Leadership Round the Fields of Anfield Road
By Kevin Sampath · 5 June 2019
Originally published on LinkedIn.
It’s been an unbelievable year for Liverpool Football Club, and as an avid supporter from afar I can’t help but reflect on the last 12 months with immense pride and joy. Only a couple of years ago, heartbreak in the Europa League (European football’s consolation prize, let’s be honest) seemed like Liverpool’s only chance at silverware. Clubs around the world were getting richer, drawing the cream of the crop. How do you compete with the big spenders? How do you fight for silverware when your own ‘marquee’ players prefer to move where the grass is greener?
Simple: leadership.
Many credit Liverpool’s rise to their coach Jürgen Klopp — rightly so — but I’ve also long been a keen follower of Liverpool’s captain, Jordan Henderson. What is it about these two leaders that transformed the club? And more importantly, what can we learn from them?
1. Live for your players
Klopp backs his players with the media, on the sidelines, and to the board — and that belief drives them. Before his players ran out to attempt to overturn a 3–0 deficit against one of the world’s best teams in Barcelona, he told them the task was impossible, “but because it’s you, we have a chance.”
That alone makes me want to run through a wall for the bloke. Backing your team publicly matters — but instilling self-belief individually matters just as much.
2. Don’t curb natural creativity or talent
How many times have we seen leaders — in business, and in football (cough Mourinho) — try to force individuals into their own blueprint for success? Klopp does the opposite: he learns about his players. What they do well, what they can improve, and — crucially — who they are as people.
3. Self-awareness
“That’s what leadership is: have strong people around you with better knowledge in different departments than yourself.”
Klopp says it best: “If I would expect from myself that I know everything and I’m the best in everything, I couldn’t have confidence… I know I’m good in a couple of things, really good in a few things, and that’s enough. My confidence is big enough that I can really let people grow next to me… I need experts around me. Don’t act like you know everything — be ready to admit, ‘I have no clue in the moment, give me a couple of minutes and then I will have a clue probably.’”
That might be the most powerful trait a leader can have.
4. Lead by example
This is where the unsung hero at Anfield comes in: Jordan Henderson.
Imagine being appointed captain in the footsteps of the club’s all-time greats, immediately following Steven Gerrard — the epitome of ‘lead by example’, the catalyst for crucial performances, the man who set the standard in training and on game day. Henderson has been the butt of many jokes (I ashamedly mocked his FIFA 16 cover appearance alongside Messi), yet he’s proven everyone wrong with how he trains, plays, fights for his teammates, and defends those having poor games.
Klopp puts it well: “As a leader you cannot be the last who comes in and the first who goes out… you have to be an example.”
I personally remember being a young auditor meandering through my career and coming across an incredible leader who shouldered all the responsibility — working incredibly hard at her own job while keeping her people motivated and engaged in theirs. I remember reflecting on my own performance and changing my attitude because of her example.
This Liverpool story is so much greater not because of the sixth European Cup, but because of the transformation over four or five years. And that transformation is a credit to a coach and a captain who rebuilt the club — and made supporters dream again.