Alex Ferguson is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time. He won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football, and under his leadership, Manchester United dominated English football for the best part of two decades.
None of his achievements came about by accident. He had a leadership style that, since retirement, has been used as an example in business schools and adopted in a number of industries and companies.
Setting and maintaining standards
For the Scot, it was paramount to set standards and ensure that they were maintained at all times. That applied to all aspects of the job, from team building to preparation, training sessions, and tactical talks.
Expectations had to be lifted, and nobody was allowed to give in because doing it once made it a repeatable habit.
No room for egos
Ferguson did not allow egos to have any place in his dressing room, even though he managed some of the best and highly paid players of his generation. In fact, he expected star players to work even harder, because becoming winners does more to massage an ego or sense of self-worth than any material reward.
The message rubbed off – Ferguson would often have to chase players like Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and Paul Scholes off the training ground because they would practice their skills by themselves for hours, even if they had a game coming up.
Keep control at all times
One of the tenets of Ferguson’s leadership style was maintaining control and authority at all time. Players that crossed him, or refused to respect his values, soon found themselves out in the cold.
A famous example is club captain Roy Keane whose career was effectively ended when he guest commentated on the club’s in-house TV channel, and made some derogatory comments about fellow players. And when Ruud van Nistelrooy complained about being benched, he was promptly sold to Real Madrid.
The Hairdryer treatment
Ferguson became notorious for his “hairdryer” moments – when he would stand in front of a player and openly berate them for mistakes they had made, or if he felt their performance was not up to scratch. No player was immune from such rants except a few like Cantona, Bryan Robson, and often the fear of receiving such treatment would encourage a player to raise his game all by himself.
Reprimands would follow immediately after a bad performance, so it was over and done with, and bad feeling was not allowed to linger.
Sometimes Ferguson went too far, once cutting David Beckham’s face when he kicked a boot at him after an FA Cup defeat to bitter rivals Arsenal.
Tailoring the message
Not that the Scot was always a bully. If the team lost but an individual still played well, then it was not a problem. In sport, it is impossible to win all the time. Similarly in training sessions and in the run up to games, Ferguson and his coaches always tried to accentuate the positives. He recognised that nobody likes to be criticised and that most respond to encouragement instead.
Brevity
Ferguson tried to make sure that his messages were brief and to the point, because there is the risk that, with over communication, key points could be lost. This was especially true of half-time team talks where there was barely more than five minutes to get ideas across.
Prepare to win
Manchester United under him became so famous for scoring late goals in injury time that it entered the football lexicon as “Fergie-time”. This, again, did not come about by chance. He was both systematic and aggressive in his approach and his teams would practice for hours scenarios where the going got tough, and they needed a goal with ten, five, or three minutes remaining.
This most famously paid off in the Champions League final in 1999, when United were trailing Bayern Munich heading into injury time, but came up with two late goals to snatch the trophy.
Ferguson’s sides were not only prepared to win, but they came to expect it as a matter of course.
Never stop adapting
Responding to change is never easy, and it is perhaps harder still when somebody is on top. One of the secrets of Ferguson’s longevity was his ability to adapt and evolve with the world around him, starting first with experienced players before turning to youth and the generation that became known as the “Class of 92.”
Training methods were continuously developed, whilst he was one of the first managers to appoint a team of sports scientists to work with the players. He believed that stagnation was an enemy of progress, and that the only way the club could continue to attract top players was to have the best facilities in Europe.
