Approximate reading time: 2.7 minutes
“I’m dumbfounded. I can’t believe it.” So claimed Manchester United’s highest ranking talent manager, Alex Fergusson on learning that his star player Wayne Rooney wanted to leave for greener pastures.
That Fergusson was surprised is surely an indictment, and he must know it. This is what happens to talent managers who fail to get sufficiently close to their best performers—they are taken by surprise when reality hits.
By all accounts Fergusson has much to answer for in terms of his style of managing talent. His so called “hairdryer” tendency to shout at people so they feel the draft in their face is renowned. This is not how talent managers who really care for their top performers are meant to behave.
The manager taken by surprise by the talent heading for the exit door is all too common. Often the response on learning that the top performer is unhappy and voting with his or her feet is to feel let down and betrayed. “Nobody told me” is one reaction, though usually plenty of people will have tried and failed.
Fergusson too retreated into self-pity: “I’m disappointed, very disappointed” emphasising that he felt the player has let him down.
This idea that the talent must be loyal and when finally deciding to leave is letting the manager down is a frequent reaction to star talent walking away. Somebody must be blamed and why not the star?
Yet the evidence is that when stars depart from where previously they have done well they do not necessarily flourish in the new environment. Rather the reverse. It is one reason why poaching talent from other organisations is seldom a particularly sound strategy and certainly not a long term sustainable one.
It is estimated that around a quarter to one third of those people who companies regard as “talented” are on the lookout for a better job and will move on if they can. The recessionary climate may hold back the exit flood for a while but the most talented have little trouble finding a berth somewhere else if necessary.
Doubtless Rooney will have been tough to manage and Fergusson may be right in claiming that “There’s been no falling out. We’ve not had any argument. Not a bit.” Yet this again emphasises the critical nature of talent management. It is not simply about avoiding arguments or conflict. It is about knowing how to keep the talent fully engaged and as far as possible, hitting peak performance.
If you want to retain your brightest talent you have to be able to make sense of the information that you can obtain about what fully engages them. Most of all you have to actively listen and not suffer from what leadership guru Warren Bennis calls “tired ears.”
Compaq’s CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer for example was urged time and again to pay attention to the upstart PC makers who were stealing the company’s customers. But though he was told the bad news, he much preferred the company of those who said “yes sir”, "Aye Aye Sir”. Eventually he even stopped seeing those who were giving him the discomforting news.
Undoubtedly Fergusson had people ready to tell him that Rooney was unhappy and likely to go elsewhere, but somehow it never reached him.
It was a surprise when it happened. As Bennis puts it: when leaders lack self knowledge, their decision making capabilities are compromised. No matter what information is available to you, if you don’t know yourself—what drives you to do what you do—the likelihood of misinterpreting and misusing that data increases dramatically.
Is that what happened to Fergusson? Did he fail to hear the sound of dissenting voices; did he simply misinterpret the information that finally did filter through to him about the state of his Star’s commitment and level of engagement? Could the manager be suffering from a form of lack of self awareness?
Being a talent manager is no bed of roses, especially if you are managing sports talent. But the same principles apply to sport as in business: know your talent and what drives it.
