Carlo Ancelotti and His Philosophy of Leadership
Performance Lessons from Leaders
The Italian Job: Carlo Ancelotti and his philosophy of leadership
A Champions League-winning Head Coach will bring cohesion to a roster full of strong personalities, different nationalities and cultures, and fashion them into a successful unit. There are not many in European soccer.
Carlo Ancelotti, however, has won three as a Head Coach to accompany the two he claimed as a player in the great AC Milan team of Arrigo Sacchi in the late-1980s and early-1990s. He spoke at Leaders Sport Performance summit in New York last year about how he inspires those around him to greatness. Performance picks some of the key lessons from that morning in Manhattan.
Carlo Ancelotti is the incoming Head Coach of FC Bayern Munich. He has won the UEFA Champions League three times as a Head Coach and has also won the English Premier League, Italian Serie A and France’s Ligue 1 during a coaching career spanning more than 25 years. In October 2015 he was the deserving winner as he Carlo picked up the special Inspirational Leadership prize at the inaugural Ancelotti Leaders Under 40 Awards at London’s Natural History Museum.
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Learning from your mistakes
Carlo has demonstrated how the old adage of learning from your mistakes can lead to emphatic results. It has certainly fashioned the leadership style that appealed to German Bundesliga champions FC Bayern Munich, who have appointed him as Head Coach this summer 1 in their quest for Champions League success. Carlo’s ability to manage a squad of big names has developed with time and experience. He is gracious enough to admit his mistakes and where he has learnt from them. “When I became Head Coach of Parma in 1996 I had the opportunity to sign Roberto Baggio.” Carlo declined to hire the renowned Italian playmaker given his fears about his ability to adapt to Parma’s playing style and he had to watch as Baggio excelled elsewhere in Italy’s Serie A.
He acknowledged that error and has gone on to coach some of Europe, South America and Africa’s most gifted players on his way to multiple successes and will now fashion his tactics to the talent at his disposal rather than imposing a philosophy from above.
Harnessing talent
Carlo works with the strong personalities and supreme talents on a roster to build a successful team. His skill is recognising that the players with the strongest characters tend to be the hardest working and cites the example of Sweden men’s national soccer team captain 2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whom he coached at Paris Saint-Germain between 2011 and 2013. Zlatan has not always enjoyed such solid professional relationships with his coaches but Carlo harnessed the Swede’s professionalism to bring unity to the roster. “It was important to have Ibrahimovic, the best player with good professionalism. He was a model for others to follow in training sessions because he concentrated every time.”
It fits in with his more relaxed style of leadership, which is at odds with some Head Coaches in European soccer. “My style is not to impose. I would like to convince the players of what they are doing.”
Cultivate new leaders
Responsible leaders work to create new leaders and it is unsurprising that several of Carlo’s former players have gone on to coach at the highest level, including Zinedine Zidane, the current Head Coach of Champions League finalist Real Madrid CF. In working in a way that 3 develops lieutenants on the field he is priming his players for future head coaching roles and following in the footsteps of his former Head Coach at Milan Arrigo Sacchi, who would later appoint Carlo as his assistant with the Italy men’s national football team.