Jose Mourinho Sacked, Some Lessons on Management!

My club Chelsea FC has decided to let go of Jose Mourinho, I'm a happy fan that he is gone and I hope they signed an agreement that he will never come back. A lot of folks like him, which is understandable because most football fans enjoy the hooligan type of engagement of which Jose Mourinho was a master. However in his downfall there are management lessons for all and some are as follows:

Despite Achieving Much, Be Humble

Being humble makes you identify with all classes of people, the poor, the rich, the educated, the ignorant. Jose was not humble, humility is a word which doesn't exist in his vocabulary judging by how he viewed those with less achievements than himself. Anyone in management who behaves like him is guaranteed to fall and fall dismally one day.

Resist to Be Proud

Pride is good when it is left inwardly, once you start throwing it around it can become toxic. Here is a man whose pride reached the heavens, sadly it became a trap. There were incidents he could have saved himself by saying
"I'm wrong or I'm sorry" but kept digging himself in.

Respect Another's Hustle

Someone else's job might look useless & counter-productive but understand why it is important in the whole scheme of things. Jose has brought the results and cared little how they were made possible. His treatment of club doctor Eva Carneiro showed that he viewed other role players as useless or nuisance to his cause of getting results. For a moment he was winning that feud driving her out. But soon the player at the centre of the furore Eden Hazard slumped in performance, he must have felt bad for the doctor and the weight of her loss was on his shoulder. His failure to perform resulted in Jose's firing no doubt.

Have a Thought About Public Relations

In management you can get the limelight with many microphones shoved in your face, the media will encourage you and smile at everything you utter but you must have your thoughts to screen the information you speak. Jose thought getting front page every week was good, he basked in the limelight but little did he know the media has no friends, only ‎an ear and eye for the next story to sell. It wasn't long before the media vultures circled around his head, if he never saw himself a carcass, he was now the meal. His lack of public relations came back to haunt him badly.

Always Put Yourself in Others' Shoes

It is easy to get careless in management when things don't go your way. An employee can mess up the work like causing a whole batch of expensive products to be written off. But if you don't have the understanding of what it is to be in their shoes you can ruin the next batches too. Jose was not shy to say anything about his players in the media. No one player felt it more than Nemanja Matic, put on as a substitute and taken out as a substitute again, media pointed out that this was humiliation on the player, Jose thought otherwise. Another one was Rueben Loftus-Cheek who was slated for being a bad player despite the youngster putting a good game. These players probably agonised on why they were out of favour with him, at the time of his sacking Loftus-Cheek has been anonymous while Nemanja Matic was a shadow of his former self.

Show Impartiality

You will have employees whom you identify with as a manager, maybe on skin colour, culture, religion or any other traits. However resist the urge to be partial in how you treat them. Every Chelsea fan knows there were players who got away with murder the likes of Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Branislav Ivanovic. They never got reprimands despite poor showing on the field. These were untouchables and this showed. Whatever reason that gave them immunity only Jose knows but in dishing out punishment he proved his partiality.

Don't Play Politics, Do Your Work

In an organisational setting it's easy to throw others under the bus especially when you are at variance with their decisions. An accountant might frustrate that entertainment budget ‎of yours but that is no reason to go political. At Chelsea Michael Emenalo is responsible for buying players, Jose for putting them onto the team. He did fire salvos at Michael for players he bought branding one too short for defence and writing off the other one without even kick a ball. He was just playing politics because the HR guy didn't get him what he expected.

Shy Away from Scapegoating

When something goes wrong, there is likely someone who is blame worthy but if you should be successful in management do not look for scapegoats even where a scapegoat is walking naked in front of you with a red hat. Great managers find ways to adapt and improvise. So the order arrived late, it has happened mend relations with the requestor and show composure. The temptation might be to say "that useless Purchasing Manager..." resist it. When you get used to scapegoating, people will learn that it's your way and be extra careful then when you make a mistake they will not have your back. Jose Mourinho used FA, referees, players and fellow managers as scapegoats, the times he was wrong and they were right, he paid for it in fines and bad publicity. Think of his rant at referee Jonathan Moss, it quickly made it out and shamed him, had he been less scapegoating, things might have turned out differently. Compare with Arsene Wenger when Arsenal moved from Highbury, fans decried bad results, it was easy for Wenger to say "they are not giving me money to buy players" but he kept calm.

Conclusion

In the end you can become a success because chance allows it but remaining on top demands that you do things right avoiding the booby traps that come with being at the top. Consider Donald Trump, he made it and is a billionaire but he is the Jose Mourinho of politics in the United States. The media gives him the microphone at every instance because controversy sells. But when the time comes he will be a forgotten man and the glamour of attention will be gone. I love the bible because it has lessons for us which are proven every time. The situation of Jose Mourinho bring Psalm 37:35-37 "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." It's easy to judge him from our position but equally easy to fall into the same trap.