Talented players are often fragile and managers must nurture them
Talent, it is widely agreed, needs a special kind of management.
And the manager of a team of highly competitive individuals needs to
learn quickly to spot and then respond to each of their skills and then
work out to how to encourage their talent to grow, while directing its
course to form a team.
Gérard Houllier, technical director of the Paris-based French
Football Federation (FFF), and former manager of Liverpool FC, puts it
succinctly: “It is better to have talent than no talent, after all. But
it can create problems.” He points out that talented individuals are
frequently not as emotionally strong as management thinks they are,
whether in football or in business. “They are often quite fragile
characters, who below the surface can be quite anxious. They need lots
of positive feedback.”
Mr. Houllier gives the example of the football player who says he
has no doubts. “Well, when he says that it immediately tells me that he
is going through a crisis of confidence.” He stresses the need to
“protect your stars. The most talented players often feel the need to be
responsible for the performance of the rest of the team, but sometimes
too much is asked of the stars. The real star must always be the team as
a whole. A star player is also a team player, who recognizes that
everyone contributes to success. It is the job of the manager to get
that message across.”
Sweepers and violinists
Lawrie McMenemy, a former manager of Southampton Football Club in
the U.K. and now president of the Lawrie McMenemy Centre for Football
Research at Southampton Solent University in the U.K., agrees. “In the
ideal team you have what I call the road sweepers, who are grinding out
the work, the violinists who perform acts of beauty and then a first
violinist, who must be recognized as such by the whole team. But it is
no good having 11 first violinists.”
The comparison with musicians is apposite, according to John
Willan, chairman of Hazard Chase, a musician management company based in
Cambridge, U.K.
With a roster of prestigious international artists, including
conductors, singers, instrumentalists, choirs, ensembles and composers
on its books, they know plenty about managing talent. As Mr. Willan
says, echoing Mr. Houlier, “The most talented are also often the most
highly strung. You have to help them manage their insecurities, and
often build up their confidence after a performance.”
It is, he says, “vital that the relationship management is
one-on-one, and obviously the type of relationship varies by individual.
But then, psychological aspects aside, there are also the mundane
matters that we sort out for them, such as travel arrangements or family
matters. It is not as glamorous a life as one might imagine, as they
are constantly on the road. I suspect that it is very similar to
managing a football star.”
Mr. Houllier has been lauded over the years for his youth program
for the FFF, which led to many of the young stars going on to play for
major clubs. He believes in getting them early, ideally at the age of
10, and not older than 15.
Molding youths
“At that age, they can learn that it is all right to make
mistakes, to build up their confidence and at the same time remind them
that in the end it is still a game, although one with potentially high
rewards. Once they are adults, it is much more difficult to stress their
shortcomings, even to change much in their approach.”
Mr. Willan of Hazard Chase concurs with Mr. Houllier’s approach.
“Ideally we do like to sign up stars at a young, age, say 12, but that
is principally so that we can protect them from exploitation and make
sure that their talent matures. They may be technically incredibly
proficient, but it is rare that they are emotionally ready for the
exposure. It can be difficult for the parents who, with the best will in
the world, are simply not equipped to deal with this kind of talent. We
provide a support system.”
Alan Bairner, professor of sport and social theory at Loughborough
University in the U.K., suggests the age at which skill can be
identified in football is even earlier. “Usually you can spot the really
talented kids at between eight and nine years old,” he says, “which is
one of the many reasons why the major clubs run football academies as
well as employing talent scouts. But you also have to be very careful
that the children are happy with it and not being pushed by their
parents. And in football, happiness arrives at different ages, depending
upon the skills set.”
Of course there are different levels of talent, whether in music
or in football, and most managers emphasize the need to achieve balance.
Mr. McMenemy of Southampton Solent University points out that often
there is talent left sitting on the bench who need to be looked after.
“In a 30-strong squad only 11 will start the match. The manager has to
look at the whole team, making sure each of them knows they are valued
and don’t feel rejected. After all, if they go on the field later,
whether due to injury or strategic decisions, you want them to give
100%. And most of that is in the mind.”
Mr. Houillier and Mr. McMenemy agree that it is all about
“understanding what makes a player tick.” And this, of course, varies
with individual. It is part of the manager’s job to get into each
player’s mindset, in order to bring out the best in them. As Mr.
Houllier puts it: “Only then can you give them the right tools to
progress and gain confidence in their own talent.”
John Arnold, professor of organizational behavior and occupational
psychology at Loughborough University, says there is no “one size fits
all” solution. “It may be down to management, but that does not mean
that the same manager — or boss, leader, call them what you will — is
capable of reproducing the same effect if they move to become the head
of a different team. A style which works with one individual simply may
not bring out the best in another, and as the aim is always to make the
whole greater than the individual that can be a problem for the team.”
He adds that “it is important for each member of the team to
respect each other’s skills. In sport these are highly visible — as is
failure. The manager needs to make sure individual talents are
recognized by the team.” And that they learn from each other.
Patrick Manning, lead partner in strategy consultancy at
Boston-based international management consultancy Bain & Co.’s
London office and a silver medalist in rowing at the Barcelona’s Olympic
Games in 1992, agrees. “We put a lot of time and investment into
developing talent. Most important of all is to have new recruits working
alongside people with more experience — rather like an apprenticeship
system. This is supplemented by formal training programs and informal
mentors.”
When stars fall
Julie Clark, head of sport at the international accountancy and
consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers’ London office, stresses that
“we recruit high achievers with a strong competitive spirit. But there
can be no one person upon which the team is dependent, however talented
they are. In business, people move on and the team has to go forward. A
parallel in football might be if the perceived star player is sent off
or injured. It is the manager’s job to make sure that the team continues
to work, or play, together successfully,” she says.
