The Quiet Way

It’s criminal that Carlo Ancelotti isn’t a household name all over the world.

He has coached four of the top 10 most valuable soccer teams in the world, and seven of the top 25.

He has won all of Europe’s big five leagues — a record.

He has won the Champions League five times as a coach — a record.

He is the definition of a serial winner. But doing all this winning so quietly means he is often left out of conversations about the world’s top coaches.

Speaking of criminal, to describe his leadership style Ancelotti invokes The Godfather’s Don Corleone — perhaps cinema’s most iconic mob boss.

“There is power and authority in being calm and measured, in building trust and making decisions coolly, in using influence and persuasion in your approach,” Ancelotti writes in his autobiography. “When you watch Vito Corleone, do you see a weak, quiet man or do you see a calm, powerful man in charge of his situation?”

In his book, Ancelotti leaves detailed notes on how ‘The Quiet Way’ works in all the different facets of a modern coach’s job. It amounts to 74 tips from one of the greatest coaches anywhere in the world.

Here is the summary, in his words:

Leadership Arc: The Quiet Way

• The leadership arc may be personal, not generic. Your various job arcs may be more about you than the jobs. This should be a serious consideration when deciding whether or not to accept a job.

• The transition from member of staff to leader is not as straightforward as you think. You have to understand that, no matter how insignificant you think your actions and words are, to your staff you cast a shadow over most aspects of their lives. Take that responsibility seriously; take care of people and don’t abuse your power.

• The constraints on running an organization are not always on public view. Again, when deciding on a new role you must do as much due diligence as possible. It is no good complaining that you were ‘sold a pup’ if you haven’t done your homework.

• Sometimes a relationship just gets tired and it’s time to move on. Don’t over internalize this, everything has a cycle. The key is to be as productive as possible in each cycle.

• Speaking truth to power has to be an acceptable behaviour. Leaders have to enable it for their own benefit. It is not a ‘nice to have’, it is essential.

• Find a solution, don’t waste time looking for the guilty. You get a very short honeymoon period when you start a new job – make it count.

• Respect is everything. It is a daily currency that can go up and down in direct relation to your behaviour and choices. Take it seriously.

• Don’t always be obsessed with drawing loyalty from the people with whom you work. Aim to inspire greater performance in the moment and focus on showing that you really care about them as people and their professional growth.

• Mutual trust comes as the final piece of the relationship pyramid but demonstrate you can be trusted from day one of your relationship with their talent.

Culture: The Quiet Way

• Learn the language; if you have insufficient time, study the culture. In other words, demonstrate a willingness to integrate. Insist on that from your staff as well; if you can make the effort, so can they.

• Cliques are unacceptable; eventually, you will have to break them so make it clear from the outset that integration is the only way to win.

• Cultural education can often come better from workmates rather than the boss.

• Managing the support staff is as important as managing the talent. They represent you every day in key moments when you won’t be there. Make sure they understand your plans but also the style you want it delivered in.

• You don’t always need what you think you want. Change can be liberating; don’t resist it just for the sake of it. You will inspire new people very early in the process by making them believe they are still here for a real reason.

• You need to trust in order to delegate.

• Loyalty is at the centre of relationships. It should be hard to break into a family but even harder to be excluded.

• Loyalty is to people, not organizations. For organizations, it’s not personal, it’s only business.

• Understand the nature of the organization you’re in (or plan to join). What’s the history and culture? Is it a small business, a family firm or a corporate entity?

• Move towards the culture you now find yourself in. Trust, respect and in some cases time will be granted to you if you demonstrate that you know you are the ‘guest’ in someone else’s world / house.

• Don’t get caught in overplaying the value of loyalty in your key lieutenants. Not everyone continues to grow at the pace you need so it is important to access the sustainability of their motivation going forward. People will judge you on how you build a support team to drive performance, not on how loyal you are.

Hierarchy: The Quiet Way

• Manage expectations from above to protect those you lead from the ‘presidential noise’.

• Never be afraid to delegate; nobody’s good enough to do everything.

• Don’t be perceived as ‘managing’ relationships above you. Owners and presidents have egos; treat those egos carefully.

• Don’t play favourites – this is a business.

• The quickest and most effective way to keep your owner or board happy is to win. To win you need to nurture and build the best relationship with your talent. The real relationship with your board will be built on this foundation.

• Take your owner on the journey with you. Make them understand they are a part of the story. Overcommunicate on the key issues that drive success and manage the ‘noise’ they can create around the other areas.

Talent: The Quiet Way

• Speak to your talent (players, workers) firstly and most importantly as people.

• Recruit to your values and for cultural fit. Always have in your mind your ‘future team’ as you go through the building process.

• Try to avoid intermediaries (like agents or even certain board members). The more layers, the more complexity, the more room for misunderstanding. Talk directly to the talent if possible. Your personal relationship with them is the best insurance policy you can have during moments of trauma.

• Coaching great talent is about fine-tuning, not major changes. The level of development needed by those who arrive at the biggest corporations should not be technical, but about managing the game or the business.

• You can’t control the talent. You can only provide the right information for them to achieve what they want to achieve; then it is up to them.

• Never forget that the talent will protect itself as its first priority. Talent chooses businesses as much as they are chosen by them.

• Recruit to your budget. This might mean that you have to give younger workers the chance. Don’t be afraid to do this; it should be seen as an opportunity.

• When you first engage with the people or talent you will work with forget about the ‘X and Os’ of how to do the job. Take time to understand them as people; what makes them who they are; who influences their life; who has shaped who they are. The ‘How do we drive this bus?’ comes after ‘Who made the driver of the bus?’.

• For the selfish talent help them to understand the satisfaction and reward that comes with serving the needs of others.

• Take the onboarding of talent seriously. The stronger your culture the harder it is for anyone to join and integrate. Be open, listen and show that you care about them and their family as people. It’s the start of the process of gaining ‘discretional effort’ from them.

• Your job is not to motivate the talent – they should find this within themselves – your job is not to demotivate them.

The Workplace: The Quiet Way

• Your responsibility as a leader is to those you lead.

• Influence beats coercion.

• Kill feuds as quickly as possible. Top talent can be very fragile, sustained conflict can seriously change the energy of the group.

• Encourage the staff to take ownership for the environment and the culture of the workplace. The workplace is their second home, where they spend a lot of time. Let people put their own stamp on it.

• Encourage the energizers, remove the energy sappers.

Responsibility: The Quiet Way

• A member of your organization being engaged is not enough; they have to be aligned with your wider goals as well. Neither is sufficient by itself.

• Patience is not always a virtue; don’t wait too long to make a difficult decision.

• Encourage a learning culture; make it two-way, listen and learn.

• Soft power is the most effective. Dictatorships don’t last.

• Try not to get angry very often; it works best if it rarely happens. Pick your moments for maximum effect and then quickly return to calmness.

• You cannot allow setbacks to be the end; recalibrate and start again. Embrace setbacks and your flexibility to adapt as a competitive advantage.

• Get angry only for the things that really matter: lack of work ethic / application and violation of the culture and values of the group.

• With great talent and Gen Y talent the use of power has to be measured. All top talent wants to be told the direction they are heading but they want to be active in driving the vehicle that gets everyone there.

The Product: The Quiet Way

• Know your business. Those you lead expect nothing less. If they observe less, they won’t be led by you for long.

• Don’t ignore the foot soldiers in an organization just because they’re low maintenance.

• Everyone goes through ups and downs; treat even the quiet talent with the same level of concern and consideration as the star talent.

• If you hit upon a great idea by accident, go with it.

• Interview the organization to ensure that you’re aligned with the identity they want to create or maintain. Do your due diligence before you agree to join – what is the governance structure, to whom do you report, who reports to you? The answers to these and other questions will be central to your ultimate success or failure.

• Always be thinking about winning; developing a winning mentality across the entire organization is the only way to guarantee success over time.

• Treat every day as if tomorrow is the day your talent will implode. This ‘positive paranoia’ will force you to understand their dynamic development and anticipate the REAL issues that derail them.

• Let the product / talent breathe on your problems. Include them, encourage them to be active participants in finding a solution. If there is a stalemate on the final direction then the leader has the final decision.

• Remember, there are no great coaches or leaders. They are only as great as the talent they seduce and lead and how much permission this talent gives them on a daily basis to deliver their ideas.

Data: The Quiet Way

• Don’t try to play ‘mind games’. Focus on what’s important: results.

• Your most important analytical tools are your eyes and your brain. Draw on your experience and don’t get distracted.

• Equally, don’t be afraid of data and analytics – embrace new developments and any edge they can give you.

• Create a place at the table for analytics to thrive. Don’t treat the theme and person(s) as a ‘nice to have’ feature. Give it credibility but in return you need them to fully understand the sole reason they are there: to help us to win.

• Embrace data but as a leader your role is to translate it into insight and then be the point person for delivering it to the talent. The leader has the ‘emotional credits’ with the talent to make the data insights fly on the battlefield.

• Psychology is crucial. The mindset of your colleagues and teams will drive your success. Give people confidence to be themselves.

• Clear communication is vital, especially to explain tough decisions.

Growing: The Quiet Way

• Rules can be elastic but, like a balloon, there are limits. Let everyone know what your limits are.

• Self-confidence breeds confidence. In the words of Mike, the conman in David Mamet’s House of Games, ‘Why do they call it a confidence trick? Because you give me your confidence? No, because I give you mine.’ Great leaders give confidence.

• It can be difficult to see yourself as the leader. Remember, if someone has given you the job they believe in you, so trust their judgement.

• In general, people love the job they’re in. Don’t kill that love.

• Intensity is good. But remember, you don’t have to be miserable to be serious.

Values: The Quiet Way

• Always keep your reference points in mind – from early mentors to those whose achievements you aspire to follow.

• Switching off is important – find your sanctuary.

• To thine own self be true – you can’t actually be anyone else, so don’t try.