The share price of Manchester United (Man U) football club steadily increased to £14.51 from £13.65 on the NYSE at the close of trading on 18th December 2018 following the sack of Jose Mourinho by the club. What marked the exit of Mourinho was the 3-1 loss to the Liverpool FC, the bitter rival of Man U, the club’s sixth position on the Premiership log and nineteen points behind Liverpool FC, the league leader. During the turbulence period, Man U share price fluctuates in reaction to the news of internal rancour between the players and the manager and the obvious poor run of results.
No doubt leaders are engaged to produce results for their organisations. Jose Mourinho is an exceptional football coach with massive results and with a record second to none. He had won both domestic and continental trophies in the big clubs starting from Porto FC, Chelsea FC, Internationale FC, Real Madrid and Man U. Jose’ technical competence has been tested and proven. He is a top-grade manager among managers, a technocrat with a good sense of humour but with a snag in the way he manages his tools leading to his shameful exit last week. I am not sure he did want to quit his job at Man U if things have been under control.
The fact that Jose has had a problem with players at all the club he had coached show a deficient level one leadership skill despite being a level four leader. The level one leadership stage is about personal leadership which is purely the ability to give oneself instruction and adhere to it, the ability to respect others, manage situations with decorum and comply with the culture, ethics and minimum standard of behaviour in the society. The level four leadership skill is about achieving the result through the team for the organisation’s stakeholders. With the exception of bringing Mario Balotelli who Mourinho discovered and promoted into the senior team at Internationale FC, Mourinho has created rancour in his dressing rooms and among his players than any known football tactician. He is an example of a leader that kills the goose that is raising the golden eggs for him and at the same time expects more eggs from the goose.
In the book ‘who says elephants can’t dance’ the author, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. emphasised the importance of personal leadership in any institutional transformation. Level one leadership is, therefore, crucial in achieving results, working with teams, influencing others, creating the culture of excellence and most importantly is the sustainability of the results for the organisation.
I admire the results of Jose Mourinho but his lack of the level one leadership skill cannot be hidden if you place him side by side with Pep Guardiola, the coach of the Man city and other coaches who equally achieved results with many clubs and in more than one country but without the atmosphere for strive, and rancour created by Jose at Man U and Real Madrid. Thus, the leadership characteristic and personality of Jose are not in line with the brand integrity and known culture of Man U. The sack of Jose Mourinho is, therefore, a marriage of convenience for the parties involved.
For business leaders and managers to achieve results without creating the Mourinho effects, they must be knowledgeable and be conscious of the balancing act of the result which recognises the four stakeholders whose interest must be managed. These stakeholders are the customers, employees, investors and organisations.
A result-oriented leader will ensure the result of today’s effort is sustainable and will not put any of the stakeholder groups in a position of lesser value both financially and mentally in the future. I have seen organisations, where leaders are praised for achieving results even with negative impacts on the customers, employees and more pathetically on the organisation whose interest should be protected. Any result that does not respect and create a mutual balance for the stakeholders is not sustainable and will bring the organisation back to its knees.
The abilities of the boardroom leaders to appraise the effects of the employees or business managers who are achieving results in manners detrimental to the sustainability of the organisations’ brand images, perceptions and market value are essential to the survival of any strategy. Being a board leader or member is, therefore, a calling not a job. A calling to entrench a culture where all the stakeholders’ interests are taken care of and the less influential of the stakeholders is at least kept satisfied to the minimal level.
In the business environment, customers as stakeholders are given preferential treatment given to the sensitivity of their actions on the patronage and the results for the business. However, from experience, the employees are the most vulnerable stakeholder given the shoddy treatments of workers under the disguise of achieving results which often are not sustainable. The effects of allowing employees to be threatened or abused both psychologically and mentally are the results of the divergence in the vision and value the organisation places on its employees.
Where exceptional customer service is emphasised, and superior employee treatment is a slogan, the results will be a mirage with the attendant by-products of low employee engagements, high attrition rate and ex-employees being competitors rather than being the ambassadors of the company. These effects are the failure of the leadership in most cases and attest to the fact that the dominant personalities in the boardroom affect and shape the company’s culture and its brand perception in the long run.
As it is in the Man U and Mourinho’s case, the emphasis on performance without commensurate value being placed on the process, culture, relationship and behaviour for achieving results, especially the human aspect of the business capital will affect the brand, the market value of the company as well as the personality of the leader. I am sure other tops clubs will have similar concern Man U had when Mourinho was to be employed as the departure cast doubt on his ability to manage people and align the culture of excellence in Man U despite a fair result within his two and half years at the club.
For a business that wants to align performance with respect for its brand, the modern human resources department has a huge role to play. I use the word modern to connote an HR independent and professional enough to do its work without being the stooge of the management. The requirement for this is an empowerment of the board for the HR to enforce the vision of the company, and the avoid the erosion of the value it places on the employees as an important stakeholder group. Where there is a vision to be the best place to work or to be an environment that attracts top talents and the value of respect for diversity of opinion and personality is lacking, the vision becomes a mere slogan.
The modern HR as a department goes beyond enforcing policies to managing behaviours and externalities of leadership decisions as it relates to the employees. The HR is not to judge but to be an advocate, the coach, the initiator and custodian of people-oriented policies due to the changing nature of people in the workplace.
And for the ‘Mourinhos’ in the corporate world who are enjoying the results achieved with the emotional sledgehammer on the goose, the results are but an illusion and will put the business in a more precarious state. The boardroom members who are less concern about the goose should be mindful that no business can achieve a sustainable result and develop a competitive edge in the marketplace without a resounding win in the workplace.
Jose Mourinho lost his vision and value in the workplace before losing his position and coaching roles in one of the world’s best clubs.
Babs Olugbemi
Olugbemi FCCA, the Chief Responsibility Officer at Mentoras Limited and Founder, the Positive Growth Africa. He can be reached on [email protected] or 08025489396.
