Your business is only as good as your team

“One of the most important things I learnt from Bobby Robson is that when you win, you shouldn’t assume you are the team, and when you lose you shouldn’t assume you are rubbish.” Jose Mourinho – Chelsea Football Club Manager

 

The lethal team: Mourinho (front centre) with Faria (right) and Louro (left) at Wembley- Photo credit: DailyMail UK

 

 

 

Jose Mourinho, one of the best football coaches of all time, started his coaching career as a translator for Bobby Robson, the manager of Sporting Lisbon in 1992. He technically was his assistant.  When Robson was sacked by Sporting in December 1993, Mourinho moved on with him to FC Porto. That team dominated Portuguese football for three years.

In 1996 the duo moved FC Barcelona .  When they finally split, Bobby Robson regretted a lot because he knew what a great combination the two had been. They had worked together beautifully but Mourinho couldn’t remain an assistant coach forever. He started his own career as a manager.
Jose knows the importance of a good support team. When he was appointed to Chelsea in 2013, he brought ,he brought with him three members of his backroom staff from Real Madrid; namely Rui Faria, a fitness coach but in reality a close and trusted assistant, Silvino Louro, a goalkeeping coach who was accused of being a spy among the playing staff at Real Madrid, and Jose Morais, a technical assistant.
Entrepreneurs know that for every successful business, there are thousand more which fail to make it out of the garage. In the rush to get started, some entrepreneurs focus solely on their product or strategy rather than paying attention to people on their team.
Entrepreneurs need to build strong teams to take themselves out of the critical path. Small business owners and self-employed people spend most of their time working “in” the business, rather than “on” the business. Your business must be able to run without you. You need to get people with the relevant skills to support all the fundamental aspects of your business, such as marketing and selling, financial management, production and distribution. If you don’t have people following, you are not yet a leader. True entrepreneurs are leaders.
How do you build a great team? Read the article in BusinessLink magazine digital April issue, available on my website from 30 March, 2014. If you want a sample copy emailed to you, just complete the form on the website.

Phillip Chichoni is a business development consultant, trainer and publisher of BusinessLink Magazine. You can contact him for all your business plans, company and PBC registration, marketing advice, tax consultancy and accounting, his email is chichonip@smebusinesslink.com or visit http://smebusinesslink.com.

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