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Barry Siskind

UFI’s Community Manager

Gerard Houllier is the Global Sporting Director for Red Bull Soccer, France. During his illustrious career he was also the head coach for many winning soccer teams. Houllier delivered the opening keynote at this year’s Congress in Bogotá, Columbia. During his presentation he revealed 11 of his 29 well-tested ingredients for managing successful teams. His eleven were:

  • Goals – Well articulated goals give the team a common vision and philosophy.
  • Work – It is important to work with consistency.
  • Attitude – Your attitude as a leader will develop the best of your team’s talents.
  • Enjoyment – Better results come with a good working atmosphere
  • Positive – A happier organization is more efficient
  • Adaptability – It is important to adapt for the future
  • Competitiveness – The will to win is as important as the skill to win
  • Communications – When things go wrong, blame the action and not the author
  • Leadership – A leader is the one who makes people on the team pull in the same direction
  • Team Pride – A feeling of pride in the team creates a feeling of belonging
  • Confidence – Each member of the team needs to know that they are important.

It’s hard to argue with the validity of any of these eleven ingredients. I think his genius as a coach provides an underlying lesson to us all that when we find ways of integrating all eleven our business team will be more effective, better motivated and ultimately more successful. To me, using this sports metaphor fits the business management model perfectly.