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Leadership Lessons - Ian Holloway

This is the second instalment of what I am planning to be a regular theme within my blog. 

As a school leader I always felt, and continue to feel, that leadership lessons can be learned from all walks of life, and today I am going to focus on the football manager Ian Holloway.

In over 20 years of management, Mr Holloway has lead several high profile teams including Leicester City, Crystal Palace and Blackpool. He is currently back in management, at the helm at Swindon Town. As a manager he is known for his honesty and colourful personality, as well as for his refreshingly 'west country' turn of phrase. I have to state that find the latter really engaging, as I was born in the same city, and perhaps in the same hospital, as him. Most importantly though, behind the quirky and often humorous outer layer is a very deep thinker and an astute leader, and it is for his leadership style that I have chosen him for my second 'leadership lessons' post. 

In my blog, and in my yet to be published book, I describe myself as a 'cultivational' leader, as I believe strongly that a leader is like a gardener in that we need to provide our staff, and in school terms our children, with the conditions that they need to flourish, as a gardener does when they are cultivating their plants. It is important to note that the word 'cultivational' also includes 'culture' as I believe a leader needs to spend significant time working on the culture of their organisation in order for it to be successful.

Mr Holloway has certainly inspired me to develop as that kind of leader through his managerial exploits over the years, and I thought that today it would be a good idea to illustrate that with a couple of examples of actions he has taken which show that, in my view, he is a cultivational leader.

The first incident occurred early in his managerial career, on August 12th 2006. His Plymouth team had just beaten Sunderland away, which was his first away win as manager of the side. To celebrate this win, he offered to buy all of the Plymouth fans who had travelled to the match a drink. This generous and thoughtful gesture showed to me that he understood the importance of building a positive culture at the club and I am sure that it galvanised the fans for the rest of the season. As a leader I have always tried to demonstrate that thoughtfulness is one of my core values and pass that on to my team.

The second bit of cultivational management I want to consider happened in 2011, following his team's 3-0 defeat to Fulham. At midweek training before the next game, rather than force his players to train harder to get over the defeat he told them to go out and have a few beers to unwind, and threatened to fine them two weeks wages if they didn't! This brilliant move showed that he cared for his players and wanted to build them up after a poor performance, and I am sure that they repaid his gesture a hundred fold. This is an excellent example of a nurturing leader and one who knows how to get the best out of his team. Knowing when to challenge and when to support is something that not every leader does in my experience.

There is no better way to finish this post other than a direct quote from Ian Holloway himself, speaking on BBC Scotland in 2021. I think that if more leaders approached their roles with these words of wisdom ringing in their ears then the world would be a better place.

"If you're going to coach people it's about getting the best out of them, so whatever you're thinking, you've got to revert it back to them. I like to encourage people to make mistakes, and then if the press start on about that person I will protect them... We have to trust them to do what we are trying to let them do."

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