Can we learn from Roy Hodgson the Fulham Manager

Roy Hodgson has put Fulham firmly in the spotlight with the victory over Hamburg to secure a place in the UEFA Europa League Final against Atletico Madrid on May 12th. Roy an experienced manager both at home and abroad has formed his team into a force to be taken seriously.

Listening to the man, you would expect some words of wisdom that we could hang on to, in the hope some of his managerial magic would rub off on us. When you look at his approach a few clues emerge which are not unusual . Speaking in the Independent newspaper; ‘We analyse his thoughts and see if we can apply them as our own business tools

Roy starts by discussing Respect.

"Can you coach? Can you earn the players' respect?" He adds: "The other things, they are bonuses: the scouting reports, fitness details et cetera. You could do away with a lot of that and be successful as long as you are able to use your time on the pitch wisely, and convince players this is what you have to do."

Here he puts ‘earning peoples respect’ high on his list of management tools.
Treating people as you expect to be treated is one sure way of accelerating this process. Lead from the front, and sell your vision to everyone.

Fulham players testify to the repetitive nature of much of the session work, but have come to appreciate it works, the club punching so far above their weight Hodgson takes them to Chelsea today as the highest-placed English manager in the Premier League.

The old school technique of standard procedures has a place in my heart; everyone singing from the same hymn sheet is an excellent communication tool for any business. Everyone gets to know the company procedures, and as you can see from Fulham experience everyone starts pulling their weight. Teamwork improves because there is less ambiguity, and more importantly the customer receives a quality service.

Roy also speaks about not spending time on the smaller things in life, its the Praetor’s 80/20 rule.

You have to differentiate between areas of minor importance, such as when we travel and eat, and those of major importance such as: how we are going to play and practice? Who is taking the free-kicks? If you have democracy you get nowhere.
There are areas, such as: do we travel in suits or track-suits, where I ask. That's not going to change the result, and I'm only democratic with the senior players. I don't want everyone's opinion. I might have one or two people I've identified as having no opinion worth listening to so I dismiss what they say out of hand.

We are all guilty of procrastinating on the unimportant decisions we make in our day to day activities of running the business. But this reminds us that in order to succeed, you must tackle the big issues, Just have one or two lieutenants to take their advice but be prepared to make the big decisions and stick with it.

Speaking about his time with United Arab Emirates, where he lead the national side between 2002 and 2004 Roy reminds us you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

We told them 'to succeed we have to be organised. If we are going to train at 10.30 we want you there at 10.30; if we say dinner at five, we want you down at five.' You might get everyone there, but at three minutes past, two were across the road to McDonald's. You can put a big fence around the hotel but half the poor bastards will starve to death."

At the end of the day, you can deliver all the best practice in the manager’s handbook but if any of your employees just won’t listen then you either accept what you cannot change or change what you can not accept.