Fellows Book Online Version 2020

14 need to actually write down all the things that you believe as a human being, your convictions, your values, your principles, your strong beliefs”. As I realized later on, leaders have got to make decisions and you can only make decisions, good decisions, right decisions, if you actually know what you believe as a human being. Basically, Marcello was encouraging me to write my own personal constitution, he was encouraging me to look inside myself and understand the person that I was before the manager I wanted to be. I believe that he wanted me to find out my own character because I think that the things that you believe determine the way you face situations and the decisions that you make. These decisions are defined by your values, your beliefs. So, if you are facing a situation as a coach you need to know what to do based on what you believe. For example, if a player has a problem with the club are you going to support the player, or are you going to support the club? Do you believe in honesty, in integrity when talking to the player, in talent, in hard work? All these things are very important. They define your character. In my opinion, leadership is a transmission of your character, so the way you are, you pass it on to your players in football. I think leaders create leaders, they make them feel important and they set an example. I think that you cannot be effective without discipline and you can’t have any discipline without character, so again, leadership is about finding out who you are and transmitting your character to others. Leadership is a service business and you know service comes with sacrifice, so you need to be prepared to sacrifice yourself and help others to became leaders. I don’t believe you can be a great leader unless you know how to follow, great leaders have been very good followers. The third thing I want to talk to you about is another personal experience. I had been in charge at Chelsea for about three years and another two years as a player and we ended up winning five trophies in this time. I thought to myself that we have been very successful, I mean Abramovich was the president and he had so much money available. Anyway, in late September 2000 I got a phone call and I was asked to go to the office and meet the chairman and I knew he wanted to renew my contract, my contract was going to expire at the end of the season. So, I thought, it’s the right time for me to negotiate a better contract but also to discuss all the things I wanted to change in order to make the club more successful; training ground, logistics, organization, everything. I had a sort of European style mentality and I wanted to make lots of changes, so I remember driving to Stanford Bridge and thinking about the strategy. I thought he called me today because he wants me to be unprepared so the negotiation would be in his favour. I arrived at the training ground, I sat down and the first thing they said to me was “Luca, thank you very much. You have done a great job, but we are going to sack you, we are going to fire you.” Imagine how I felt, I was shocked, I was an inexperienced young man. I thought that l had done a very good job, so I was left speechless, no words whatsoever. I only managed to say “Look, I believe you are making a mistake” and Colin Hutchinson, the managing director said “Luca, you told me many times you felt that after a few years you have to change the manager or you change the players because the relationship is not there anymore.”