Our learned panel of experts, Richard Bevan (CEO of the LMA), Trevor Birch (currently leading the move out of administration of Portsmouth FC) and Professor Chris Brady (our resident academic) were in terrific form.

ILN is always a game of two halves, and in a tightly run first half the differing views and opinions on the future direction of the UK’s most popular spectator sport exercised and energised all present.

Strongly articulated opinions stretched across a continuum ranging from “respect for the heritage and tradition of the game” to “moving towards adopting both the business model and approach of the four big American national sports.”

There was as much disagreement as there was alignment, but there was a strong view that whilst the sport had to change, and would continue to change, not all these changes were healthy for the well-being of football.

It was notable that most of the discussion, no matter what the commercial question, always came back to football, and in many respects this both summed up the evening and summed up the dilemma.

Football is such a passion brand that no matter how strong the business case or how obvious the commercial pitfalls, passion and enthusiasm for the beautiful game seems to always perhaps dangerously take over.

The second half of the evening was where the floor was opened up and our attendees posed a variety of different questions to our esteemed panel.

These ranged from a lack of diversity in the leadership of the game to a lack of transparency practised by most of the big clubs in the country.

One of the most telling points of the evening was when one of our American attendees retold the story of when the American sports industry was forced to change. By far the biggest and most influential change was the appointment of very able and very powerful commissioners, who along with their strong commercial teams took over both the strategy and running of the big American sports.  They never allowed themselves to be side-tracked by “passion and love for the game,” they took and continue to take hard-nosed business decisions. This has given all four sports (NFL, NBA, NHL and Baseball) a solid and sustainable platform that continues to enable huge profitability and incredibly strong and loyal fan bases.

Chris Brady latched onto this and could see both its merits and how it might well work over here.  Richard and Trevor were less convinced and just couldn’t see it working in the UK or Europe.

The questions of foreign ownership also exercised both our audience and our panel, but in the main I believe the conclusion was much more about good ownership than a question of nationality.

The perennial debate of ‘club versus country’ occupied all of our minds and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

In summary the real question wasn’t club or country, but club or company?  It would appear that as long as the business of football has a stronger emphasis on football than business, it will remain with a troubled outlook.  However, the business side cannot become so far removed from the passion that the fans bring that it becomes just another balance sheet and profit and loss account.

Unsurprisingly we believe the solution is all around leadership.

As most of our leading football clubs can no longer be financially bankrolled by the richest businessmen in the city or town, there will always be room for wealthy foreign ownership. They tend to be far more commercially motivated and will look for a significant return on their investment.

If this can be coupled with the right governance and accountabilities, there is no reason why the business of football should not become commercially prosperous and deliver for its growing global family.

Professor Chris Brady summed up the views of many present with his closing comment “beautiful game, ugly business”.

Patrick Barclay commented recently in the Evening Standard – “Meanwhile, a memo to Roy Hodgson and Gary Neville – Bayern and Borussia have a minority of German internationals in their teams but those who do play are receiving the ideal conditioning for international football, just as the English do in most seasons. Let’s drop this spurious excuse.”

Something like 70% of all first appointment football managers never get a second chance after having been fired from their first appointment.  We have searched far and high for similar statistics for first appointment CEO’s without any joy, but my guess is the figures might well be strikingly similar.

As so many have to learn the hard way, it’s not about never failing; it’s much more about what you do next. Most never recover after initial failure.

It reminds me of the famous Winston Churchill quote “success is the ability to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.”

Tottenham Hotspur FC made a really brave and bold decision in giving AVB another chance, so soon after the debacle at Chelsea.  It has been obvious that he has learnt some tough and poignant lessons:

• He has dropped the impenetrable technical jargon he used at pre and post-match interviews whilst at Chelsea
• He has stopped the ‘notice me’ histrionics and the incessant shouting of instructions from the side-line during matches
• He has made a habit of praising players by name after every Spurs match
• He appears far better prepared for the tenacious football media, and has found a compelling dry and self-deprecating humour
• He has demonstrated huge loyalty to a strong core of players who have reciprocated and given him their very best every game
• After making some foolish and sweeping decisions about players he had not given a chance (e.g. Dawson & Parker) he has apologised and brought them back into the fold, and consequently won their unqualified respect
• Even after defeat, he has remained charming and phlegmatic

He has learnt in a very hard and public way, but praise where it’s deserved, he has certainly bounced back and his recent Manager of the Month Award has been truly well deserved.

How about Arsène Wenger?  The long standing manager of Spurs arch rivals Arsenal.  This is a very different story indeed.  It is unarguable that Wenger is a modern day great when it comes to football management.

He has been bold, innovative and a proven winner.  But something’s not quite right any more.

After a flying introduction at Arsenal followed by years of sustained success, it looks like it’s all gone pear-shaped at the Emirates.  Many have argued that perhaps he’s firmly stuck in his ways, far too stubborn and dogmatic, and it’s time for him to move on.

Others argue that it’s a much more competitive league now, and it was only a matter of time before others caught up.

There is a third view that Arsenal are playing the game by completely different rules to everyone else, they have an obsession with their profit and loss account. They view profit and a strong balance sheet way above trophies, with Wenger being a former economist and loathe to ever break his arbitrary budgets; this has a ring of truth.

Many say that good players and good leaders don’t become bad overnight, but this is mistaken.  When the ‘rules of engagement’ change dramatically in any industry or discipline, yesterday’s thoroughbreds can appear amazingly out of touch, if they are unable to adapt.

Just look at Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, he was for a number of years the biggest beast in the technology jungle, but Google and Apple have left him looking like a dinosaur in a very short space of time.

Microsoft amazingly missed the importance of the internet, which sounds quite incredible today, but they deliberately dismissed it as irrelevant. Ballmer at 13 years as the leader and Wenger with 17 years; are they just both far too long in the tooth for today’s fast moving and unforgiving times?

Wenger might just well be having his internet moment.  He has miscalculated the importance of trophies to his patient, but increasingly unsettled fan base. And he has misjudged the importance of spending money to keep his top players, and probably even more importantly, when they do leave for exorbitant amounts, that it will cost him that and more to replace them.

As with all CEO’s, the average length of service of all leaders in all fields has been reducing, and in some disciplines quite dramatically in recent years.

It would appear that in football that this increased churn has now become the standard, and whilst so many traditionalists scream for stability, the truth is that it just doesn’t exist anymore.  Alex Ferguson’s 26 years at Manchester United really is a freak of nature.  Every other successful club in Europe has gone through incredible churn before finding a manager/coach who has done a four/ five year stint and then they go back to churn again.

Wenger is still a really good manager, but Arsenal is screaming out for a change, but the Board doesn’t appear to have the ‘bottle’ to face him down.

The real issue is not at all the length of time served, but the strength of the Board of Directors. Challenge without support is bullying, support without challenge is sycophancy.

Wenger has not had the benefit of supportive challenge and has consequently become desperately single minded and stubborn.

Without strong regular feedback even the best leaders tend to outstay their welcome.

I’ve even heard the nonsense that Wenger has earned the right to name the time when he goes. This is utter rubbish, as just like Ferguson, he will never throw in the towel, this is the job of the Board and it’s high time he was asked to do an AVB and reinvent himself elsewhere.

The best leaders know when it’s time to move on, others have to be reminded.

Tweet René here with any comments or questions.

We were joined by Simon Jones of Chime Communications and Professor Chris Brady of Salford University at the magnificent Cass Business School in Central London.

With René asking the probing questions both our guests gave a masterclass in reputation management.

Quotes from the night below -

Simon -

We need to take the transgression from the negative to the positive. Don’t bury it, that’s absolutely the wrong way to deal with it.

We have to reset the banks; we need to put the word ‘social’ in front of ‘capitalism’

Technology has created a new dynamic about how the media plays out because the power has shifted from the broadcast environment

Believe it or not. We like people who make comebacks

Reputation is trust – being trust. It takes countless actions to build trust but it can then take just one second to lose that trust and therefore your reputation

Chris -

If you tell a lie people might believe you but further down the line someone will find out

Smartphones & Social Media are only a risk to your reputation if you are doing the wrong things

Reputation management is a permanent thing so it must include the positive side of your story

“Yeah right!”

We live in the most unforgiving of times; from professional footballers, bankers, politicians, police chiefs, TV bosses, TV presenters, military heads; they have all suffered recent high-profile and long lasting reputational damage.

But surely everyone makes mistakes at some time in their career, don’t they?

Of course they do, but we were perhaps not as inquisitive and as well equipped to capture it as we are now – anywhere, anytime.

Is it our curiosity that has ballooned out of proportion, or is the real driver of this desire for salacious insights into the ‘good and the great’ the ubiquitous smartphone?

We have recently had the privilege of working with Ricky Hatton. He is one of the most decent and authentic of British sportsmen. No-one else has ever taken 30,000 fans to Las Vegas before or since.

Like many of our retiring elite sportsmen (rarely our sports women), they find it nearly impossible to adapt to a far more singular way of life.

Having had the opportunity to work with the quite outstanding charity, The Samaritans a few years ago, it was striking to better understand their real purpose. Their mission is to prevent the many callers to their service from harming themselves and more specifically, to prevent their suicide.

The numbers of callers are massively skewed to young men, and strikingly, a much smaller number of women. We can deduce that women have much stronger social and supportive networks, and importantly are prepared to ‘share and care’, so much more than men.

“Men compare themselves against a ‘gold standard’ which prizes power, control and invincibility. When they believe they aren’t meeting this standard they feel a sense of shame, which can lead them to have suicidal thoughts” – The Samaritans.

Ricky has shared candidly how he has been to the darkest of places. He is doing all he can to seek a very personal redemption.

It’s a tough old journey and it requires a concerted and determined effort.

We believe he can and will do it, but not many do get back.

I’ve had the honour and pleasure of working with the other ‘comeback kid’ himself, President Bill Clinton. I’d never been sure how to define charisma until meeting him. Charisma is often derided in our increasingly cynical times as a liability, or something to be wary of; sheer nonsense, we all love to feel good and some rare leaders can make darker times feel lighter. Why not?

Clinton just can’t help himself, he lights up everything he engages and connects with. Not many, if any, could have survived his well-documented misdemeanours, or even consider remaining in office.

We’ve seen an industry move from PR to Communications to Reputation Management.

Not everyone is Ricky Hatton or Bill Clinton; so what advice would have helped Andrew Mitchell or John Terry?

Zinedine Zidane was for a time the world’s greatest footballer, but will always now be only remembered for that head butt in the World Cup final.

There is a way forward, but its expert territory; we will bring you Simon Jones, reputation manager extraordinaire.

We will ask him anything and everything, (as can you on the night) and he will share his tightest scrapes, and offer contemporary insights into how to navigate away from the chasing media and associated ‘noise’.

An Inspired Leaders Network evening not to be missed. To find out more about the event click here

Who has critically damaged their reputation recently? For a chance to win a signed copy of René’s book ‘Corporate Voodoo’ Tweet @renecarayol with your suggestions!

The most consistent and overriding theme, has been that of VUCA – Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex and Ambiguous.  As ever, the Americans have coined this phrase to describe the unsettled times we find ourselves in at the moment.

I have yet to find a region or an organisation that are not subject to the VUCA tremors.

The biggest challenge this environment presents, is that historic information and data is perhaps no longer the best guide to determining and anticipating what will happen this year and in the future.

The very smart progressive businesses are spending a little less time in extrapolating their current and future plans based on previous year’s performance, but boldly focussing their organisation on making the future happen.

Business 2025: A few years back I was privileged enough to present a series on BBC World called Business 2025.  We took six CEO’s of progressive global businesses and asked them the very simple question, “what will your business look like in 2025?”

Having recently looked at the series, it is very clear that they ALL got it seriously wrong!  Everything they thought they would be doing in 2025 they have completed within two years.

This VUCA world is making it ever harder to predict with any degree of accuracy.

Google is absolutely at the heart of becoming part of this future as opposed to trying to predict it.  So much so, we have seen their market capitalisation explode “Apple-like” adding an additional $60 billion of value in recent months, culminating in them now being worth more than the likes of IBM and General Electric at a stunning $245 billion.

Google have put innovation at the heart of everything they do.  In every Google office around the world you will find an electronic white board, where absolutely anyone in the business can write up any idea or innovation at all, no matter how daft or how futuristic.  The only person that can rub it off is the originator him or herself, but anyone can add to the originators thoughts.

In their campus in San Francisco they still have the original Google Earth diagram, which is still being added to today.

This level of creativity and invention requires constant fuel and oxygenation.

Most have heard of Google’s ‘four days out of five,’ this is where they allow their engineering folk to down tools for one day out of five (every week), in order to ‘think the unthinkable.’  Anecdotally, they would have us believe that 80% of Google’s corporate innovation comes from that one day out of five.

Leaders tell stories, managers talk strategy.  These simple stories and anecdotes at Google are told and re-told throughout the Google Empire, and this keeps the culture of innovation well-oiled and still innovating.

But Google also have realised that a fit, well-nourished and stress-free workforce helps to prolong the magic.

This leads me to my second finding, as I travel the world, the new and demonstrable focus on well-being and wellness.

On the Google campus, there is every facility and thought that makes the campus a fabulous and first class place to work; free gourmet meals brought to your place of work, gyms, showers, and just about anything else that enables a ‘better place to work.’

In some businesses especially in the Asia Pacific region wellness can range from simple meditation to yoga classes, in parts of Africa, huge community projects where workers are given time off to help provide emotional and tangible support for the less fortunate, to awareness on diets and nutrition in north America, to sessions on reducing stress and eliminating RSI in many parts of Europe.

One of the very active members of our Inspired Leaders Network is Kate Cook, Well-Being and Wellness expert and practitioner.

We have followed Kate’s work in recent months and believe she is at the forefront of a new and exciting push into changing the way we think and feel about our place of work.

Kate has performed her magic spell in a dazzling array of blue-chip organisations, with huge plaudits and sustainable changes to the way far too many of us run our busy and ‘stressed out’ lives.

Kate will be embarking on a series of talks and might just be what your workforce needs to listen to now.

She’s available to be booked and we would highly recommend her, and once booked and having connected to your workforce, you will have her back again and again and again.

We would highly recommend Kate’s latest book ‘Get healthy for good’ and please to book Kate or learn more about her please go to www.katecook.biz

This is part one of our event review and you can watch David being interviewed by René below.

The real trick for any leader, but especially in business, is knowing when to leave.

Power is seriously intoxicating, and after a period of sustained success, it takes a really special leader, or those who have surrounded themselves with ‘strong critical friends’ within their leadership team, to step off whilst still at the top and still successful.

Two rock solid UK banking giants, John Varley and Stephen Green, both rather surprisingly left after successfully steering their respective banks, Barclays and HSBC, through the rapids of the global downturn, leaving a platform for on-going success.

Many might say Tesco’s super boss, Terry Leahy did a similar thing, but some doubts are beginning to appear.

Some relevant, ‘jaw dropping’ and legend forming statistics of Leahy’s leadership:

• Terry Leahy was CEO for over 14 years – a ‘tour of duty’ increasingly unheard of in modern times

• Under his leadership Tesco went from sales of £13.8bn to a gargantuan £62.5bn – an increase of 350% and delivering a remarkable 30% market share in the UK

• One out of every seven pounds spent on the British retail High Street is spent at Tesco

• Tesco became the highest private employer in the UK, employing some 472,000 people worldwide (with 287,000 in the UK)

• The number of UK stores increased four-fold from 568 to 2,482

• The Tesco Clubcard became the dominating strategy for retail in the ‘noughties’ in the UK

• He not only turned around the business, but he also turned around a failing and ugly brand

Did he leave at his peak?  Or did he leave a ship that was beginning to list quite badly?

There has been enough sensible comment about the various strategies that are and aren’t working at Tesco, but we think ‘culture’ is the major underlying issue.

Leahy’s classic ‘stack it high and sell it cheap’ approach was underpinned with the ground breaking use of customer data supplied by the Tesco Clubcard.

The increasing use and dependency on this data has created a culture that has become perhaps quite prescriptive and ‘mechanical’. This coupled with a strong cost cutting discipline in the UK, has maybe eroded the necessary inherent retail and entrepreneurial competence necessary in the stores.

The culture has become a little ‘workmanlike’ with slavish adherence to the ‘spot welded rules’. This has meant continued trimming of staff in stores, underinvestment in the upkeep of the stores, whilst struggling to maintain competitiveness other than price, with a resurgent Sainsbury’s, an ever challenging ASDA, a quality fixated Waitrose, and a stabilised Morrison’s all belligerently ‘laser focused’ on Tesco.

Both Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s needed new strategic thinking, but Justin King and Dalton Philips, their respective CEOs, have also focused on changing rather hierarchical, reactive and inward looking cultures.

It has manifestly taken time, but time is essential in building a cultural change platform for the ultra-competitive supermarket landscape in the UK.

Philip Clarke, CEO of Tesco, appears to be doing all the right strategic things, and has started to pointedly unravel the existing culture.

Many of the Tesco executives, who enjoyed such overwhelming success under Leahy’s stewardship, leading the business for many great years, have been necessarily and in the main, quietly moved on.

The next steps will be all about “changing the way things get done around Tesco”; we call that culture, and we know it usually takes nearly as long as it took to set up, and build in the first place to turnaround.

We only need to look at the recent travails at that other once much admired British retailer, Marks and Spencer. It required a powerful and visionary leader, Sir Stuart Rose, to confront the failing culture, and build a sustainable platform for change.

He had to go as far as moving the head office away from the prime location, and low cost of Michael House to Waterside House in Paddington; as the ‘immovable corridors of power’ were so synonymous with the preeminent incumbent culture.

Rose left M&S in much better shape financially, and vitally, he had eroded the ‘old culture’, and set a new approach off to a very good and solid start, but culture change demands constant oxygenation and engagement from the leadership.

This will be Clarke’s challenge; will he be given the time to change the culture of such a large and disparate business whilst the financials continue to tumble?

Addressing a culture that has been so successful through clear and unarguable instruction, strong processes and clear procedures that everyone adhered to, so much so, that perhaps the ability to think creatively and behave differently has been somewhat lost – is THE huge leadership challenge.

We call the prevailing Tesco approach ‘management’.

The move from a ‘not wanting to lose’ attitude, adopted by many strong and unchallenged market leaders, coupled with having the ‘muscle’ to constantly batter the opposition through lower pricing, is very difficult to change quickly.

A more customer centric approach with better shopping environments, are critical, but having a new generation of leadership who ‘role model’ and inspire a new culture is vital to Tesco’s continued success.

They might just have something to learn from Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s time in their own large shadow.

The larger the organisation, and the longer the sustained success, the more radical and time consuming the culture change will have to be.

It is seriously hard enough to do when the business is relatively small, and the workforce is all in one place.

Tesco’s unparalleled growth means this might just be the toughest cultural change challenge the UK has ever seen.

Just maybe Leahy saw this coming as his pension pot does not start paying out for another three years, but of course, that’s just media speculation.

“Culture is still more powerful than strategy”.

The weather is great and it’s the most handsome of cities, and I’m slap bang in the midst of the race for the Republican nominations to challenge Barack Obama in November in his home state.

It’s another moment to pause and reflect on leadership.

In Western developed economies, when things are going well, the electorate can be quite indifferent about leadership, and a lot more focussed on ideology. This always changes dramatically as a downturn really takes grip. Ideology and political persuasions run quite a distant second to the search for a strong and powerful leader who can drive the economy towards recovery.

A similar switch happens in times of major conflict. Most heads turn towards a strong leader who can resolve the conflict and bring peace, safety and security back to the nation, in spite of the politics; think Churchill in WW2 or Thatcher and the Falklands conflict.

Business has moved in a similar direction; continued poor performance during a downturn, will bring down the most popular of leaders.

Warren Buffet’s seminal observation on the current recession, “it’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked” ring’s true in both business and politics.

In the USA the economic ‘tide’ has stayed out for a considerable time now. Obama’s inspiring mantra of “yes we can” has been found wanting, as the US economy has continued to tank.

As with most top leadership roles, there is very little relevant training and development available for the job of President of the USA, as success is usually defined by their ability to deal with the unexpected.

Harold McMillan, the former British Prime Minister when asked what politicians fear most, he famously responded “events, dear boy, events.”

As Obama begins to better navigate his baptism of fire, and starts to lead the US towards recovery, we see a more decisive, less partisan and less consensus driven style; which the polls tell us is beginning to ‘pay off.’

This sets a huge challenge to his potential opponents from the Republican Party.

It has been clear for some time that the Republican’s best chance is to select a strong and credible leader with a strong financial spine and a track record of turning around failing economies.

Mitt Romney appeared to have all the necessary credentials:

• Top drawer academic qualifications
• First class experience of large scale business turnarounds
• The proven ability to create wealth for his stakeholders
• Tangible evidence of a large scale public project turnaround with the Winter Olympics of 2002 in Salt Lake City
• Recent experience of running in the Republican nomination race
• Huge name recognition
• A first rate fundraiser
• A sharp intellect
• First class organisation

So why has he not been able to deliver the ‘knock out’ blow to his rivals?

And why has it been such a long, nasty and drawn out campaign?

None of his remaining rivals come anywhere near to touching his credentials for the nomination.

We would say the answer has a lot to do with Mitt being perceived more as a manager than a leader.

He is the perfect model for a ‘leader’ in the good times:

• No one’s enemy, but also no-one’s ‘heart throb’
• An inherent ability to ‘go with the flow’, but therefore not standing for anything concrete for the masses to vote against
• All strategy and process, no emotional connection or provocative ‘promised land’ dreaming
• A competent debater and communicator with little passion or enthusiasm. Everyone understands, but few get fired up or negatively worked up
• Not many are reviled, but few get ‘turned on’
• Brilliant at knocking down his opponents

His approach is all about ‘not losing’.

But this election needs to be won.

Managers focus on NOT losing, and leaders focus on winning.

The Republican’s need a candidate that:

• Is significantly more credible than Obama
• Has an inspired and sparkling view of the future
• Can connect and engage with both blue collar and white collar Americans
• Can communicate effectively and passionately
• Can bring together the extremes of the Republican party
• Can raise significant funds
• Doesn’t instantly alienate the significant groups who would not usually vote Republican, eg Hispanics, women, Blacks, Jews etc

All these attributes would be very helpful, but the stand-out winning qualities are always:

• An unshakeable belief in their ability to lead change and win
• A bold and consistent message
• An ability to connect with and touch the masses
• Sort the economy

“It’s still the economy, Stupid”, and that’s still what the electorate are guided by, but following closely behind, people are searching for a dream to believe in, not a challenging set of KPIs and a business transformation strategy.

Most of all, forget about not losing to his Republican rivals, it’s about beating the incumbent President, Barack Obama – especially as he might just have that winning habit.

As Confucius says, “man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it“.

AVB Sacked at Chelsea FC

The media is in its usual frenzy as Roman Abramovich seeks his eighth manager in his eight year reign as the owner of Chelsea Football Club.

“It was a player’s cabal”
“The ugly excess of player power”
“He was only given eight months, surely that’s not long enough?”

We see this situation far too often in the world of business.  The new incumbent leader has brilliant credentials, has a strong intellect and it looks like the dream ticket, but something’s clearly wrong.

The top team they have inherited is clearly unsettled and we start to see some resignations, some firings, and a wholesale drop in morale.

The new leader is adamant that they have the correct blueprint, and more importantly the backing of the Board of Directors.  They will not be denied.

We would say that perhaps the most underestimated competency that a new leader needs to bring to the party is perhaps the aura of being ‘easy to do business with’, not intellect or strategy!

Think culture not strategy.

The ten things that AVB perhaps got wrong:

1. Far too many of his press conferences were all about him and HIS project – it would have served him better if he talked about the great players, the great fans and the great club.  It doesn’t help to alienate your stakeholders at every opportunity you get.You need them more than they need you.
2. He should know better than anyone that age doesn’t matter, its talent that counts.  Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are 5/6 years older than any of Chelsea’s stalwarts but are still contributing magnificently.  And Abramovich was prepared to give AVB a chance despite being only 33 years old.In the final analysis the elder statesmen he severely alienated were the same people he became dependent on to save his career.
3. Every player who made a genuine mistake on the pitch was summarily dropped.  From Lampard, Anelka, Alex, Romeu, Torres, Essien, Malouda, Kalou and even his own recent signing, Cahill.  Some never came back; others sat festering, not even making the bench.  This is no way to build team spirit and it was obvious they felt isolated and humiliated.
4. Standing on the side-lines at every game, whistling and shouting at all the players with sharp instructions and feedback, which clearly should have been communicated long before the game started.It is clear he was a micro-manager who wanted to make every decision, and call every tactic and this was never going to work given his lack of people skills and a lack of exposure/experience at the senior levels of the game.
5. He was certainly a radical moderniser but as we all know the four most powerful words in any organisation are ‘what do you think?’Just by being human and humble enough to elicit the opinions of those around him would have gone a long way into keeping many on board. Instead, he lost all ‘corporate memory’ and any goodwill, whilst attempting to stamp his authority.
6. The moment he declared publicly that he didn’t need ‘the backing or favour of his players’, he was clearly sunk.  He certainly didn’t need their approval, but he needed to get them ‘on the bus’ but he either didn’t care or didn’t know how.
7. Some recent outbursts against the media highlighted his inexperience, his naivety and his hubris. By starting to blame the media, they helped create a feeling of ‘death row’ and he became ‘dead man walking’.  It became only a matter of time.
8. The petulant and harsh dropping of three of his star players, in probably the most important and public match of his reign against Napoli in the Champions League backfired spectacularly.It felt like he was ‘stamping his feet’, and staring down the very people who could deliver his salvation.He would later call them back into the team – and win, and drop them again!
9. He ‘rode into town’ declaring for all to hear that everything his mentor and previous boss, José Mourinho had achieved at Chelsea was now outdated and wrong. In one fell swoop he was making a huge statement, and ensured there would be many eyes watching and waiting to see what he could deliver or not.
10. Finally, ‘never bite the hand that feeds you’.  It was obvious that Roman Abramovich was trying to give him as much support as he possibly could.  It would never be vocal, and it would never be public, but it was certainly there.  Once AVB started to pine for public backing it was clear that even he had lost belief in himself.

Never follow a tough act into a leadership role, unless you are prepared for the toughest of rides. Charm, listening skills and honouring the past are key ingredients of success.

His predecessor Carlo Ancellotti was revered and loved by all, but AVB never mentioned his name or paid homage to the great legacy he inherited. It was far too much about his inherent ability. He ‘made his bed’.

Having recently had lunch with Dr Adrian Atkinson, Chairman of Human Factors International and my favourite business psychologist one of his many telling insights was “emotional intelligence is really not much more than great interpersonal skills.”

Now many may argue at the margins but he makes a terrific point.

“Good leaders create followers, great leaders create leaders”.

Time to ask ourselves the straight and unavoidable question –

“Why should anyone be led by you?”

2011 has been a tumultuous year. The world has been rocked by events both natural and man-made. Japan suffered a tsunami while the Middle East was home to numerous popular uprisings collectively dubbed the Arab Spring. Meanwhile the world’s economies, even the strong ones like Germany, found themselves in the midst of yet another storm. You could be forgiven for feeling trepidation as you stand on the brink of 2012. But here at the Inspired Leaders Network (ILN), we think you should think differently and look ahead with confidence.

During the year ILN has played host to a variety of leaders from business and beyond. One of the common threads in many of their messages was that difficult times bring opportunities to those who are resourceful, positive and prepared for hard work. There’s a major shake-out taking place and usually this results in the fittest and the most agile companies coming out of it all stronger than ever before. It would be easy to dismiss such optimism if we hadn’t been shown so much evidence by our speakers and hosts of businesses successfully swimming against the tide. They demonstrated clearly that businesses with the right corporate cultures can still go forward and get increasingly better results, despite harder times.

Here’s ten great tips for success taken from the year’s ILN event speakers and Learning Journey hosts:

ILN Event speakers:

“A measure of success is a work force that really wants to be at work and is performing to the best of their ability.”
Alison Saunders, Chief Crown Prosecutor of London

“I’ve never seen a company that focuses only on the bottom line, and not its people, do really well.”
Steve Auckland, former MD of Metro Newspapers

“It doesn’t matter what you think of Social Media, it’s there and we have to use it.”
Errol Damelin, CEO Wonga

“Focus on the customer, make them your fan and they’ll bring more customers to you.”
Craig Donaldson, CEO Metro Bank

“People define a business. Start with your people and they will look after everything else. Don’t ever start with numbers.”
John Pearson, former CEO Virgin Radio.

Learning Journey hosts:

“Work hard on driving customer satisfaction. Train current staff to refocus on the customer and only select new hires who fit this attitude.”
CityWest Homes

“Apple is honest but it is also always unshakeable in its own convictions.”
Apple

“Look after your people because happier employees can hit even higher targets.”
SKY

“A Powerful brand like Chelsea FC can be used to promote positive change wherever it is respected.”
Chelsea Football Club

“Put the right people in the right jobs, don’t try to bend the wrong people into the wrong jobs.”
The Royal Marines

In tough times people naturally look for strong leadership to guide them through. We need people of principle and conviction to inspire us – whereas during the good times we felt more comfortable without them. As I wrote in a recent blog post:

“We’re living in an age of uncertainty that is crying out for strong, confident and decisive leadership.”

Unfortunately, it appears there are still some areas where this leadership is lacking. However, even with strong people in key positions we cannot abandon our own responsibility to do our bit to help us get the economy back on track.

How’s your corporate culture? Is it conducive to doing better business? Are you looking after your employees and customers properly? You can be sure someone will and, in such a tough and competitive environment, that may be all the edge they need. What about your leadership capability? Are you and your key people properly equipped to make the right decisions and take the winning opportunities? This is not the time to take an entrenched position and make rash restructures that may mean you can no longer compete efficiently. We all need to keep a close eye on the numbers in tough times, as we should even in the good times but not at the cost of ability and attitude. Don’t scrimp on development, your people need to be well equipped to fight this battle. Be very careful you don’t risk downgrading your customer’s experience this is no time to be shedding customers to rivals.

Choosing the right team is vitally important. When the going gets extra tough, the quality of those people and their ability to interact is going to be crucial to your survival. Again, our interactions via the ILN events and Learning Journeys have provided both validation and practical examples of how to put the right team in place. The slogan, “hire for attitude and train for skill” was repeated time and time again by our speakers and hosts. Although the reality of needing the right skills in certain instances, such as doctors and airline pilots, was not lost on any of them but they still went for the right attitude but with skills paramount! However, the main thrust of the argument remains true: If you have the wrong people with the wrong attitude then no amount of training is going to get them to do things the way you want them done.

People are at the heart of your corporate culture, they are the ones who have to live and breathe it and make it happen on the ground. Culture is ‘the way we get things done around here’ and you need to get that ‘way of getting things done’ absolutely right to have any hope of your strategies delivering the desired results. Taking care of your people was consistently at the top of all of our speakers’ and hosts’ checklists. Nothing gets done with the wrong people. But don’t be too quick to show existing people the door, even in a failing business. We were given many great examples of where the current employees were able to adapt successfully to cultural changes and help transform even the most broken of organisations. It needed the right and inspired leadership. They need something to believe in and that’s why vision is so important.

2012 is ahead of us. We can’t be certain of what it might bring to our doors but we can be sure of our own response to whatever does come. We need to stay focussed, dedicated, positive and motivated – this is no time for failure of nerve.

All of us here at Inspired Leaders Network hope that you have had a great 2011 and are looking forward to an inspiring and successful 2012.