I turned on my radio this morning to listen to the Alan Brazil Breakfast show.
http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/sports-breakfast
It is a fast paced show with lively banter, discussing the latest goings on, in the strange bubble that is planet football.
The main topic of discussion today was on Francesc Fabregas, and his suppossed lack of leadership, Cesc is currently the Captain of Arsenal Football Club. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesc_F%C3%A0bregas
What essentially has happened, is one of the players, Denilson, has come out and said, what every fan who watches Football, already knows about Arsenal, and Cesc. He is a great player, but lacks leadership qualities.
Here is what Denilson was quoted, as saying. "I think that we lack leadership and without leadership we can't move forward. You can walk forward a bit but then the same thing that's happened will happen again. These things make us very sad but I don't see a player at Arsenal who is a real leader. I can't see a single one. Even if Fábregas is the captain, but he is not a leader to me."
I decided to call into the show to make my observation. I get through around 24.40 http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/listen-again/episode/17465
Now what is fascinating, is that I was having this very same conversation with a friend, who is very close to Arsene Wenger. And subsequently this has come to a head, when Cesc publicly criticised Denilson after giving away a penalty.
The Brazilian gave away a penalty to Leeds in the first tie 10 days ago and Fábregas kept the Gunners in the competition with a last-minute spot-kick of his own. Afterwards he gave Denilson a dressing down for making such a clumsy challenge. "They scored from a penalty that, at this stage when you are a professional footballer you can not give away this type of penalty so easily," Fábregas said in his post-match TV interview.
As I stated on the Talk Sport show, It is good for players to be able to communicate their thoughts and opinions. And hopefully, this trangression from Denilson, will spark the trigger for Cesc to develop his natural talent, and step up to take onboard the responsibility of learning the discipline of Leadership. As he is the Captain and Leader of one of the worlds greatest football clubs.
As Peter Drucker, considered the father of modern management, believed that leadership development begins with self-development.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker
And Jim Collins in his book Good to Great said, "Great organizations that endure over time pay attention to finding, nurturing and advancing future leaders."
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/2485
And this is why I LOVE Arsenal Football Club, and it's current manager. It is his philosophy, to develop young players, into world class players and leaders. He talks about the culture of the playing staff, and supports Cesc & Denilson by stating
“Cesc is an outstanding leader, particularly when you consider he is only 22 years old.” “But I have many leaders in the team. Cesc is the captain and Van Persie is the vice-captain, but we have shared leadership and there are many captains. Samir Nasri was captain tonight.
“I don’t think that (criticism) was the spirit of Denilson’s comments.
So what is Shared Leadership?
Shared leadership involves maximizing all of the human resources in an organization by empowering individuals and giving them an opportunity to take leadership positions in their areas of expertise. With more complex outside pressures, it is very difficult to always be at our best, when the team needs us to be. And such, means more pressure, more stresss, more anxiety, increasing the demands on leadership, the job in many cases is simply too large for one individual.
This is the culture that is being fostered.
http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2006/07/18/leadership-lessons-from-geese/
Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.
Which essentially Cesc did not do, by criticizing Denilson's error on live TV after the game. And hence Denilson has reacted by retaliating and having a pop at Cesc's suppossed lack of leadership skills.
But here they are on their way to today's game together and not sweating the small stuff.
http://twitter.com/#!/cesc4official
http://yfrog.com/h7bcqcj
I believe this is exactly what they needed, and they will go on and secure the silverware that they are working hard to win for the club and all it's fans.
Cheers,
M
