Does Jose Mourinho have a new model for business leaders? New research highlights need for management mindset shift.
Jose Mourinho led Chelsea to a third Premier League title this month. Given his success, much has been said about his leadership style but perhaps the key lesson for business to learn is his collaborative ethic. He once said his most important job was to make the players “achieve their individual objectives as a consequence of teamwork” – a perfect summary of what makes a successful business leader today.
Research by leading member-based advisory company CEB, highlights that in today’s knowledge-based environment, success depends on the ability to unlock connections, boost cross-group collaboration and rely on effective networks to unlock knowledge and get results. A leader who can deliver this network-enriched performance can deliver double-digit growth thanks to the effects of shared knowledge, improved processes and de-duplication. By contrast, a great individual leader, whose sole focus is their own performance, can add just four percent to their unit’s revenue
The problem is collaboration-focused leaders such as Mourinho such leaders are few and far between. For many, a focus on collaboration seems ‘a nice-to-have’ at best and irrational at worst – an unhelpful distraction when you should be focused on delivering against your targets, not someone else’s. This has to change if our companies are to look to the future with confidence.
CEB recommends a three-step programme to address this: Build a collaboration mindset – music can help. Organisations must help leaders self-discover by seeing in practice how individual actions affect the collective. One successful exercise run by a multinational corporation was to bring in an orchestra and let managers observe musicians to see how the group dynamic and results change when one person moves in their individual direction rather than with the group.
Make working together easier – not simply required. Great leaders hold a unique information advantage. They know who they can get help from and whom they can help. However, gathering this information costs time, effort and money which people often feel they can ill afford when they need to focus on their own business unit. Companies can facilitate this by increasing transparency into the strengths and weaknesses of particular leaders and their teams – and how these align with the overall strategy and levels of maturity of the business. The annual business review process can be a good way of bringing out this information.
Get your rewards strategy right. Many leaders understand the value of helping peers to some extent but still feel doing so puts their personal bottom line at risk. Companies need to get better at identifying and celebrating the enterprise-wide contribution as well as personal successes. One retailer has done this particular successfully by letting leaders collaboratively design shared objectives and the new sets of KPIs needed.
