to others; this is the essence of his ‘quiet’ approach.

  Carlo does not have to affect authenticity. He is willing to take the time to listen to anybody, irrespective of their rank or any lack of accepted knowledge about his beloved game, in the understanding that ignoring them may mean that they won’t come again with what might be a key piece of information. He values relationship building above all things in his leadership roles and his method is built on influencing rather than cajoling or demanding.

  Above all, Carlo Ancelotti believes in the centrality of the ‘family’ in everything he does. For him, being able to trust colleagues in the same way he would his own family is an essential ingredient for success. If that family feel does not exist within a club when he arrives, he will create it within the area in which he has control – with the players and his staff. A key part of the ‘quiet’ philosophy is not to worry about the things over which you have no control.

  There needs to be a distance between the leader and the follower. Carlo sees no difficulty or contradiction in maintaining both the closeness of the relationship and the professionalism of distance. We may all be in the family and love each other, he argues, but there is still a father, a mother, an older sibling, with separate roles to play in the running of the family. As long as everybody knows that the family comes first, they will respect the roles and decisions made by the leader.

  It is hard to become accepted as a member of what he calls his ‘football family’, but it is equally hard to be excluded, once admitted. The interviews in this book are evidence of the enduring bond he creates between himself and those with whom he works.

  As Carlo mentioned earlier in the book, he is a believer in Peter Drucker’s famous saying, whether apocryphal or not: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ Cultural fit is, therefore, essential to Carlo’s managerial philosophy. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Boris Groysberg and Abhijit Naik referenced some compelling research carried out in the 1990s by Jeff Borland and Jeanette Ngaire Lye.* That research concluded that cultural fit really does matter; it is not a ‘nice to have’ add-on, but is essential to peak performance.

  Seven coaches lost their jobs in the NFL on 2015’s Black Monday, the first day after the end of the regular season when head coaches who have failed to meet the owners’ expectations are traditionally fired. All the resulting vacancies were filled in less than a month. How much due diligence took place with regard to cultural fit on both sides of those deals? Although we know that cultural fit matters, we still only give it the most cursory attention. As Groysberg and Naik point out, ‘the processes used to determine a good fit are deemed successful after the fact – a classic case of survival bias’. There is no such thing as a pleasant surprise when taking on a new job. Even with his ill-fated sojourn at Juventus, Carlo knew precisely what he had taken on. He made his decision in full knowledge of the cultural challenge he would have to face.

  Once into any business, irrespective of whether you find some unexpected surprises, you are responsible for the culture that you oversee. A ‘winning mentality’ is an essential element of the cultural environment for Carlo. Alessandro Nesta, for example, explained how Ancelotti was very explicit about the nature of the Milan philosophy, where winning was not an optional extra, but a necessity.

  All the people interviewed for this book said that his obsession with winning permeated everything that went on within their clubs. Indeed, they said that it was a common theme among all of the big managers for whom they had played, and Carlo himself mentioned it when talking about the managers he respected both from his playing days and in his current management career.

  Talent Management

  Once the culture is embedded, due attention needs to be given to the actual business itself. The product in football is, very simply, what happens on the pitch. Without a quality product (a winning team), the other revenue streams are adversely affected. This is the area where the Ancelotti model is at its most relevant. At the level at which he now operates, managing the highly paid talent is a central responsibility. Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said: ‘Carlo Ancelotti has enjoyed success as a coach everywhere he has been and has won the Champions League three times. Carlo is a quiet, balanced professional who knows how to deal with stars and play a game with a lot of variety. That is what we were looking for and that is what we found.’

  It does seem to be a good fit at Bayern. As at all the European ‘super clubs’ the ultimate prize will be the Champions League. It is not surprising, therefore, that they chose the coach with the highest number of Champions League victories to his name. As such, the pressure to win the trophy again will not faze Ancelotti – after all, he delivered ‘La Décima’ to Madrid after a twelve-year drought in his first season.

  The management of the talent becomes the key element of the job description at the highest level. Although the organization now takes responsibility for the search, acquisition and disposal elements of the talent cycle, the manager still has the responsibility to utilize those assets in the most effective way. It is the manager who has to take responsibility for the development and retention elements of the cycle. Ancelotti has had to address both the realities and the myths of the talent economy.

  Many of the myths propagated by talent-management ‘experts’ have been successfully challenged by Dana Minbaeva and David Collings.* Among them are myths with which my fellow collaborator Mike Forde is very familiar. Mike spent five years as Chelsea’s director of football operations and now consults with high-performance sports teams including the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, coached by Gregg Popovich. He argues that the realities of talent management are actually straightforward but sometimes counter-intuitive.

  One such myth is that it’s all about the people. The war-for-talent ethos was premised on getting the talent in and believing that the performances would take care of themselves. Wrong! Talent needs and wants direction – that’s called management. Another myth was that filling all positions with ‘A’ players guaranteed success. Pérez’s galácticos policy at Madrid has pretty much undermined that theory.

  The next myth that Minbaeva and Collings exposed is that talent turnover is always bad for the organization. Stability is king, goes the myth. Not so, says Mike Forde, who argues that organizations should simply accept that the talent will leave. Few highly talented people are looking for a job for life. Indeed, the average graduate changes jobs eleven times in their career; the average elite footballer 3.8 times. And that’s in a career that probably lasts less than ten years. Organizations need to understand that the talent chooses them, not the other way round. The new reality is that leaders should be seeking productivity in the present, not loyalty for the future. All football managers understand this, and Carlo is no different.

  Perhaps one of the most dangerous myths is that talent is portable. Talent is, in fact, very culturally dependent. Onboarding talent into any organization is difficult enough without the added complications of acclimatizing to a new language and culture. Carlo identifies learning the la
nguage as a key component of cultural integration, which is, in turn, essential to success.

  Mike Forde explains that what Carlo does intuitively is recognize the talent realities. Big talent comes with big ego; accept it and manage it, that’s your job. Recruit the big egos who have, in Gregg Popovich’s terms, ‘got over themselves’. In other words, they’ve grown up. They will be priced for value. Reserve the most praise for the foot soldiers. Consult the talent – they welcome it and they add value. Influence, don’t command. As Ancelotti says: ‘Don’t demotivate; our job is to motivate them by providing the challenges and goals their talent demands.’ Develop the talent; great leaders create a learning culture and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

  Finally, gauge the moment when a talent reaches its peak. As Arsène Wenger puts it, ‘Buy at the bottom of the market; sell at the top. Simple economics.’

  Carlo Ancelotti has naturally confronted both the myths and realities of the talent-management dilemma without reference to complex management theories. He has learned on the job and has earned the right to be called a leadership guru. He is able to accept the realities of modern leadership in any sector, be it business or sport. We spoke earlier in this book about a natural leadership arc. Pep Guardiola, for example, has argued that the arc’s natural length is about three years, and some of Carlo’s arcs at his clubs back this up to some degree, but we think this is too prescriptive and amounts to a planned redundancy model. That is, of course, not unknown in what has become another modern spectator sport – the financial services industry. Carlo works on the basis that he will be at his club for ever, while simultaneously understanding that it could end tomorrow.

  Writing in The Times, sports journalist of the year and former number one British table tennis player Matthew Syed asks us to imagine which modern football managers would succeed in different contexts – at, say, a great business or charity. ‘These are the leaders who understand human nature,’ he writes, ‘and, by implication, how to create a sustainable, enriching culture.’ He might have been describing Carlo Ancelotti. In that elite echelon of modern-day managers – Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho and Arsène Wenger – Ancelotti still stands out for his uniquely quiet style.

  He certainly does not ‘napalm the native culture before moving on’, a habit Syed memorably attributes to Mourinho. Instead, Ancelotti seduces the native culture, and when he moves on, that culture remains not only intact, but enriched for his intervention. Leave the club, team, business or organization in better shape than when you found it: that’s surely the most anyone can ask.

  Quiet Leadership: The Results

  ANCELOTTI, THE PLAYER

  Roma

  European Cup runner-up: 1983–84

  Serie A winner: 1982–83

  Coppa Italia winner: 1979–80, 1980–81, 1983–84, 1985–86

  Milan

  European Cup winner: 1988–89, 1989–90

  Serie A winner: 1987–88, 1991–92

  UEFA Super Cup winner: 1989, 1990

  Supercoppa Italiana winner: 1988

  Intercontinental Cup winner: 1989, 1990

  ANCELOTTI, THE ASSISTANT MANAGER

  World Cup runners-up: 1994

  ANCELOTTI, THE MANAGER

  Reggiana

  Serie B fourth place (winning promotion to Serie A): 1995–96

  Parma

  Serie A runners-up: 1996–97

  Juventus

  Serie A runners-up: 1999–2000, 2000–01

  UEFA Intertoto Cup winners: 1999

  Milan

  UEFA Champions League winners: 2002–03, 2006–07

  Serie A winners: 2003–04

  UEFA Super Cup winners: 2003, 2007

  FIFA Club World Cup winners: 2007

  Coppa Italia winners: 2002–03

  Supercoppa Italiana winners: 2004

  Chelsea

  Premier League winners: 2009–10

  FA Cup winners: 2009–10

  FA Community Shield winners: 2009

  Paris Saint-Germain

  Ligue 1 winners: 2012–13

  Real Madrid

  UEFA Champions League winners: 2013–14

  UEFA Super Cup winners: 2014

  FIFA Club World Cup winners: 2014

  Copa del Rey winners: 2013–14

  INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

  Serie A Coach of the Year: 2001, 2004

  Ligue 1 Manager of the Year: 2012–13

  UEFA Manager of the Year: 2002–03

  Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2014

  Acknowledgements

  From Carlo

  First must come the people who helped most with the book, my wife Mariann and my friends, Chris and Mike. I must also thank Ibra, Cristiano, JT, David, Paulo, Alessandro, Roberto, Sr Galliani, Sir Alex and Paul for giving up their time to be interviewed.

  From Chris:

  Carlo – for being the footballer, the coach but mostly, the man I wished I could have been.

  Mariann – for her enduring patience with my constant badgering and being the perfect hostess when we invaded her home for access to her husband.

  Maria Tawn – for her tremendous patience in making the whole venture possible by transcribing the endless hours of interviews.

  Daniela and Bebe Domini – for firstly enabling the Adriano Galliani interview, secondly conducting the interview and finally for looking after us so well.

  Dave and Sarah from Chez Fred – for caring enough to ask how it was going no matter how busy they were.

  Starbucks in Surfside, Florida – for letting me sit all day writing with just one coffee.

  From Mike

  Carlo – for his patience and passion to share his ideas and for his friendship which hasn’t waivered over the many years I have had the privilege of learning from him.

  Mariann – for being the rock that held us all together and keeping the important messages front and centre throughout the process.

  Chris – for his tremendous energy and enthusiasm for the subject and for being the best example of ‘getting it done’ I have ever seen.

  Kevin Roberts – for showing me what leading great talent really entailed, especially early in my career when every young man needs a role model.

  THE BEGINNING

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  First published 2016

  Copyright © Axiomatix Ltd, 2016

  Front cover photo © Levon Biss/Contour by Getty Images The moral right of the author has been asserted ISBN: 978-0-241-97538-1

  * Tom Peters, ‘Leaders As Talent Fanatics’, Leadership Excellence Essentials 23, 11 (2006), p. 12.

  * Clearly much more, because less than two years later Pérez sacked Ancelotti and only a few months afterwards his successor, Rafa Benítez, had also gone.

  * George D. Parsons and Richard T. Pascale, ‘Crisis at the Summit’, Harvard Business Review, March 2007.

  * Statistics from the League Managers Association.

  * J. Lave and E. Wenger, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 53.

  * Jeff Borland and Jenny Lye, ‘Matching and Mobility in the Market for Australian Rules Football Coaches’, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, October 1996; see http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/super-bowl-coaches-how-well-do-they-fit-their-teams.
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  * Dana Minbaeva and David Collings, ‘Seven Myths of Global Talent Management’, International Journal of Human Resource Management 24, 9 (2013).