Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Special One.....Jose Mourinho or Me?

"The Special One" no dubbed was make popular by self proclaimed Jose Mourinho during a press conference in 2004 unveiling him as the new chelsea manager. That was a reference to his outstanding feats at his former club Porto who he led to two consecutive league titles (2002-2004) , UEFA cup in 2003 and a champions league trophy a year later. When he proclaimed he is the special one i have my doubt and waiting for the fall of this man. He give me an impression he is arrogant and all his previous achievement is a bit based on luck. He went on to proved himself by guiding chelsea to two Premier league titles, the F.A cup and two League Cups in just three seasons. I believed he is the most succesful chelsea manager we had ever seen. Sadly, he was replaced last season and it have taken off a bit of glamour from the English football.







Recently he said " I am not at all special. I think of myself as a great football manager, that's all. I see myself capable of adapting to difficult situations, rather than someone who is very intelligent". Jose is someone who i believed have a unique personality and the charisma to go with it. He is for certain a man of high confidence and have a sharp mind to know when, how and what to talk. Basically he is a leader with sharp instinct. A leader with sharp instinct means the ability to anticipate what is in another person mind and how this person is going to respond to that thought while this leader will use his convincing skill to change this mindset to his.








As a leader in an organisation, or with just a group of friends, i believed even with a group of friends you will have an 'unofficial' leader who can influenced everyone . To be in this position, you need to display a very high confidence character,and most of all a very sharp instinct. Every follower is looking at this traits in a leader before they can follow or else is a blind leading the blind. I think for a high confidence personality, most of us can see very clearly in many persons and if you were to meet a very sharp instict people, trust me, you will stand in awe and amazed. This type of people are very rare to be seen.








Instinct is just like a six sense. For a great years of my life i thought that people are born with this gift in them and lately i realised it can be mould just like your football skills. Of course, there are people who are born with this gift and if he did not practice it , it will fade. Just like some of us can play soccer very well and still cannot be like Steven Gerrard or Christiano Ronaldo who have the special skills in them naturally since they are born. Even how hard we trained, we will not be like them because we did not have the gift in us naturally. But we can still have good football skills.





Why you need to display high confidence level ? That is to have a very good convincing skills to change people mindset. You think fortune teller can know the future? If he can, he is already a damn rich person ,you know what i mean, right? He is basically using his convincing skills to change your mindset to his. A highly skill fortune teller is very decisive eg will tell you with a high confidence body language and voice tone that by this age, this thing will happen and later at this age...it goes on and on. In short, he just want you to believe in what he have said. I've a friend of mine who went to a fortune teller and was told by him that she is going to marry this person with this surname by this age. She started to believed and in the end she got the person with the surname to be her husband. This is what i mean to be very decisive. A not so highly skill fortune teller will tell you your future might be like this or that and in the end you get confused and says he is not good after all. Instinct? (like i said is to anticipate what is in a person's mind). A fortune teller won't need that much because he already knew 9 out of 10 people who come to him is with problems. That's why a fortune teller will always asked you at the beginning, what you want to ask. It clearly show he doens't have much instinct. Or a better one will say, i think today you want to ask about financial or love problem and you go like wow! he's sharp. Ladies and gentleman, i can tell you, most of us when we go to fortune teller will only asked this two things.





Just look at Jose now. He was a nobody when he was an assistant coach in Barcelona. His break through came when he was appointed a manager in Porto. Having tasted success in a small club like Porto, his confidence grew tremendeously. So, when he came to Chelsea , the first move he made, is to annonced that he is the 'Special one' to lead this club to be a champion, because before him nobody manage to lead this club to be a champion despite all the players are big names. You see, he is trying to change the mindset of the players. All of them knew they are all good players, but how come we are not winning anything. So the problem must be in the coach. Jose straight away dictate this problem and deal with it. So he proclaimed he is the special one and will lead them to be a champion against all odds. He use his convincing skill to deal with the players doubt in their mind and set them right. His instinct already tell him it is not the players problem but just they haven't found a good coach - A coach with a sharp instinct. Look at him now. He said i'm not at all special and i think of myself just as a great football manager. I'm capable of adapting to difficult situations. Now he is at Inter Milan, he changes his strategy. I believe his instinct will tell him what strategies to use with Inter Milan players and use his convincing skill to change the players mindset. This is called adapting. This is truly a good manager.




So you can also be a Special One if you believed. Now that Jose Mourinho claimed he is not at all special, maybe it is you who are Special!

1 comment:

John Ong said...

I don't follow football much but I do recall that when he comes in, he announced that he is not going to waste time testing the best strategy for the team because he already knows what the best strategy is. This is after the previous coach, humble and likable though he is, is rather undecisive when it comes to formation or who to field in a game, claiming that he is still testing the team.

A man without vision shall perish. Unfortunately, Mourinho's vision was perceived as arrogance by most, myself included. But perhaps his arrogance is exactly what the team need for a shift in their mentality.

I didn't see the need for his arrogance before but after what I read here, I finally understand.

Which is another problem that great leaders face. they don't think like the rest of us so they are often misunderstood.

ps: I know a friend who unofficially take a leader role during most gathering. Especially when it comes to drinking as he is an absolute expert in getting people to drink and drink till they puke without doing the same to himself. Such sharp instinct and skill in convincing others. A sign of great leadership? What do you think?