This article was written by our guest blogger Martin Iozev.
Last night Leicester City won English Premier League. No one believed at the beginning of the year that this could happen. That is best captured in the betting odds in the starting of the season – 1:5000.
Everyone is amazed by this performance. Coming from 14th place last year, fighting to stay in the Premier League and then this year Leicester city have won the title!
There are many reasons for Leicester city to succeed, however three reasons stand out from the rest:
Team Spirit.
This is classical example of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. This team doesn’t have prima donnas, however there is a sense of empathy which allows everyone to focus on the gains for the team instead of their individual goals.
Relaxed management style.
Claudio Ranieri is calm and always positive, he is also not the star of the team. Ranieri is not seeing himself as the boss of the team, but as the facilitator that allows players to give their best. His ability to trigger players’ internal motivation allowed Leicester city to stay on the winning path and ultimately to beat the odds.
As expectations and pressure grew, Ranieri softened his team’s ambitions. Modesty in public affairs can be cleverer than hyping up expectations. By keeping their ego under control, players and managers in Leicester city gave the world the recipe for success.
Focus on the strengths.
Not succeeding in one area can be helpful, if you can then focus on doing better elsewhere. The team didn’t do well in cup competitions, but was then free to concentrate on winning league games. They adopted the approaches of the biggest football clubs in using new technology and analyzing lots of data on how players perform.
Avoiding distractions and focusing on “one game at time” was the key to Leicester’s success.
Maybe it is not a coincidence that the club chairmen Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha comes from Buddhist Thailand?
