Drugs, football – and succession management

The US sprinter Antonio Pettigrew was in court in San Francisco last week, in the trial of athletics coach Trevor Graham, who has presently denied charges of lying to US federal authorities. The court heard Pettigrew testifying that Graham encouraged him to inject human growth hormone and EPO, both banned substances, from 1997. Pettigrew testified he soon began buying the drugs from Angel Heredia, an admitted steroids dealer, and his performance showed a remarkable improvement as a result:

I was running incredible times as I was preparing for track meets," Pettigrew said during 30 minutes of testimony. I was able to recover faster.

So, from Pettigrew’s statement we have further confirmation that drugs are in sport, and that they enhance performance. And what does Pettigrew do now for a living – he’s a coach at the University of North Carolina.

I have always been a believer in the trickle-down theory of education and management: that staff will learn from their managers, and act/react in the same way as those above them. In psychology, this is called “soldiering.”

In football last week, Sir Alex Ferguson won his second European Cup, what is presently known as the Champion’s League. But although that now means he is just one win away from Bob Paisley’s record, could Ferguson’s long term legacy be even greater?

Shankly raised Paisley to be a better manager than himself; Paisley in turn raised Ronnie Moran (best forgotten), but also taught Kevin Keegan, Graeme Souness, Phil Neal and Emlyn Hughes, who all went on to be managers – none though with much success.

Ferguson has so far taught Carlos Queros, who in his single season at Real Madrid failed miserably by their high standards – he’s now back as Ferguson’s side, and most likely to succeed his boss. But more remarkably, of Ferguson’s playing side Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce and Roy Keane are presently Premier League managers, while Steve Coppell was until two weeks ago. Paul Ince – who played for both Ferguson’s United and Roy Evan’s Liverpool – is presently the most sought after manager in the lower English leagues.

So, what will Antonia Pettigrew’s legacy be to his own athletics students – could it be “take drugs, run faster – cause that’s how I did it;” or will it be “don’t take drugs, or like me you’ll end up in court and have to probably give your medals back.”
Often, companies when they recruit miss two things – what they are recruiting (not just a set of skills, but an investment in their own future. Look for skills plus potential coach/managers); and the most obvious – why are they recruiting? Vodafone today took one of the bravest leaps, by announcing the promotion of Vittorio Colao to succeed Arun Sarin as CEO - a job he was passed over for when Sarin originally took the job, and was then rehired after two years away from the company. If your company needs a skills leap or change, then external candidates make sense – but just another piece of muscle for the sales team or the board room really sounds like there’s a poor coach at the centre of the team: and then you really ought to be looking to hire there first, not elsewhere to cover up that person’s failing as a coach for the next generation, and the companies future.