Top-Manager
05.06.2008
Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger: The Management Pope |
Reinhard K. Sprenger has written extensively on the topic of management, including the themes of motivation, trust and personal responsibility. His latest book, “Gut Aufgestellt” (“Well Positioned”), is a comparison between football and management. In karriereführer, he discusses international teams, the European Football Championship and what managers can learn from football. Sabine Olschner posed the questions.
About Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger
Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger, born in 1953,
lives in Zurich, Switzerland, and Santa
Fe, New Mexico. He is one of Germany’s
best-known management consultants.
He has published numerous books
about management. Sprenger studied
philosophy, psychology, economics, history
and sports at the Ruhr University
Bochum, receiving his PhD in 1985 from
the Free University Berlin. The management
author was a scientific advisor for
the Ministry of Culture in the state of
North Rhine-Westphalia and director of
“personnel development and training”
at 3M in Germany before becoming a
freelance lecturer, trainer and advisor
for personnel development. His clients
include nearly all major DAX firms. Reinhard
K. Sprenger is married and the
father of three children. He has been a
fan of the football club Red-White Essen
since his youth.More information:
Europe is moving closer and closer
together. Does this increasing internationalisation
make work more difficult
for management?
Much of what we understand about
globalisation is challenging. One could
also say that it’s overwhelming us. In
any case, we aren’t anthropologically
well prepared to work with people who
are and remain culturally foreign. In
addition to differences in gender, age
and education, there are also differences
in nationality and race.
What are the implications for
managing international teams?
For management, it means that you
can no longer consider yourself the
benchmark. We tend to manage others
the way we ourselves would like to be
managed. That approach was always
ignorant, but it is now encountering
greater resistance. We therefore have
to pay diversity more respect. “One size
fits all” is not appropriate for the complexity
of international teams.
What should managers of EU-wide
teams be aware of?
First of all, they should arrange for frequent
get-togethers. Virtual relationships
don’t work and don’t allow trust
to develop. In other words, there is no
way around intense amounts of travelling.
Secondly, you have to actively ask
participants who are English native
speakers to calibrate their language to
the comprehension and communication
levels of non-native English speakers.
Otherwise, they quickly wind up
with a silent majority.
Do international teams perform better?
It depends on what the team is
expected to deliver. If it’s really about
planning for an international audience,
then this complexity should also be
reflected in the team. For all things
relevant to national markets, that are
on a deeper level or require serious
thought, one’s own mother tongue is
the only proven means of communication.
Otherwise, the subtleties are lost.
Are there national differences within
the EU that managers should be aware
of when managing their employees?
Managers have to free themselves
from the plague of political correctness.
In other words, they have to
recognise that national animosities
have always existed and always will,
and one is well advised to be aware of
them. For example, it’s not prudent to
have Belgians and Dutch work too
closely together. And the French are
one thing above all: different.
2008 is also the year of the European
Football Championship. What can
managers learn from football strategists
like Klinsmann, Hitzfeld et al.?
The role of managers in the modern
organisation has come closer to that of
football trainers: they are coordinators
that steer the talents and energies of a
non-uniformly paid and varyingly talented
multicultural workforce. That’s why
the best football is no longer being
played in the national teams, but rather
when two top European teams with
players from five continents take to the
field. In football, as in a company, the
trick is to bring out the unique qualities
of the individual, but so that they serve
the whole. Football is a wonderful example
of why either-or is too simplistic. The
sport shows us that simultaneously “creating
unity” and “accepting diversity” is
not a contradiction. We need both. Football
also shows us that forcing players to
conform impedes successful cooperation.
If freedom is too restricted, then
desire – and later ability – slowly dies.
How can managers as well as football
trainers motivate their team to continuously
perform at their peak?
The old saying “Effort equals success,
poor effort equals failure” no longer
holds true today. In football, as in the
economy, creativity and smart teamwork
count, not blood, sweat and tears.
That’s not to say that motivation
should be neglected. But it’s just one
condition for success – and by no
means the most important. “Working
hard” is not as effective as “working
smart”. In modern football, motivation
is therefore of course required and
demanded from the player. Motivation
is an individual thing; you have it or you
don’t. Anyone who has to motivate his
players has the wrong players.
Team performance or individual performance
– which is more important for
success in football and the economy?
Business – it’s like team sports, it’s like
football. It’s the experience of relying
on others, being able to solve problems
only jointly, weathering good times and
bad times together. It will always
remain a mystery as to how exactly
team performance feeds off individual
effort. However, it’s equally clear that in
the long run, with the exception of
some extraordinary games, the team
effort determines victory and loss. The
individual might determine the outcome
of a tackle, the goalkeeper might
even decide the outcome of a game,
but the team wins the championship.
How do you account for the fact
that footballers give such varying
performances in different games?
How can one strive for a consistent
performance level?
The French philosopher Jean-Paul
Sartre already came to the profound
realisation that “in football, everything
is complicated by the presence of the
other team”. The same goes for the
economy: everything is complicated by
the presence of the competition. Success
can’t always be achieved in the
same way. Instead, one has to occasionally
recognise the ebb and flow of performance.
You shouldn’t merely criticise
yourself for not having been well
prepared and for not having tried
everything. You serve yourself best
when you always give your best.
What should managers especially look
out for with respect to the coming
European Football Championship?
How quickly the ball is passed back and
forth and how quickly the team can
switch from defence to offence – that
will decide the European Championship.
And that’s impossible without trust. If
the individual player has enough selfconfidence
not to have to hang on to
the ball for a long time in order to move
it along with precision. And if the teammate
starts for the clear before the pass.
In other words, trust makes the ball fast.
That’s why trust is ultimately going to
determine the competition.
Your personal guess: who’s going to
win this year’s European Football
Championship?
Italy has the most globalised league and
the quality of open leagues is higher.
That’s why Italy is my favourite. But football
repeatedly shows us: even the
strongest team can be beaten at a given
moment. How? Don’t overestimate the
opponent and put your heart into it.
With this approach, one can win more
than just a few games.
The book “Gut Aufgestellt” (“Well Positioned”)
Managers and football trainers have
one thing in common: they have to
motivate their team to peak performance.
Reinhard K. Sprenger draws fascinating
parallels between professional
football and everyday life in several
companies. He comes to extraordinary
new insights about management
issues and shows that the football
world is the perfect medium for analyzing
the demands of corporate life as
well as for illustrating potential solutions
clearly and colourfully.Reinhard K. Sprenger: Gut aufgestellt. Fußballstrategien für Manager. Campus Verlag 2008. ISBN 978-3593386287. 24,90 Euro
Also available as audio book (as of September 2008) from Campus: EAN 978-3593385433. 19,95 Euro