TORC

Giovanni Trapattoni's signature whistle - from La Gazzetta dello Sport

Now with the springtime
The days will grow longer
And after St. Bride’s day’
My sail I’ll let go
I’ll put my mind to it,
And I never will linger
Till I find myself back
In the County Mayo.
Frank O’Connor’s translation of Cill Aodain by Antoine Ó Raifteiri (1784-1834)

Just like these lines from Raifteiri of old, yesterday’s Euro 2012 draw lifts all Irish hearts, with the prospect of some exciting encounters later in the year – with Russia, Slovakia, Macedonia, Armenia & Andorra.

And, offers a kind of second coming for our national coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, whose unbeaten run with the team in the world-cup qualifiers has already endeared him to the Irish public.

Sports managers advising business
In America, such feats from a sports team manager find their way not only onto the sports pages, but equally into the learned journals of major MBA schools, business conference keynotes, leadership development books, videos and the like – all testifying to the cross-relevance of the many sports analogies with business performance and success.

The archtypical example is, of course, Knute Rockne, the godfather of football at the University of Notre Dame, who is immortalised in the 1940 Warner Brothers film Knute Rockne, All American – where he utters the famous catch-cry to “win just one for the Gipper”, referring to a recently deceased football player, George Gipp, portrayed in the film by a young Ronald Reagan.

In later years, the tradition has been carried on by the likes of football coaches, Vince Lombardi & Lou Holtz and basketball coaches Pat Riley and Mike Krzyzewski – all exhorting the benefits of integrity, discipline, teamwork and speed to sporting and business success.

Sports managers in the Irish context
The same general threads can be found in the many recent biographies of winning GAA managers – though, with the exception of Jack O’Connor’s Keys to the Kingdom, most seem satisfied in presenting only surface-level analyses of their subjects.

Trapattoni : A Life In Football, by Egon Theiner and Elisabeth Schlammer, originally published in German in 2006, could equally have benefited from a deeper analysis of the man.

Nonetheless, the book does give some tangible clues into the qualities that have underpinned the maestro’s astonishing success.

Charisma, Optimism & Belief
First and foremost, there is a genuine charisma about the man. His press conference quips and sideline histrionics exude a quiet and unpretentious vibe of invinceability.

The words of hardened professional, Richard Dunne, on the eve of the French game in Paris really exemplifies how Trapattoni steels and shields the players with a God-like belief:

“Our manager is a winner, always has been, that’s what we’re following, whatever he says goes, really. Everyone listens to him. He’s told us all the way through that we’re hard to beat, we’ve proved that. We’ve just got to believe in what our manager does for us tomorrow night, he’s been telling us all week that we can win, and that we will win. We’ve got 100 per cent faith in our manager’.

Anticipation & Learned Optimism
Doubtless, there is some innate component to Trapattoni’s optimism; but, there is also a real sense that a sizable proportion is very much of the learned variety – by making a habit of overcoming the odds so often in his own life.

In his own playing days, such was the sublime skills of Pelé, Eusébio & Johan Cruyff that each was pretty much deemed unmarkable.

Yet, all three found Giovanni Trapattoni impossible to negotiate, not because of any physical attention he meted out, but because of his exquisite timing of interceptions and tackles. In this respect, as a player his anticipation was deemed his greatest asset.

God is in the Detail
And, in a way, it would appear that it is this same sense of anticipation that informs much of his pre-match optimism.

He is legendary in the way he leaves nothing to chance in assembling his tactics. In this, he is at one with the Andy Grove motto: Only the Paranoid Survive.

One of his favourite quotes is:

Non dire gatto finche non ce l’hai nel sacco (don’t say cat until you have it in the bag).

In his press conferences, he constantly underlines that it is the small things that decide games. ‘I am like a hammer’, he once said – meaning that he strikes again and again at whatever small detail needs to be corrected.

Gianni Agnelli, head of the Fiat empire, and Trapattoni’s boss at Juventus for 10 years, sums him up with 3 telling adjectives: intelligent, exact, prepared.

If you have other management role-models that you’d like to share – please leave details in the comment box below. Thank you!

PS. For further leadership tips, please click on the following Torc links:
1. How to Rebuild Group Morale
2. Flow, Mojo & Drive
3. The Leader as Teacher
4. Management: Machiavellian Style
5. Leadership: Ready, Aim, Fire  

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