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Nobby Styles, Wayne Rooney – Teamwork & Leadership
The differing fortunes of two men inextricably linked by the fame of the football club for which they have both played highlight one of the teamwork and leadership issues that I was taught and which I continue to try and pass on.
Teams are made up of individuals, but the synergy that a team can generate to become far greater than the sum of its parts is what makes great teams. In the case of football, not the eleven best, but the best eleven will be the team to beat.
Not everyone reading this will remember England winning the world cup, but most will remember us failing miserably in the recent competition in South Africa. In the recent series, we took a squad of decent players and yet, on the pitch, the performances were largely pathetic. In 1966 we had a squad with a few genuine world class players; Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks and Jimmy Greaves were genuine top class internationals who would have graced any country’s side. Wilson and Cohen at full back likewise maybe, and these were backed up with experienced club pros like Jack Charlton, Roger Hunt and Geoff Hurst plus younger coming men such as Ball and Peters.
We lost Jimmy Greaves part way through due to injury and Alf Ramsey chose to leave him out thereafter. One of the finest goal scorers in the world and he had to sit on the sidelines. And yet we won. We won because the best eleven were on the pitch. Ramsey had chosen a team that worked and would not drop one of them even to allow one of the most lethal goal scorers of his time back in.
By contrast, the recent England squad also included one of the most lethal goal scorers of the current generation, but despite him being on the pitch we failed embarrassingly. That player was Wayne Rooney, in the news in the last few days for a spat with his club that saw him agree to stay after all for a massive pay rise.
At the same time another man who had worn the same club and international colours was having to sell his treasured mementos of 1966 to help him in his old age. That man, and what a man, is Nobby Styles. With all due respect Nobby was not a world class player, but he was a team player and, like the others, he played his heart out during the ’66 campaign. He played for his team mates, he played for his country, for the fans and for pride. They all did and they won; we won.
It was all about the team. Even Greavsie, grounded in the dug out in his team blazer, exploded with joy when the final whistle blew.
I think that Manchester United were absolutely stupid to bow to Rooney’s demands. No-one is bigger than the team and they should have set the example by sorting the lad out. There is no sign of leadership in the outcome of that sordid affair and it was brought into sharp contrast by the gratitude of the little man with the big heart for the sum he got for selling his treasures.
I don’t begrudge Rooney his wages. He’ll pay his tax and spend his cash so the economy will get it back in various ways, but he’ll never have what Nobby Styles has: Nobby is a World Cup Winner. No-one can ever take that away and the memory of his jigging around with the Jules Rimet trophy will live on long after Rooney’s greed is forgotten.
Home thoughts from abroad; a postcard from America
Oh to be in England, now September’s here? Not really, no.
I’m taking a few minutes of quiet time in between business and the essential hospitality that goes with it, at least it does more so here in the USA that maybe back home. Shortly I will be back on show when my host’s guests start to arrive and we get down to some serious socializing and, it has to be said, networking.
So, home thoughts from abroad? For me this is more home than home in the sense of where I live. Yes I know that I am British, and I am proud of that, but I am more at home here in the US than I am back in Wiltshire and, if I had the chance, I’d set up home here for good.
For me there is a lot about America that we have seen wiped out in the UK. People do care about each other here and there is a much greater sense of community spirit. In many ways it is like the England that I grew up in in the 1950s and 1960s. Nostalgia may not be what it used to be, but I am nostalgic for a time when people were far less self centred; my Monday Musing last week talked of the Musketeer’s motto of “One for all and all for one”. So much of what I see back home is more like one for all and every one for themselves.
Here there is a much simpler attitude in most people, and it shows up in the way that I am being looked after. The whole concept of me being over here and staying alone in a hotel is an anathema to the people that I’m meeting, so a range of hospitality gets lined up for me to meet families and friends. This isn’t expense account stuff either; it is a genuine desire to welcome a stranger and look after them.
Back home people often mock the “have a nice day” culture, but here it is, in most cases, genuine. This morning I went for a walk down a couple of blocks to buy a newspaper. I’d not got far before I fell into step with someone heading the same way. By the time we got to the news stand I knew his name, what he did, the names of his wife and his children and how they were doing at school and he’d had broadly equivalent information from me. When I used to commute into London by train there would be the same herd of us heading off to the station each morning for the run into Liverpool Street, but in three years of doing that I got to talk to two other people. Everyone else just kept their heads down and ignored those around them.
The Americans bring this warmth into much of business, whether that be BtoB or BtoC. In most cases there is a real need to give the customer service that goes a bit further and that’s great. It makes doing business a pleasure. Sure they are hard negotiators, and yes there are sharks, but doing a deal here is a very different experience to doing one back home.
Maybe some of this is just because it is a change for me. It’s nearly a year since I was last over and it could just be the grass being greener on this side of the hill. Maybe I would find it less attractive if I was here full time. Maybe not, and I have to come home soon anyway.
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Who would I have on the board of Me plc?
My friend Kwai Yu asked who would be on the board of Me plc. Having thought about this for a couple of days I’ve come up with some possible solutions here. I’ve taken a Fantasy Football approach with some of these, and have grouped them, as you will see, by category. So the nominations are:
The Entertainment Board.
First to invite would be Lionel Blair. If you wanted to personify the word irrepressible, then that would be Lionel. A positive mood to board meetings would be assured by his presence. Next up is Jane Russell. Here I’m not sure whether this would be as herself or one of her characters; maybe from the Outlaw, or Gentlemen prefer Blondes? Whatever, a smart cookie that one. Then I’d ask Doris Day. Let’s face it, whatever scrapes she got into everything always worked out in the end, and I’m an eternal optimist, so I’m sure that we’d go together well. We’d need legal advice maybe, so who else but Denny Crane; what could I add? Denny Crane! The final member of this board comes from the sporting world, and would be the late Sir Bobby Robson, the only member of this team that I have met. Two words sum up the reason for his inclusion; passion and loyalty.
The Former Colleagues Board
This one is made of people with whom I have worked and kicks off with Diane Santos. She was my boss for a time and was as straight as a die. I may not always have agreed with her, but I could always trust her. From the same team, her boss John Robson. John taught me huge amounts about leadership just by doing what he did. Later our paths crossed again when I was his business landlord and I’ll always hold him in high regard; a true gentleman. Very much in the same line is Mick Linsell, one time MD of Royal Mail and, for a time, my boss squared. Another who showed me the ways of leadership just by doing his job. And he stood up to Anne Robinson on live TV and came away with a draw.
The Historical Board
This one doesn’t go too far back, but I’d start off with a couple of politicians from the days when they were real people. Barbara Castle would be first pick. I may not have shared her political leanings, but here was a lady I would have liked to have known and maybe to have worked with. I’d team her up here with Sir Winston Churchill. Another with whom I would often have disagreed, but I love his way with words and his fighting spirit, a quality he shared with Barbara. Then there would be Leonard Cheshire, he of the Cheshire Homes and of Bomber Command. For me truly a great man and one who would bring a single minded courage to my enterprise. Finally here, and from much farther back, Vasco da Gama. I have a great admiration for those who just sailed off into the unknown to find what was there, even if that turned out to be death.
The Musketeers
Back in July ’96 I joined three guys, Chris Drew, Kelvin Little and Ian Tolley, in a team that we came to call the four musketeers (I was Porthos). We did truly live up to the One for All and All for One philosophy. We all still keep in touch even though we parted company in early ’99, having blazed a trail in those two and a bit years.
The winning team? The Musketeers I would think.
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there’s a gunman! – another day on the facilities front line
The clatter of the helicopter blasted through the room, the windows wide open to seek respite from the sticky heat of early afternoon allowing the sound to penetrate what had been another quiet session in the office for our facilities management team.
Ten feet away Phil, my maintenance manager had picked up the phone and was crouched forward over his desk, one hand clamped to his ear as he tried to listen. He was duty manager that day, as evidenced by the words emblazoned on the hi-vis waistcoat slipped over the back of his chair. This was our HQ from which we ran 27 sites across the UK of which this was by far the largest with a perimeter of almost 2 kilometres.
Phil banged down the phone and motioned me out into the corridor. There we could talk. “It’s the police chopper” he told me, “they’ve had a report of a gunman”.
This was a few days after the Columbine murders in the US, and the memories of Hungerford, just up the road, were still very fresh for most of us. “The incident team are on their way” he said, and the sirens were audible in amongst the helicopter noise.
We grabbed our radios and Phil went to the main gate to meet the police and I went to reception to use the tannoy. We had around 1300 people on the site with over an hour before any workers were due to be finishing for the day, but there would be the inevitable delivery vehicles and visitors who might want to get on or off site to be dealt with and we had a well oiled process to put in place.
Having briefed heads of departments to keep people inside and away from windows as best as we could I went out to meet Phil and get the story. A passing motorist, reckoned to be a reliable witness by the police, had called in from his car phone to say that he had seen a youngish male in camouflage trousers kneeling and pointing a handgun at a pedestrian exit gate down at the south west corner of the site.
The police had the situation in hand with armed response units, dog handlers and others dealing with the situation outside of our perimeter. The helicopter had thermal imaging gear and was still cruising low over the site.
I left Phil to work with our security team to monitor the situation and liaise with the police. If we were dealing with a handgun we were fairly safe indoors because of the distances. Our only weak spot was the main exit which was an automatic barrier, but there was some cover for a potential gunman and a risk that an employee might decide to sneak out early. I laugh about it now, but I put on as many layers of clothes as I could and made my way down to the gate to make sure no-one tried to leave.
After an hour we were stood down with no gunman found, but it could have been real; we had had violent domestic disputes before including someone wielding a knife to deal with.
The moral? A well drilled facilities management team working professionally with the police handled something a bit out of the ordinary. These things come out of ordinary days at the office. Leadership and teamwork, knowing your processes and systems, mean you handle the mundane day to day stuff at the top of your game and allow your people to handle such extraordinary occasions with aplomb. Just another day at the office.
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press cuttings that feature or quote me
I often get enquiries about various articles, interviews and other press reports that I have written, or articles that have quoted or featured me, so here are the business related ones that I’ve been able to track down:
Jackie Le Poidevin, editor of LexisNexis publication Facilities Management, covered my interactive session on good practice in FM procurement with the Rising FM group in London on June 2nd and will feature that in an article for the August 2011 issue of Facilities Management.
FM World give me a kind mention in their preview of the Public Procurement Show in London, where I will be speaking on FM procurement good practice, see pages 16/17 of the 2nd June 2011 issue.
In the April 14th 2011 edition of Supply Management magazine, the CIPS journal, I helped out in the Adviser Q&A section. (Unfortunately they spelt my name incorrectly).
The March 2011 issue of Truck & Driver magazine features a tongue in cheek article by me on the life of an agency truck driver.
FM World kindly feature the Monday Musings column in the FacilitiesBlog section on their web site and in the fortnightly magazine that goes to BIFM members and other subscribers.
FM World featured the Monday Musings column of 28 June 2010 on its web front page. You’ll find the full bog on this WordPress site, but the FM World link is: http://www.fm-world.co.uk/comment/blog/could-you-recognise-a-customer-if-you-saw-one/
A feature in the 20 May 2010 issue of FM World magazine where I was quoted on the impact of purchasing in the FM sector http://www.fm-world.co.uk/features/feature-articles/fm-and-procurement/
A report in the November 2009 issue of Swindon Business News on my assisting the British Council with providing strategic purchasing training to the Jordanian Government http://swindon-business.net/index.php/2009/10/30/local-firm-to-assist-jordan-government/
A feature in the 1 September 2009 issue of FM World magazine on a Public vs Private Procurement round table debate organised by BDO Stoy Hayward at which I was one of the invited panel. http://www.fm-world.co.uk/login/?ReturnUrl=/features/roundtables/pound-for-pound/
Editorial in the 15 March 2007 issue of FM World magazine where I was quoted on the 2012 Olympic site project http://www.fm-world.co.uk/login/?ReturnUrl=/news/fm-industry-news/articles/olympics-procurement%3a-look-at-t5/
Editorial in the 25 January 2007 issue of FM World magazine where I was quoted http://www.fm-world.co.uk/login/?ReturnUrl=/news/fm-industry-news/articles/fms%2c-purchasers-need-to-cooperate/
A Day in the Life style feature on me in Romec Business magazine from 2003 http://www.romec.com/pdf/business/issue2/RB2-page14-15.pdf
At the time of writing all of these links are functioning, but some may require you to subscribe to the sites to obtain the full text. I’ll update this list as I track down other links.
Thanks to those who have enquired for their interest. I am happy to speak with journalists on business topics, especially in the procurement, facilities management, supply chain and logistics sectors.
what goes where
I started this blog with no clear idea of what I was doing. Social networking was new to me and I just wanted to get started.
Today I’ve put into place the thoughts that have been coming together thanks to the input of others around cyberspace that have helped me.
This blog will now become my area for blogging thoughts on leadership and team building together with sharing my own experiences so that others can, I hope, benefit from my failures and successes.
John J Bowen’s blog will take the more random thoughts that I sometimes come up with and be a bit more of a personal blog.
Gulfhaven News will blog updates from my primary business identity.
Links to the other blogs are over on the right of this blog page and, when I’ve worked through the mill later today all three blogs will have links to each other and my various web sites.
You’ll also find links here on this page to some of the other business sites and blogs that I find useful.
Thanks for dropping by, or following me, and I’ll try and keep it interesting and relevant. Let me know what you think.
thought for today
My successes have shaped me, but my failures made me.
it’s about the people
I’ve said elsewhere here in one of my rants that companies run on people, not staff, and I’m pained to see some of the actions that managers and leaders are taking at the moment. Yes, times are hard and tough decisions have to be made, many of which mean that people will earn less or stop earning. That’s life, but there are ways and means of doing things and, at the heart of it all, is that you have to recognise that making anything happen depends on people.
I have a passion for people; for treating them fairly and enabling them to get the best out of themselves. This is not some overnight revalation. It is the result of having experienced both sides (being a person and dealing with people). I’ve seen the good and I’ve seen the bad. I know which is the right way and, having got this off my chest, I’m going out to put some of it into practice.
Have a great day!
Random Rants & Soapbox Favourites
Random Rants
These are any basic rants that I feel the need to get off my chest. Some will be the sort of issues that one of my bosses used to call my soap box moments: Those topics that make want to stand on a box on the street corner and preach about. Others will be more general observations on life that I feel the urge to write about.
In many cases these rants will be slightly tongue in cheek – I try not to take myself too seriously, even if I am making a serious point. I mean to cause no offence, but if I do, then at least I have made someone think. Feel free to respond.
Having Fun
I claim to have been having fun for 25 years whilst making things happen. I’ll explain more in future posts here, but having fun at work is essential. If you’re not enjoying it you won’t be giving the job what it needs or deserves, so you are letting down your customers, your co-workers, your boss and everyone else around you including yourself.
These are hard times for finding a new job, so maybe you just have to stick it out. I’ve been there and it is hard, but it was in those exact circumstances 25 years ago that I had the revelation about having fun, and I haven’t looked back.
For me it was learning not to take myself so seriously. Yes the job was important, but you can be more serious about your job if you lighten up personally. I learned to laugh at myself and not be such a pompous ****. As people laughed with me the office became somewhere I started to look forward to being at.
So make today the day you find something to laugh at, and remember, it’s better to make fun of yourself than someone else. Life is short – enjoy it.
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