1.Which of Sir Alex Ferguson’s leadership lessons apply to any type of organization?

Explain your rationale.

Firstly, one of the Sir Alex Ferguson’s leadership lessons apply to any type of
organization is about the individual is not bigger than the organization. In this case,
Ferguson saw the importance of instilling humility in his players. He never allowed a single
player to rise above the club. Over the years, there were superstars whose egotistical
behavior caused a detrimental effect on the whole team. While most managers might
compromise in order to keep the star, Ferguson was ruthless in removing such people from
the organization. This is due to he understood that if one man’s ego was allowed to be
bigger than the club, the whole team would suffer. For example, he famously dropped
superstar David Beckham for a crucial match against title rivals Leeds United in 2000. This
shows that we need the entire team’s cooperation to achieve organizational success.

Secondly, the value of hard work, discipline and determination are also the Sir Alex
Ferguson’s leadership lessons apply to any type of organization. This can be proved that
through Ferguson was always the first on the training ground every morning. He expected
extremely high standards of discipline and character from his players, whether they were
rookies or superstars. He didn’t just focus on their skills and he wanted to ensure they had
the character and determination to maximize their talents. To him, victory came not from
talent, but from sustained, persistent effort and determination. Under his guidance, players
like David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo flourished and became household
names while playing for Man U. Similarly, the success of your team or organization cannot
merely rest on natural ability or talent and it is necessary to put in the work, be disciplined
and stay determined on the road to reaching your goals. For him, it is not enough to merely
hire the best talent. Therefore, you must also provide an environment that nurtures them
and pushes them to be even better.

Last but not least, Succession is important are also the Sir Alex Ferguson’s
leadership lessons apply to any type of organization. Through this, Ferguson recognized
the importance of developing the young players in the youth academy. In order to achieve
long-term success, he knew that investing in the youth team would strengthen the core of
the club in the future. His approach paid off in the young talents that he groomed went on

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to form the core of the Treble-winning team in the 1998-99 season. Before he announced
his retirement, Ferguson long prepared and thought about the man who would succeed him,
David Moyes. In his retirement speech to the fans, he urged them to stand behind their new
manager and support Moyes, which they did. This approach was very different from many
other top clubs in Europe who brought in top veteran managers and players hoping for
instant results. According to him, when you are building an organization for the long term,
you need to seriously consider good succession. Who is going to lead the organization in
the future? Before you walk away from any organization or position, it’s crucial to groom
someone who’s willing and able to perform your tasks at the same level that you have.
Mentor and teach this person so that when you leave, the organization can still continue
operating at the same high level.

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2. Use table 14.2 to evaluate the extent to which Sir Ferguson Alex’s display the
characteristic associated with being a good leader and good manager.

There are five approaches in determining a good leader and manager such as trait,
behavioural, situational, transformational and three additional approaches. Sir Alex
Ferguson who was the manager for Manchester United football club adopt a few
approaches that make him as a good manager.

Firstly, we can see that Ferguson adopt the behavioural approaches in his leadership.
Ferguson were usually interact more with his team. He used the empowering leadership
which is leading for meaningfulness. Empowering leadership represents the extent to
which a leader creates perceptions of psychological empowerment in others. In order to
increase his team psychological empowerment, Ferguson inspiring and modelling his team
as he came early every morning. A few years later, his team and staff was inspired by him
and come early before he did. This shows that Ferguson applied the behaviour approaches
to be a good manager.

Next, Ferguson used the relationship-oriented behaviour which is consideration.

Consideration is leader behaviour that is concerned with group members’ needs and desires
and that is directed at creating mutual respect or trust. Ferguson were very considerate with
his team as he said that is no point of criticizing a player forever and it is better for him to
praises his team for their effort.

Lastly, Ferguson apply the leader-member exchange model of relationship.

Ferguson leadership is more into in-group exchange which is the relationship between
leader and follower becomes a partnership characterized by mutual trust , respect and liking
and a sense of common fates. He have a high confidence on his team and trust that they are
doing their jobs.

In a nutshell, Alex Ferguson applied few approaches in his leadership in order to

prepare the Manchester United football club as one of the best football club. He applied
some approaches such as trait approaches, behavioural approaches and three additional
perspectives.

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3. Which different positive and negative leadership traits and styles are displayed by
Ferguson? Cite examples.

Firstly, Ferguson shows the positive leadership traits such as intelligence when he
was the manager for Manchester United. He used his intelligence in planning for the future
of the football club. For instance, he was focused on develop the younger players because
he believed that rebuilding the youth structure was crucial to fit the club’s history. At the
end, Ferguson was successfully lead the football club to be a most successful sports
franchises in history.

Secondly, Ferguson displays the conscientiousness traits in the football club.

Ferguson had set a high standard for everyone to follow it. For example, he was never
allowed a bad training session and also a lack of focus when the training was started. Since
he hoped that every players can improve their performance in each sessions. Besides, he
had to lift players’ expectations and told them all the time that they should never give in
easily. He also expected his squad to work even harder as a top players. This can be
conclude that Ferguson was conscientious in build up an outstanding football team and
hoped that all players can get a high achievement in the future.

Next, Ferguson also shows the characteristic of openness to experience. This can
be seen when he never stop adapting because he believed that the one and only way to
control the change is accepting it. That means having confidence in the people you hire
because he think there is no point in hiring them if you micromanage and tell them what to
do. He believed that the employees can do their jobs as well. Besides, he started the medical
centre because he said that provide a best training ground is the only way to keep the
players at Manchester United. Ferguson believed that if you keep improving and accepting
the changes it will lead you to be more successful.

On the other hand, Ferguson also shows the negative leadership traits such as
narcissism. Narcissism is defined as having “a self-centered perspective, feelings of
superiority and a drive for personal power and glory.” The narcissism trait manifested
through Ferguson was always having to lead the training. This is because he think he could
play the game well, he understood the technical skills, he could coach players and he had
the ability to make decision. This action cause his assistant manager’s dissatisfaction

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because he think he is work as an assistant manager but not a coach. Therefore, Ferguson
was think over and decided to delegate the training to him. This shows that Ferguson is a
narcissism person but not at all.

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4. Use Table 14.4 to determine the extent to which Ferguson exhibits servant leadership.
Provide supportive examples.

In 1970, Robert Greenleaf has coined ten characteristics of the servant leadership.
Servant leadership is focused on providing increased service to other and meeting the goals
of both followers and the organization rather than to oneself. Servant leadership is a long-
term, approach to life and work not a quick-fix approach to leadership.

Firstly, Ferguson exhibit servant leadership is able to see future outcomes. Future
outcomes are the leader can predict what will happen in the future by learning from past
experiences. Such as, he took great pride in seeing younger players develop. In his earlier
coaching experience told him that winning with young players could be done and that he
was good at working with young players. So he had the confidence and conviction that if
United was going to mean anything again, rebuilding the youth structure was crucial.

Secondly, Ferguson exhibit servant leadership is focusing on listening. Listening is

a way leader make a deep commitment to employees and understanding what they are
saying. For example, one afternoon at Aberdeen Ferguson had a conversation with his
assistant manager. As an assistant manager’s roles were working with the youth team and
assisting Ferguson with training and picking the team. Therefore, his assistant manager
discussed with Ferguson about some duty over to him. Then, Ferguson knew he was right
so Ferguson delegated the training to him and it was the best thing Ferguson ever did.

Lastly, Ferguson exhibit servant leadership is broad-based conceptual thinking.

This characteristic relates to your ability to “dream great dreams” so that you look beyond
day-to-day realities to the bigger picture. For example, most people with Ferguson kind of
track record don’t look to change. But he always felt he couldn’t afford not to change. Then
they had to be successful there was no another option for him and he would explore any
means of improving. He continued to work hard. He treated every success as my first. He
job was to give them the best possible chance of winning. That is what drove him.

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5. Which of the four types of transformational leadership behaviour are displayed by
Ferguson? Provide examples.

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership where a leader works with other

workers to identify the needed of changes, creating a vision to guide the change through
inspiration, and executing the changes in tandem with committed members in the group.
Transformational leadership also transforms employees to pursue organizational goals over
self-interests.

First of all, the types of transformational leadership behaviour are displayed by Sir
Alex Ferguson is inspirational motivation. Sir Alex Ferguson is inspiring his players to
improve their outcome and fostering a strong sense of purpose among all the players.For
example, Sir Alex Ferguson ensured every training session was a high level of performance
training that had quality, intensity, concentration, and speed. Players can improve by
involving themselves in each session. Besides that, Sir Alex Ferguson also communicated
optimism about future goals to his squad. He spread his energy and work ethic throughout
the club. He always motivated his squad to working hard in their talent to show that they
are the top players.

Secondly, the types of transformational leadership behaviour are displayed by Sir

Alex Ferguson is idealized influence. Sir Alex Ferguson guided his squad by providing
them with a sense of meaning and challenges. He also fostered the spirit of teamwork and
commitment between one another. He created trust and confidence in his team players to
achieve the goals together. For example, Sir Alex Ferguson always reminds his players to
have a work ethic in order to trust in one another. So, the players will not letting their mates
down and it can helps to build the character of a team. He also likes to focus on the team
and the strengths of the team so that they can always pursuit their goals.

In addition, the types of transformational leadership behaviour are displayed by Sir

Alex Ferguson is individualized consideration. Sir Alex Ferguson act as a mentor or coach
to his squad. He listens to his players concerns and always makes interpersonal connections
with his squad. Sir Alex Ferguson also encourages ongoing professional development and
personal growth of his players. For example, Sir Alex Ferguson delegated the training and
with picking the team to his assistant manager when his assistant manager told him that he

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supposed to assist Sir Alex Ferguson but he was just holding the position but doing nothing
for the football club.

Last but not least, the types of transformational leadership behaviour are displayed
by Sir Alex Ferguson is intellectual stimulation. Sir Alex Ferguson always encourages his
squad to be innovative and creative. He always established safe conditions for
experimentation and sharing ideas between his players. This helps the team always aiming
for consistent innovation and always taking appropriate risk to achieve goals. For example,
Sir Alex Ferguson always expected to win in every game. He is a risk taker that always
takes ready to take more risks. For example, Sir Alex Ferguson was confidence that his
players were prepared and ready to play before they walked out on the pitch. If their team
were down at halftime, he will tell his squad that do not be panic and just concentrated on
getting the task done. If the team were down in the last 15 minutes, Sir Alex Ferguson will
take the risk and change his strategic as he will put in an extra attacking player and worry
less about defense to win the match.

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6. What did you learn about leadership from this case?

Leadership is the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue

organizational goals. Leadership is all about the change by setting a direction, aligning
people to accomplish an agenda, motivating and inspiring others. Leadership also defines
as the action of leading a group of people or an organization.

First and foremost, we learn about every manager adopt approaches leadership from
in their leadership. From this case, we learn about Sir Ferguson adopt behavioral
approaches and relationship-oriented behavior approaches. He interact, inspired and
empowering his team to achieve their goals together. Besides that, Sir Alex Ferguson also
always considerate about his team as his concerned about what are the needs of his group
members. Besides that, he always create mutual respect and trust among him and his squad.

Secondly, we learn about the positive and negative leadership traits and styles that
showed by Sir Alex Ferguson. He showed his positive leadership as he always plan the
future of the football club and set a high standard for his squad. But, his negative leadership
traits shown when he always think that he can understood the technical skills and play the
game well.

In addition, we also learn about Sir Ferguson exhibits servant leadership when he
manage the football team. He able to see the future outcomes of the football club and he
have broad-based conceptual thinking as he focus on the development of younger players.
He focus on listening to understand what his squad saying to build a respect between each
others.

Last but not least, we learn about the types of transformational leadership behaviors
that displayed by Sir Ferguson, which are inspirational motivation, idealized influence,
individualized consideration and intellectual simulation. Sir Alex Ferguson showed his
inspirational motivation to his squad when he inspire his players to improve their outcome.
Moreover, he displayed his idealized influence when he guided his squad by providing
them with a sense of meaning and challenges. He also fostered the spirit of teamwork and
commitment between one another. Individualized concentration that displayed by Sir Alex
Ferguson is he act as a mentor or coach to his squad. He listens to his players concerns and

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always makes interpersonal connections with his squad. Besides that, Sir Ferguson also
showed his intellectual stimulation as he always encourages his squad to be innovative and
creative in order to achieve the goals of the football club.

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