Leadership Profile: Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson is a former Manchester United coach having started is reign in 1986 to 2013. His reign stood for 26 years, and football analyst and footballers regard him as one of the greatest managers of the modern day football. During his time at Manchester United he has won two Champions League titles, thirteen premier league titles, and five cups (Elberse & Dye 2012). He might have been successful in other clubs he managed before joining Manchester United, but his success in Manchester stand for itself (Elberse 2013). This is attested by the fact the club rose a statue on his honor after he retired. The reason for choosing Sir Alex Ferguson is that during his time as a manager he proved that he could adapt to different environment and employ different leadership skill and style to ensure that his time was on the winning side (Mohamed 2017). Moreover, he gained the suffix Sir in 1998 after his team won all the four competitions they were involved in. Additionally, he revolutionized the football game through his management and leadership styles and skills that are being envied and followed by other managers around the world.

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Sir Alex Ferguson Leadership Traits

Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the great football managers and to achieve that he had important leadership traits, which included self-confidence, team development, and communication skills. Every successful manager or leader needs to have self-confidence than he or she will succeed in every task ahead of him or her. Ferguson was self-confidence and was equipped with the right skills and knowledge to manage Manchester United (Mohamed 2017). Moreover, skills from his past managerial positions enabled him to get Manchester in its winning ways. At the start of his managerial position at Manchester, things were rough, and the fans were calling for his dismissal, but the club directors had faith in him that he was going to deliver and he delivered the FA cup and the European cup (Hytner 2015). The success was because of his self-confidence and drive have people trust in him. Additionally, Sir Alex Ferguson had great communication skill and conveyed messages that influenced people positively. Primarily, he used both verbal and non-verbal communication to pass his message. A good example is when he used the 15-minute break to inspire his team by saying that the cup will only be presented to the winner and the players cannot touch it if they lose the game. The word motivated the players during the 1999 champions league finals, and they were the winning team ate the end.

Sir Alex Ferguson Leadership Skills

Leadership skills portrayed by Sir Alex Ferguson included lead from the front, inspirational, build and maintain relationships, and instill confidence in the team. These were necessary skills as they enabled the team to get on the winning ways (Elberse 2013). For instance, the coach used to incorporate young players showing them that he had faith in them performing better on the big stage. This can be proved by the fact that during the start of the 1995-96 season the club sold their main stars as the fans expected investment Ferguson had other ideas and went for the club's young players who performed well (Mohamed 2017). Similarly, Ferguson showed the ability to move with time as over the years he was with Manchester United he rebuilt the club still maintain a successful career by winning multiple league title in three decades (Elberse & Dye 2012). Importantly, he took his time to build the youth team the scouting staff and the scouting system to fit his strategies and mold the clubs image.

Sir Alex Ferguson Leadership Style

Sir Alex Ferguson used three main leadership styles which include visionary leadership style, autocratic leadership style, and affiliative leadership style. Ferguson could have a visionary on what the team was lacking and improve on that (Elberse 2013). For instance, during his last two season, he saw that the team require an individual who could lead them upfront and he purchased the Arsenal striker back them and in resulted to the club winning the Premier League title. Moreover, through affiliative leadership style, he maintained a good relationship between his players at an individual standpoint (Hytner 2015). The organization did not experience any bust-ups between the players or the coach this indicated that the coach knew how to maintain and control his players. Similarly, he used authoritative and direct approach to attain complete control and authority over his team. This enabled him to have the job done when the team was playing.

Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the greatest managers of modern football. During his time at Manchester United he has won two Champions League titles, thirteen premier league titles, and five cups. He used three main leadership styles which include visionary leadership style, autocratic leadership style, and affiliative leadership style. Furthermore, he had several leadership skills that included lead from the front, inspirational, build and maintain relationships, and instill confidence in the team. Sir Alex Ferguson was a good manager who knew what needed to be done for the team to have positive results. Over his time at Manchester United the club achieved much, and he played an integral part in building the organization.

Reference

Elberse, A. (2013). Fergusons formula. Harvard Business Review, 91(10), 116-125.

Elberse, A., & Dye, T. (2012). Sir Alex Ferguson: Managing Manchester United.

Hytner, R. (2015). Sir Alex Ferguson's winning way. London Business School Review, 26(4), 48-52.

Mohamed, N. (2017). 5 successful traits that business leaders can take from Sir Alex Ferguson. Geneva Business News | Actualites: Emploi, RH, economie, entreprises, Geneve, Suisse.. Retrieved 13 March 2017, from https://www.gbnews.ch/5-successful-traits-that-business-leaders-can-take-from-sir-alex-ferguson/