Capello and the Maverick Potential business personality
To regular readers, my apologies. Illness has meant that posts have been few and far between in recent weeks. During my down-time, the soccer World Cup has provided a thought-provoking source of entertainment. The spectacular rise and fall of the English team made endless front and back-page headlines in the UK, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. The English team was knocked-out by Germany after three unconvincing qualification matches.
As is often the case in competitive situations, whether related to sport or business, the market’s perception of poor performance in a high-profile, public setting casts a spotlight on the ability and commitment of the organisation and the management style of those in charge. In the case of the English football squad, the team Coach, Fabio Capello, has attracted particular rage. Fans, as stakeholders with a vested interest in the team’s success, are hungry for answers and the blame game has begun.
In order to consider what the anecdotal evidence of Capello’s reign as Coach says about the personality of the English football squad, I plugged some assumptions into the Balanced Business Personality monitor model. It is important to make clear that this analysis is based purely upon my interpretation of anecdotal evidence. Under normal conditions, participants would respond to a series of questions and statements designed to offer clues as to the state of the organisation’s personality and, importantly, how that personality may be being perceived in the marketplace. However, in this case, an in-depth analysis has not been performed, so many of the subtleties normally hidden within the data cannot be uncovered or commented upon.
One output from BBPM is a top-level or ‘headline’ definition of organisational personality. The BBPM model assesses an organisation’s attributes, differentiating characteristics and traits against 16 core business personality types. Based upon news and commentary about Capello, the players, the coaching staff and their routines, the BBPM output suggests that the English World Cup squad presents a ‘MAVERICK POTENTIAL’ headline organisational personality. Though the evidence may be purely anecdotal, clear themes run throughout the analysis which provide reasonable substantiation for this conclusion:
A squad of footballing ‘superstars’, many highly rewarded at club level for the rare mix of individual skill, club-level team-orientation and an innate drive to succeed, and most with existing high-profile public personae, are brought together for a finite period to perform a major task. Having been taken out of their normal team-environment and forced together with other high-profile superstars, their propensity to display individualism and act autonomously within the hierarchy of the new team is natural. The management challenge is to focus the innate individualism of all team members on a singular team goal, either by developing a culture of joint responsibility and ‘greater good’ or by putting in place restrictions which are designed to achieve control.
By appearing to have tended towards the latter option, Fabio Capello has been painted by the media as a control freak. Restrictions including no access to wives and girlfriends, no mobile phones, no Playstations and almost no alcohol represented, to the ‘superstar’ team members, a restricted ‘prison-camp’ environment.
Imagine the predicament facing the beleaguered Coach. In an effort to control the team and focus on achieving a key goal, the ‘boss’ appears to have placed severe limitations on many of the squad’s normal routines. So, having already removed each team member from the comfort of club-level team-orientation, the boss imposes upon these professionals what are perceived to be additional controls. If pushed too far, this approach has a high potential to provoke a negative reaction.
Yet, I have some sympathy for Capello in this situation. The BBPM model suggests that if he had failed to put in place stringent controls in order to achieve the desired level of focus, an organisation comprising team members who are primarily motivated by creativity, autonomy and individualism tends to automatically assume the initiative. However, they do so as individuals and are therefore more likely to act to the detriment of achieving team goals. Without controls in place, such an organisation begins to display the characteristics of the FRAGMENTED organisational personality type. The nature of this personality type suggests it is unlikely ever to succeed in achieving a singular team goal.
What else could Capello have done? The one area of pundit commentary which remains under-reported is the degree to which the team came together as a close-knit operating unit. Analysis of cultural integration is often subjective, and so comments can appear unconvincingly ‘touchy feely’. Yet in this case the clues are there. Capello has had innumerable successes at club-level, and is clearly adept at creating a positive team bond or culture over time. However, with limited access to ‘his’ players throughout the year, and coming face-to-face with the Club vs Country dichotomy, it may have been tempting to apply the strength of single-minded executive drive in order to build and motivate the team, rather than invest in developing a team culture.
Capello’s animated antics on the touchline during each game attest to his enduring passion for driving his team relentlessly towards the desired outcome. When John Terry commented publicly about negative feelings within the team camp, he openly questioned Capello’s management style. Capello’s description of the outburst as a ‘big mistake’ was simultaneously menacing and dismissive. In a more culturally-oriented organisational environment, raising the flag of doubt would have been an accepted course of action.
Yet, as most managers know, developing that culture for the longer-term takes time, effort and an ongoing involvement with the team members. This does not appear to be Capello’s style. By driving the team hard from the top as the means to achieving the key goal, the approach may actually have contributed to the poor performance of the team.
In summary, the individualistic nature of the team personality which grew-up around Capello in the England locker room was always going to be tempted to push back against his propensity to control activities and drive endlessly for achievement. In the end, team members appeared to resent, then mock Capello’s single-mindedness, and England’s World Cup aspirations paid the price.
For executives and team leaders in sport and business, the lessons are profound.
DropDown Theme