Xabi Alonso, the (former) head coach of Real Madrid, was sacked this week. He lasted six months.
This is not a post about football; it’s a meditation on leadership. In the past I have often used the example of “being the coach of Real Madrid” when thinking about leading high performing teams; it will often come up when I proposed that leading a team at McKinsey, where everyone is highly paid, motivated, and skilled, is much easier than motivating a McDonald’s Drive-Thru during the graveyard shift on a Saturday night. However, now I am not too sure.
For what I am about to discuss next, you may need some context. Real Madrid is the elite club in Europe. With zero salary cap, they have long had a strategy of buying the very best players, nicknamed the Galaticos, and letting them tear it up on the field. Depending on your age, you may have heard of players like Ronaldo (Cristiano AND R9), Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Alfredo di Stefano etc. There are many, many others. The chance to earn huge wages, play for a storied club, win trophies, and (importantly) not have to live in Liverpool, Manchester, or Munich is a big plus, especially for the Spanish speaking players.
I used to joke, but still slightly serious, that if I were the coach of Real Madrid, I would win a trophy, because the players are so good, all you have to do is make sure they get on the bus and then, I don’t know, tell them to “try hard and keep your eyes on the ball?”
Turns out I was wrong.
Xabi Alonso was sacked because deep down, he was a systems coach. He had a distinct style of play, and he wanted the players to adopt to it. This isn’t just positioning and formation, it is all part of a wider philosophy on how to play.
Having a very tactical coach is great. By being smart, you can become a champion team without being a team of champions. But Real Madrid ARE a team of champions, and that is precisely why it didn’t work.
In the past 15 years, the real success hasn’t come from the “Systems” Coach, it came from the “Man” Managers. These names might mean nothing to you, but Zinedine Zidane, Jose Mourinho, and Carlos Ancelotti all won a stack of trophies while in charge, and obviously they all had some tactics, their main skill was managing the players. That can be hard! You’re dealing with 22 year olds who make €300k a week and have been idolized by thousands, and then millions, since they were 12.
As one writer put it, who inspired this post:
They understood that at a club stacked with superstars, you need a different approach, some kind of “Galactico whisperer” vibe. Because, ultimately, at any one time you’ll have half a dozen human cheat codes in your team and whatever sophisticated scheme you dream up will likely be worse than what they can conjure extemporaneously on their own.
It has made me think about leadership, and what it must be like to manage very, very high performing teams. I have come to realize that I have absolutely zero idea on how to address this issue, and while my direct report Felipe is extremely competent, these guys are, quite literally, in a different league.
It probably isn’t an issue I’ll have to deal with in this lifetime, but it is still probably something work exploring further. It was certainly fun to write about!
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