Leading by Alex Ferguson

I thoroughly enjoyed Leading. It is an extension IMHO of a Harvard Business Review article that ran a few years ago.

Easy read, great stories. Recommended for all, not just for Man U fans (I am not one!!!).

My 5 Stars is based purely on my enjoyment of the book. It was a fun, easy read with great stories of great teams and players from the past and the journeys of some of the new stars. The stories were interesting and compelling and that is what sold me on the book.

As far as being revolutionary in new leadership trends, not so much. His leadership style is simple, straightforward and has been addressed in many other texts and magazines.

If you are looking to read about football and players and journeys - buy it. If you are looking for a book on leadership, I would search elsewhere. Something old - Maxwell. Something new - Start with Why or Turn the Ship Around.

A very easy read to gain many leadership perspectives and views. Sir Alex is a man who is greatly admired but seen as a somewhat stern and aloof character but he is more a man pursuing a higher level of perfection as each year passed by. It is one of the best leadership books I’ve read and is particularly inspirational.

Amazing book.

It is a modern trend to learn leadership skills on universities around the world. Lecturers try to convey messages about how to lead a group, team, or company, despite the fact that more often than not, they are confined behind desks at faculty rooms.

This is a leadership book like no other, since it is written by a lecturer never bounded by desks. Sir Alex Ferguson (SAF) is one of the worlds most decorated football managers, and his retirement in 2013 ended an illustrious career of trophy-laden journey. Afterwards, he took lecturing duties at Harvard Business School, of which this book, "Leading", is based upon.

It is fair to say, therefore, that this is a textbook of leadership. It is a textbook not filled by technical jargons or whatever. Instead, this is SAF telling you almost first hand on important leadership skills, particularly those that he found most pivotal. He divided those skills into tiny, bite-sized parts that are consumable in minutes. Not with theories, instead, he told us readers how he developed those skills while working mainly for Manchester United (1986-2013).

It is almost in essence a complement to his two autobiographies, "Managing My Life" and "My Autobiography". However, this book looks even more like a set of life lessons compared to his two autobiographies. The way he organized the book actually makes it easy to read, and makes you also desire to read more—I finish the entire book in less than 10 hours, because I cannot put it down.

It has a lot of great insights from the boss himself. Do not be surprised that you may find some stories have been told before in either of his past autobiographies. Nonetheless, this remains a very captivating reading, and for the purpose of Leadership 101, "Leading" has a lot to offer, straight from "the" boss himself.

Reading this book is like sitting by a fireplace with a pint of ale, hearing Sir Alex Ferguson talking you about leadership.
Lots of nuggets of wisdom from a hard worker who always put the maximum attention to details.
What emerges is the utmost respect for his colleagues, rival teams. Good read not only for soccer/football fans, but for whoever is interested in leadership and self improvement.

Like some other reviews noted, the title could be a bit misleading if you picked this book up just for the Leadership advice part of it. It seemed to me (and I think the co-author Sir Michael Moritz mentioned it in the Epilogue) that the book was a result of multiple conversations about interesting questions around leadership that he had for Sir Alex.

I have not read other books about Sir Alex and I can see some overlap with the content in this book since there are a lot of personal experiences from his time at Manchester United.

I was hesitant to read the epilogue but I am glad I did read (most of) it. The author compares and contrasts Manchester United and Six Alex to some of the Silicon valley tech giants and their founders.

And I was hoping (but not expecting) to learn about Sir Alex as a person rather than just as a management guru and the book did that.

Fantastic book written from a different perspective on one of the greatest man managers and leaders of all time. Sir Alex was relentless, smart, intuitive and build team after successful team restoring Manchester United to their historic glory and status. There are golden nuggets of experience and strategies contained within that are priceless. Fabulous read for the football fan or business man, anyone who wants to learn how Sir Alex built success and maintained such high standards year after year.

Some info that will appeal to football supporters especially those Utd fans. However there is a tendency to over emphasise the skillset of Sir Alex Ferguson with that neede by those in industry & other professionals. No doubt Sir Alex has leadership qualities but I believe its an indulgence to compare him to those who require leadership skills for more crucial & lifechanging roles!

So, this book is terrible. Im only 50 pages in and simply cannot continue.

I neither know nor really care about football or Manchester United, but I was rather hoping to learn something about leadership. I certainly remember Man United was known as a great club 10-15 years ago, and its dont pretty well. Learning that one man managed the team, and provided a consistent quality level, was encouraging.

However, the book is full of highly misleading statements. For instance, the Alex Ferguson unabashedly tells us that (1) he came from a very poor family, (2) he places a (tremendously) high value on people working hard (putting the hours/time in), and (3) he always liked to hire players from similar backgrounds to him, because he found that they (a) seemed to work harder and (b) he could understand them better; he also says that players from lower income backgrounds were better and easier (for him) to manage. And that he actively discriminated towards people with lower income background, admired them more, etc.

A lot of that sounds like *his* comfort, with a healthy dose of self fulfilling prophecy to boot.

Or the nauseating bit in the "discipline" section on "crossing into what some of the players might have considered their private territory - hairstyles and jewellery." Alex Ferguson explains that he felt comfortable doing so because he "never understood why some players would want to have long hair when they spend so much effort trying to be as fit and quick as possible. Anything, even a few extra locks of hair, just didnt seem sensible."

Yes, anything you disagree with - cant see the reason for - is automatically invalid. Fantastic bit of leadership advice there, Alex.

And so gracious about compromise - "I did manage to persuade [Karel Poborsky] to trim his locks but, even so, they were always too long for my taste." Who cares, Alex? Youre doing this because not because it makes him a better player, but because you dont like men with long hair. Acknowledged a few sentences later, when he explains why he couldnt ban tattoos - "it was hard - even for me - to argue that [tattoos] added any extra weight." But you tried anyway, because it wasnt about the instrumental impact (the game) but imposing your personal preferences on them. Charming.

I also rather liked the appalling bit of self forgiveness in talking about his anger issues. "Even though [...] I had a tendency to explode, my temper usually did not have a destructive effect. That was not the case for players who abandoned their self-control and self-discipline on the field [...] it could have bitter consequences for the team."

Yes, Alex Ferguson, the man who explains his anger problems as a "tendency" that was acceptable because there was no "destructive effect", explains why he was justified for lambasting players ("I made no secret about my displeasure...") for losing their temper as well. And note the language - he starts the section explaining that his father, his mother, and he were always very self-disciplined and self-controlled, and then turns around and talks about players "abandoning" those values he prizes so highly. Even while forgiving his own lapses as not a big deal.

I dont get the sense that "owning up to your own faults" is something Alex Ferguson had to deal with very much.

And *worst* he simultaneously says that this focus on discipline is necessary (instrumentally) for effectiveness, and gives stories about how (a) adherence to that led to worse results and (b) hed do the same thing again! Its incoherent! Consider that (p. 35) he retaliated against 3 ManU players who had "gone out on the town on Boxing Day and were the worse for wear" the day after. Alex made the bright decision to punish them with extra training, *and* dropped the three of them for the team the following day, which "weakened [the team] further!" They proceeded to lose the game, which "cost us a precious three points, and eventually we lost the League to Manchester City on goal difference" and if that hadnt happened "I am positive we would have won by about ten points."

This is meant to be a good thing because "principles are just more important than expediency", even though Im really not clear what principle was demonstrated. Perhaps good old Alex was showing the players that if they had a hangover Alex would not only punish them for getting drunk, but *also* sabotage the team and blame it on them?

Good show, Alex. Good show.

This is *terrible* for leadership. It might be very interesting if youre a Manchester United fan - or a detractor - and would like to see what the sausage factory looks like from the management office.

Which is why Im giving it two stars. Im sure its a great read about football.

Sir Alex Ferguson managed a great football club as Manchester United, but it was he who made this team that great. The first thing that made him so successful was that he followed an advice that he should have been on the sidelines watching and supervising. In this way he was able to see the big picture. He was well aware that the system in a football club is not so complicated as in a high-tech company. Despite his spectacular accomplishments, hes too humble to say that he could be more successful.

I find it funny that he thought swapping shirts were extravagance and told the players that they needed to pay from their pockets for the shirts they would swap. I think this character trait comes from his Scottish genes.

This is not just a football book, but also a resource we can draw lessons about our own lives at the same time. The only thing I criticize in the book is the strained effort of the author to draw analogy between the principles and thoughts of Sir Alex and the successful firms in the Silicon Valley.