Leadership by consent – or by force

Leadership by consent – or by force

There are 2 forms of Leadership. The first, and by far the most effective, is LEADERSHIP BY CONSENT of, and with the sympathy of the followers. The second is LEADERSHIP BY FORCE, without the consent
and sympathy of the followers.

History is filled with evidences that Leadership by Force cannot endure. The downfall and disappearance of “Dictators” and kings is significant. It means that people will not follow forced leadership indefinitely.

So wrote Napoleon Hill, an adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-36), in his book How to overcome Failure and achieve SUCCESS.

If you look at a football dressing room then we see both types, we see both at Tottenham. For any new coach to succeed the players have to buy into his methods, he has to sell himself to them if you like. Those that buy into the philosophy will prosper, those that don't won't.

If you are happy in your work you produce a higher standard of work and more of it, if you are not you go through the motions and do the minimum. Football is no different. It is irrelevant how much skill a player has, if he hasn't bought into the philosophy of the coach you won't get the top performances.

Supporters don't generally see that though. Take Sandro, a fans favourite, he was a shadow of the player he was before injury under a different manager, Jan Vertonghen virtually gave up last season under Tim Sherwood yet Emmanuel Adebayor prospered, now he flounders.

Is it entirely down to the coach to build the right environment for players to buy into his philosophy? Not in my opinion no but football in many respects is stuck in the dark ages and simply does what has always been done. There is very little innovation. Mauricio Pochettino has brought innovation to the Premier League with his tactics. They worked successfully at Southampton but haven't been embraced by the players at Tottenham.

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We have recently heard that Levy and Pochettino have had to tell Kaboul and Adebayor that they are wrong. For Kaboul to go to Pochettino with views he claimed to be from the majority when in fact they were not, according to recent reports, was putting his head on a chopping block. Alarm bells have to sound. Kaboul has not been seen in the team since and nor has Adebayor.

Before Pochettino was appointed I did my research and wrote back then that there will be confrontation, that some, and if memory serves I even suggested Adebayor, would not like it. Where Louis Van Gaal is confrontational so Pochettino is also very much we do it my way.

Those that don't buy in are removed to be replaced by those that do, then you begin to see improvement. What we have seen so far this season was very much to be expected, Rose, Bentaleb, Mason, Kane for instance have all bought in to his philosophy together with signings Fazio, Davies and Dier.

All the talk now is how Tottenham want to transform the squad, basically start again, ship the old out and bring in the new, or in other words, remove the leadership by force element to replace it with leadership by consent.

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