Introduction
Portuguese journalist Luis Lourenço wrote this book based on his Masters Degree’s thesis, which was devoted to Mourinho’s leadership. Lourenço was a long-term family friend and a fan of Mourinho. He managed to observe his achievements not only in football but also in team-management, and presented his analysis of an outstanding football coach in “José Mourinho: Special Leadership.”
Summary
It is noteworthy that this work begins with the preface from Peter Drucker, one of the most famous leader practitioners. He suggests that a true leader is the one who “produces results through others” (Lourenço, 2014, p. 3). Drucker stresses that it requires being a chief manager at the bottom of the inverted pyramid (in this case, it is a football team), whose management is supposed to satisfy coach’s client – the club he works for. However, he believes that it is not just about being a hardworking professional. The leader should find that one thing he is good at, focus on it, and enjoy it. In this story, the main character is José Mourinho, and such preface is not a coincidence, as the iconic coach exemplifies Drucker’s principles in real life.
In the first chapter Lourenço pays attention to the strategic mindset of Mourinho. His rigorous approach is based on concentrating on victories only, and this result is impossible without thinking ahead. The author calls him “a predator of future victories” (Lourenço, 2014, p. 11). Even when the first failure happened, Mourinho accepted it with dignity and saved his image of a leader, who is capable of foreseeing the events. Also, Lourenço wonders whether Mourinho is perceived in public as a football coach or a massive influencer. Mourinho himself compares his image to the role of human resources manager. The real answer is that as a media figure he can influence crowds, and he does inspire millions of adults and young people, so he has become greater than just a coach.
In the second chapter Lourenço analyses Mourinho’s approach to work through complexity theory. In brief, he claims that Mourinho regards his team as a complex whole, where every part is dependent on the others, and hence, athletes turn into a successful team only if the process of training is continuous, cooperated, and is aimed at one common goal – to be champions. The club and structures connected to the players are also considered as a part of this body, and perfect performance is impossible without constant interaction. Reducing this complexity is not an option for Mourinho.
Later, the author applies different leadership theories to Mourinho’s work. He suggests that from the perspective of complexity, Mourinho’s leadership should be regarded as “a dominant, which stands in a whole without decontextualizing it” to understand all his work as a manager (Lourenço, 2014, p. 37). Mourinho himself looks at leadership as a process of guiding the team like a parent, who wants to make his child skilled and well-prepared for autonomy. Thus, he represents the concept where “effective leadership facilitates and fosters individuals consciousness” (Lourenço, 2014, p. 39). The high-quality relationship between the coach and the team led them together to success.
Finally, Lourenço describes the career path and progress of José Mourinho. He provides readers with interviews and quotes from other famous football activists. Mourinho’s passion, focus on the victory, and loyalty to the role of the leader are obvious in his every action. Lourenço makes an attempt to categorize his type of leadership and presents Mourinho’s method of “Guided Discovery,” which gives a deeper understanding of the way he managed his teams. Lourenço arrives at the conclusion that Mourinho is a charismatic type of a leader and it contributed to the creation of a cult of his personality.
Conclusions
This book was not chosen by chance. Luis Lourenço created not just a portrait of José Mourinho, but he applied his vision of the legendary coach to the modern leadership and management theories. For instance, the framework of “Guided Discovery”, which includes smart guidance, motivating players to brainstorm, and building trust atmosphere, corresponds to the “four activities of knowledge management of any organization”: information capture, creation of ideas, information storage, and distribution of information (Lourenço, 2014, p. 71). Moreover, this work gives a new look at neo charismatic theories and gives a thorough description of a typical transformational leader. The author managed to compare different approaches to leadership and find those which are closer to José Mourinho. At first, it was unexpected to see a detailed review of complex theories in a book about the football coach. However, it is not a biography, and the whole process of analysis was clear, easy to read, and relevant to the goal of Lourenço.
To conclude, reading this book helped me with personal evaluation of various leadership concepts. Such a pure example, illustrated here, simplifies the process of learning them. The first thing that I learned includes the main ideas about leadership assembled in one phrase: “Leadership means to command, to lead, to guide people through unknown paths” (Lourenço, 2014, p. 15). Mourinho is the right example to follow In this case. Another important conclusion for me is that in the modern rapidly changing world any leader should be a highly adaptive visionary, emotionally intelligent and capable of constantly developing the team as a whole body. Therefore, success is imminent.
Reference
Lourenço, L. (2014). Jose Mourinho: Special leadership. Creating and managing successful teams. Germantown, MD: Prime Books.