Sports journalism shows how leaders can build strong institutions (much better than most leadership books do).
The Netflix documentary Le Bus : Les Bleus en Grève tells the ugly story of the French national football team’s tragic performance during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The French coach, as the documentary reveals in stunning detail, slid into a state of psychological warfare with his senior players. Some coaches like to exploit conflict, and sometimes it works. Not in this particular case. The team went on strike and refused to leave the bus on the edge of the practice field, leaving the coach to explain to an army of reporters that his players were not content with the coaching staff.
Then it became political. The French prime minister sent his minister of sports on an urgent mission to South Africa, to bring everybody together on the same page. She was well received, but the team lost anyway and was routed. They flew home into a full-blown crisis, societal and political. The ministers played the racial card and the whole thing exploded. Judging from the participants in this intriguing documentary, the wound is still open.
Some coaches cause crises, other coaches are hired to address them. The documentary Mourinho portrays a man who is brought in when the team is a mess and winning has become an existential requirement. The Portuguese coach José Mourinho – known as “the special one” – has quite a track record. He knows how to win. He makes players believe that they will win. That’s not easy. Star players are famously insecure and thin-skinned. It takes a special one to make these players subordinate their ego, pride and financial interests to the team. But his style has a brief shelf life. He is typically soon gone, either riding the wave of his success to another club or being forced out after he can no longer steer his team to winning.