England’s Capello – How Not To Lead!

A leader never throws his own team under the bus.

If you’ve been following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, you might have noticed that England Manager Fabio Capello has been doing just that, after two disappointing performances by his team to start the tournament. 

The “Three Lions” boss has so far delivered a fascinating case study in “how-not-to-lead.”  By publically contradicting his players’ own assessments, by heaping additional pressure on them, and by dodging blame for a lack of preparation, Capello is putting on a clinic of poor leadership.

The concepts of good leadership go beyond sports of course, and we can all draw lessons from Capello’s public misstatements thus far, paraphrased below:

Capello: There’s tremendous pressure on us to succeed.  This sentiment contradicted his own Captain’s public assessment only a day earlier, when Stephen Gerrard stated that pressure was not a factor in the team’s tepid start to the tournament.  Besides the direct contradiction, a good manager should never mention the “pressure” that the team is under.  Doing so just creates problems that might not actually exist for some team members.  Speaking of creating problems…

Capello: Our top players are in a scoring slump.  A leader’s job is to remove barriers standing in the way of his team’s performance; not to create imaginary barriers where none actually exist!   A better approach would have been to encourage his players to keep getting into position to score, and the goals will come; not to make up mental hurdles which the players must now overcome in their own minds.

Capello: Our preparation was great – we’re just not playing what we practiced.  Here, Capello subtlety dodges blame.  He had them ready to play!   Practice was great.   Then it all fell apart when the players were asked to execute and deliver.   Whether or not this is true, a good leader should take the blame for a poor game time performance, at least publically.

Here’s hoping you can avoid the same heavy-handed mistakes when leading your own team!