Situational leadership: Why Capello failed
- Leaders need to adapt to each situation
I criticised Fabio Capello previously. But I didn’t relate it to leadership challenges and the importance of adapting leadership style to each situation. Leadership style needs to be adapted to context, circumstances and culture. Think chameleon!
England’s poor performance at the Football World Cup was down to the players. But also down to the manager. Fabio lacked self awareness. He didn’t adapt his leadership style from that which had brought him success at the club level, to a national team. For example:
* Rigid discipline on social activities, so young players away from home and not allowed “bonking, beer or betting”, became bored.
* Last minute notification of players selected for each match, creating unnecessary pressure.
* Lack of a personal touch. It’s not surprising that Paul Scholes, Manchester United’s midfield player, wouldn’t join the squad. It now turns out that he was telephoned by Capello’s assistant, not the man himself and given only two hours to decide.
Picture by jonathan mccabe
There is definitely evidence to suggest Capello’s strict regime in South Africa stifled the play of the England team, yet he did have great success during qualification.
But could this specific example be a difference in approach to football players habits between Italy & England, the management of the transition over an extended period of time and justified rewards for on pitch performance?
One of Harry Redknapp’s first focuses when taking over at Tottenham in 2008 was to curb his players alcohol intake & late night partying but he, unlike Capello, has been able to maintain & improve on pitch performance even after employing initial disciplinary sanctions.
If Capello had become more democratic & less autocratic as his reign developed last season perhaps his initial achievements would have fed the facilitation that all highly successful teams require?
Peter Thomas
September 20, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Thanks Peter for this interesting comment.Redknapp seems able to change his leadership style over time as the situation changed. Capello didn’t.
When young players are based overseas, a long way from home and family might this need a different approach?
It’s easier to be autocratic on home territory because you have more sanctions and your players have an escape to their friends and family.
I felt there was a telling moment when one of the players (sympathetic to Capello) was asked if he had spoken to him about the concerns.
His reply was to the effect that you don’t just go and talk to him.
You pose a good final question. Would your answer be “yes”?
Thanks again
Mike Barnato
September 20, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Hi Mike. Completely agree about Capello’s inability to change his leadership style with the change in situation indeed I wonder if his immovable hard line approach also caused the media to turn on him so quickly when they had originally given him so much support during qualification?
But whether taking players abroad should change the coach’s approach, I’m not so sure. Should it not just be another stage in the transition of decision making shifting from coach(es) to player(s)? Players need to feel comfortable with & respect their leaders and suddenly being led by a totally new “person” because you move to a different continent would cause significant unrest.
Should it not also be more important for coaches to be more autocratic (at times) away from home because players don’t have the ability to escape to friends and family? Does not being familiar with their surroundings makes them more vulnerable?
Perhaps the underlying problem for Capello was his inability to ever let the players take control, leading to group unrest and social divisions? In short bursts during qualification matches, a manager probably has limited time and therefore needs to be direct & focused to ensure players are able to prepare effectively over short periods.
However, over an extended period surely the players must be able to take over control of the preparation, competing & reviewing? This in turn allows managers more time to manage, by organising team building exercises & alternative group functions. These not only help players relax, but prevent boredom and, perhaps most importantly, begin to generate an ever growing bond between the players that reduces feelings of homesickness and increases the safety net experienced generally associated with being surrounded by family & friends.
As for the players response you highlighted; that you simply just don’t go & talk to Capello, is this not the most telling & succinct illustration behind England’s failure in South Africa? A leader who claims to always have his door open to be approached in reality is totally unapproachable!
Overall though, would England have performed better this summer had Capello become more democratic, we will never know. However, it will be interesting to see whether Capello chooses to change his management style for the European campaign and if this significantly improves England’s performance in the tournament (should they qualify).
To quote Einstein surely “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”?
Peter Thomas
September 21, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Thanks again Peter. Interesting points here about the impact on leadership style of taking players abroad, how leadership style could evolve over time and about sharing control.
You also pose a great question. Will Capello change his style for the European campaign? And if so will that be reflected in improved performance?
Some subsidiary questions are:
Is he aware of his own style?
If so is he capable of changing it?
And does he care anyway? (His contract is protected and with a greatly changed team he will argue that the old team let him down.)
Shall we revisit this questions after a few more matches?
Mike Barnato
September 22, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Most of the information that we have to judge Capello with is derived for the media and often speculative. Leaders in business are also judged using a lot of speculation as their thinking about a situation or approach is rarely in the public domain.
Capello would probably argue that he based his approach on the situation he inherited when he took over the role, of players with lack of discipline and focus. It does appear that he failed to engage with the players adult to adult and they appeared nervous in the way they worked (or not) as a team.
It is interesting that they appear to be performing very well on their return in the last few matches.
For me the whole episode adds further to the argument that, managers, players or staff, you can’t pay people to perform.
One last comment would be that Tony Hayward ( exiting BP CEO) could have done with some PR lessons from Capello over the summer, saying very little and in Italian would have caused a lot less damage to the BP share price.
Colin Dulson
September 20, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Thanks Colin for this comment. I agree that you need both hard, task, right brain and soft, people, right brain approaches to leadership.
But I feel that Capello failed to adapt his club experience into a national team – a failure to adapt his style to the situation.
I certainly feel that pay alone will not result in top performance.
I very much agree with your comment about PR lessons from Capello to Tony Hayward.
I particularly liked Capello’s comment that he wanted to stay as manager (i.e. sack me at your peril). And he had turned down many offers to accept the job (i.e. he would make them stick to the large payouts in his contract)
Thanks again
Mike Barnato
September 20, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Mike is right to emphasise the importance of adapting one’s leadership style to each situation. But not just the situation that you inherit as a new leader (as Colin noted in Capello’s case when he first came to manage the national team) but also every situation in which a task has to be accomplished.
Situations change all the time. Consider some friends hiring a rowing boat for the first time on the Serpentine. The situation is quite different when it is a calm hot sunny day, compared with a dark icy winter day with a cold wind blowing. Even if the ‘leader’ of this crew is an experienced rower, there are quite different situational problems to deal with and this leader must adapt his or her leadership style accordingly with each individual crew member.
In this scenario, it is not the actual person filling the leadership role that’s important but the leadership role and the process they follow.
Capello had first to adapt to a leading a team at a national level, compared with club football, and then adapt his style to the World Cup situation. It’s clear from the lack of teamwork in the English team, and the poor performance, that he didn’t do this effectively. Moreover, it seems that he couldn’t adopt the right behaviour either with the players, eg getting an assistant to call a player rather than doing it himself.
Our research, prior to developing practical courses on learning ‘how to lead’, showed that a lot of leadership learning focuses on the Adair three circles ‘team/individual/task’ diagram, which doesn’t include ‘situation’. We have modified Adair for our courses and encompassed his circles with a ‘Situation Circle’ to highlight the critical influence of situation on the team, the task and the individual.
Tess Harris
September 21, 2010 at 11:16 am
Thanks Tess. This is very useful.
I agree that leadership style needs to adapt to each situation.
I tend to think in terms of context, circumstances and culture. Your interesting rowing example is a good illustration of circumstances.
Context also matters (for example what has been tried before) as does culture (for example, working with volunteers might need a different style to a merchant bank).
Your research on modifying Adair’s “team/individual/task” diagram for “situation” sounds interesting and I shall study it.
Mike Barnato
September 21, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Hi Mike
If only we could ask the same questions to Fabio regarding the coaching styles he plans on using for this European qualifying campaign! It will be very interesting to see what happens. I look forward to revisiting this discussion very much in a few games time.
Kind regards
Peter
Peter Thomas
September 24, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Thanks Peter
Look forward to revisiting discussion and hearing from you after a few more games.
regards
Mike
Mike Barnato
September 26, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Mike,
Unlike the previous posts and yourself I do not think Capello failed.
If he did fail he is in good company along with a host of failed England managers who have had to cope with people who lack the killer instinct and the will to win and have lacked it since 1966 ,a period of 44 years of failure.
The Rooneys and Beckhams of this world are not footballers but rather they are overpaid primadonnas,totally indisciplined,self indulgent and unwilling to perform on cue or take instruction.
The previous episodes of unparalleled excess by the so called W.A.G.S and the sexual “roasting ” at orgies in hotels were the catalyst for the FA a fairly useless and mendacious body,to select Capello the disciplinarian.
That his approach did not work is not down to him but to the fact that these particular primadonnas are useless an unmanageable carthorses who no-one could manage without bribing them first-The concept of honour ,duty and performing for the country is absent from these people,s minds.
The reality is that in sport after sport and in business people in this country are insufficiently hungry and are not motivated.
..Last winter 2 centimetres of snow was enough to stop 25% of the workforce from going to work.
..UK average worker productivity is 15th in the league table of advanced industrial nations(132 days out of 220 possible working days for private sector workers -Source :Management Consultancy Group PLC AND 88 DAYS FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR -Source -Knox D,Arcy
..Our state education system from age 5 to age 18 is 47th in the world
..At £4 trillion gbp including £2 billion gbp that Gordon Brown left in offshore special purpose vehicles(mostly PFI liabilities) the UK has the biggest financial deficit of any country in Europe
..Out of 6 million incorporated and unincorporated businesses we have no more than 300 world class companies
You talk about situational leadership and Capello I think you need to look closer to our own backyard and the legacy of failed leadership left by the great and the good,the razor sharp brained civil servants and successive Governments who have left this country with 1.4% economic growth
JOHN A GELMINI
December 12, 2010 at 12:10 am
Thanks John. This is an interesting and different “take”.
Two immediate thoughts on the narrower point:
Capello was responsible for team selection. He needed to get the right people on the bus. Did he do this badly, by selecting too many prima donnas?
Why do players perform well in their clubs but badly in the national side? Did Capello bear any responsibility for the difference?
Mike Barnato
December 12, 2010 at 10:34 am
I was thinking about the importance of having more than just one leadership style when on holiday. I rather like this extract from a novel “Secrets to the grave” by Tami Hoag.It’s a good summary of the need for situational leadership.
“You’re just like a great fastball pitcher. But you can’t just throw fastballs for the whole game. You’re going to come up againgst guys who can belt your best one out of the park.Your arm is going to get tired and you’re not going to get them all over the plate. You need a repertoire. You need a change-up. You need a slider. The occasional spitball.”
Mike Barnato
September 13, 2011 at 10:54 am