Five lessons from the Champions League for everyday leadership

Five lessons from the Champions League for everyday leadership

As someone from Hamburg, I would not call myself a Bayern Munich fan, and certainly not a fan of their former coach Thomas Tuchel. But today I am defending the much-criticised former Bayern coach. It was April 2023. Bayern had lost the first leg of their quarter-final against Manchester City 3–0. The decisive second leg was approaching, seemingly a hopeless task. Bayern needed to win by at least four goals to progress.

At the press conference before the return match, journalists asked Tuchel whether he still believed in a miracle against Man City. I found his answer impressive: “It is unrealistic to announce the #Goal: we’ll win 4–0! That is unrealistic and not very #Motivating. We need realistic goals, such as winning each half and then scoring one more goal. That gives us a realistic chance. It is about finding belief and having belief. At the same time, believing does not mean dreaming; we have to do something for it. We are responsible for making the spark catch, for bringing the crowd with us, and then for doing everything we can and delivering an absolutely top performance. Otherwise, success is impossible. Then we do it step by step, half by half.”

For me, that statement contains several messages and attitudes that translate very well into #EverydayLeadership:

1. Never give up, even when your starting position is far from ideal.
2. Keep your major goal in sight.
3. Break the big goal into realistic, smaller milestones, such as winning each half, and communicate a firm belief that the goal can be achieved.
4. Take responsibility and ensure that a spark of enthusiasm catches and spreads.
5. Start working towards the milestone step by step.

In the end, Bayern Munich and Man City drew the second leg 1–1, and Bayern went out in the Champions League quarter-finals. Tuchel then lasted only a little over another year as Bayern’s coach, but that is another subject. His attitude and statements at that press conference nevertheless belong in the Champions League of everyday leadership.

Attitude #Leadership

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