This Week: Key Lessons you can learn from Jose Mourinho sacking

Kelvin ESIASA

By Kelvin Esiasa

One key lesson an employee can learn from Jose Mourinho sacking is that the employer is only pleased with an employee when all is right. This means that no employer is loyal to the employee. It also meant that the employer cannot rely on the past performance of the employee when making a decision during tough times.

When sacking Mourinho, Chelsea Management said that they had sacked their Manager in the best interest of the club and thanked him for being their best ever Manager in Chelsea’s history.

Jose thought being the special one was evidence enough to be spared from being sacked by Chelsea. He thought being the most successful Manager was evidence enough to be stopped from being fired.

The second key lesson is that an employee cannot change the management structure of the organization especially if the organization is influenced by the owner. Mourinho thought he would go back to Chelsea and become the King and rule the English Premier League. Mourinho thought he would use Chelsea to climb the ladder and become the golden father of EPL. Mourinho also thought that he could assist in changing the management style for Chelsea which was used to hiring and firing coaches whenever they lost matches. Mourinho thought he could change the Abramovich mindset from being the oil tycoon to a corporate Manager. He thought he could instill some corporate mannerism in Abramovich. He also thought he could assist the Chelsea players to have a winning mentality and stop them from using football boycott to fire the Managers. But all this has ended in disgrace as the ‘Jose’was  sacked by his close friend.

The third key lesson is that performance is what counts. It might be soccer but it is still a business, performance is what counts at the end of the day. Chelsea are a big club and Jose is probably in top five of the world’s best coaches who have won everything but in this case he is still expected to perform just like any other Manager.  Even decorated warriors still have to perform on the day of any battle, failing to do so can result in instant death. Some jobs just require that you perform. There is no use singing past glories as a cover of what is possible.

The fourth key lesson is that no one is indispensable as long as you are an employee you can be sacked anytime. One thing Abramovich has taught us time and time again is that no one is indispensable. He changes world class managers at the slightest hint of slacking off. Jose could have had credit for winning the league just last season but the performance of the team came first hence he was sacked.

Abramovich, who fired Mourinho told the players he had been reluctant to sack the most successful manager in the club’s history. He also added that he was left with little option but to fire the Portuguese coach after Chelsea were beaten for the ninth time this season in the Barclays Premier League by high-flying Leicester City.

The last key lesson that can be learnt is that we should not blame others for your failure but take responsibility for all tasks given to you. As much as Jose is charismatic, some things were not necessary to be saying in public like “I feel the team betrayed me” or something that sounds like that. A team is made up of humans and they have their way of reacting. Don’t play games with the media and forget to play the actual game that matters. In life you will have distractions but never take your focus away from the actual target that you are trying to achieve.

Kelvin Esiasa is President for Zambia Society for Public Administration and Society for Family Business.