Sir Alex on Winning and Leading Champions

Alex Ferguson spent 26 years as coach of Manchester United football club winning every trophy conceivable. In 2012 Harvard prof Anita Elberse developed an HBR case study analyzing the famed coach's winning style.  She boiled his success down into eight lessons…eight lessons that all of us can apply… to our businesses and to our lives. Here they are…

1. Start with the foundation:  When Alex Ferguson arrived at Man U only one player was under the age of 24. Sir Alex wanted to build a football club from the ground up and took a huge risk by focusing on developing the young talent in the organization. Alex was convinced that the role of manager isn't so different from that of a teacher "to inspire people to be better. Give them better technical skills, make them winners, make them better people, and they can go anywhere in life".

As a leader what have you done recently to build your team's technical skills and make them winners?

2. Dare to rebuild: Even in times of success you must constantly re-build your team and Coach Ferguson did this five times in 26 years, making him a very effective Portfolio Manager. Each decision taken was driven by a keen understanding of where a player was in their life cycle, knowing what needs strengthening and what needs refreshing.

When is the last time you did a full portfolio review of your products and services, reviewing them on their product life cycle and determining what needs strengthening and what needs refreshing?

3. Set High standards and hold everyone to them: Sir Alex didn’t only want to build technical skills he wanted to build winners…people who’d always strive to do better and never give up. He actively recruited 'bad losers' and he never allowed a poor practice because what you see in training manifests itself on the field. Over time this attitude prevailed when players would never accept anyone who wouldn’t give it their all.

What about your team – do you have bad losers? Do you actively recruit people who will never give in?  What about your meetings – do you allow poor meetings, or do you insist they are well prepared and productive?

4. Never ever cede control: When star player and team captain Roy Keanne publicly criticized his team, his contract was terminated. High standards were for everyone, even stars, and there is no star who is more important than the team.

Every team has its prima donnas but some overstep and start to hurt the team. As a leader you must deal with them or let them go – the team is always more important.

5. Match the message to the situation: Two magic words in the English language are "Well done". At the same time, a manager needs to point out mistakes. Ferguson says he always found it best to remind players how far they’d come – as players, as people and as a team. His goal was also to strengthen bonds. It's easy when winning but when he was losing, he’d focus on the strengths while addressing probable cause of the failures.

In reviewing results and building next year's strategy are you addressing where and why you are losing, or do you gloss over and move on hoping it will all get better?

6. Prepare to win: Ferguson's teams were famous for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Sir Alex stated he'd rather take a chance and lose by two or three goals than play conservatively and lose by one goal. Man U actively practiced how they would play if they were behind one goal with 10 minutes to play.

The biggest contributor to failure isn't lack of knowledge or skill but lack of preparation. Whether your team is customer facing or internal facing, it's important to prepare your team for change initiatives and big client pitches.

7. Always observe: When Sir Alex first became a coach, he was always running the training sessions. Over time came more assistant coaches who took the hands-on training roles but coach Ferguson insisted he always observe. "When you’re on the field you don't always see everything but as a regular observer, you can spot changes in training patterns, energy levels, and work rates". The key is to delegate the direct supervision to others and trust them to do their jobs, allowing the manager to truly observe.

As a leader are you an observer or a micromanager?

8. Never stop adapting: Sir Alex said, "I believe you can control change by accepting it". Often people with a successful record don’t look to change but Sir Alex hunted for it to make his team better and himself better.

What changes are happening in your industry and how have you adapted so your team can positively benefit? What will your team point to in the future and say, "Well done".

To paraphrase Vince Lombardi, Winning isn't a sometimes thing, it's an all-times thing.You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time. While losing can become a habit, so can winning. I'm sure Alex Ferguson couldn't agree more. Now it's your turn to build your winning team!

1. More reading - HBR case study October 2013 Ferguson's Formula 

2. Thanks to Ken Lepitre for suggesting the Newsletter