ANGE POSTECOGLOU has revealed his personal and managerial beliefs that continue to push him towards achieving his ambitions.
The 57-year-old Greek-Australian gaffer has been relentless in his drive to push Celtic to higher levels since he arrived amid the carnage of the previous season in June 2021.
Postecoglou inherited a beaten and dispirited squad of players following a wretched campaign that saw the team limp in without an honour for the first time in 11 years.
Neil Lennon had parted company with the club the previous February and John Kennedy had seen the team over the line in the final 10 games of a term that promised so much and delivered nothing.
PARADISE…Ange Postecoglou with the Premiership silverware following the 6-0 win over Motherwell at a sunkissed Parkhead in May last year.
Postecoglou, with 26 years’ worth of experience, has led from the front right from day one and the Premiership crown and the League Cup were claimed in his debut crusade.
Today, the Hoops are on the brink of a wonderful clean sweep of domestic silverware with the League Cup retained, the team nine points ahead at the league summit with the same amount of games to play and a Scottish Cup semi-final to look forward to at the end of next month.
The inexhaustible coach insists man-management is key to success in any enterprise where leadership is an urgent necessity.
Postecoglou said: “I don’t think it’s different to any other kind of management. Ultimately, the key about all that is that you’re dealing with people and, as long you understand that, the environment or the organisation you work for becomes irrelevant.
“You need to manage people and understand people, and have an affinity and an empathy for each individual within that organisation, then you try to get everyone heading in the same direction.
WE. NEVER. STOP. Ange Postecoglou delivers his stirring end-of-season speech to the Celtic supporters.
“Football clubs are no different to that, the only difference I guess with football, sport in general and maybe other lines of business is that the scrutiny and the balance sheet is there very week rather than every six months or 12 months.
“You get measured at the end of every week or whenever your games are.
“So, that brings some added anxiety around if you let it guide your journey, but, ultimately, it’s just about people and understanding them.”
Postecoglou, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “The one thing about leadership that I’ve come to understand is that probably the most key ingredient is to be yourself.
“If you try to be someone else, to try to do it in a way that was successful or effective for somebody else, ultimately if that isn’t who you are, it’s not going to work.
“When you talk about leadership and leaders, people will follow people they believe in and that only comes through the authenticity that you are who you are.
“But along the way you get exposed to different people and different types of leadership. You read, you look from afar and, ultimately, if you want to grab that sort of stuff, it should be only stuff that resonates with you, feels natural to you.
SUNSHINE AND SMILES…Ange Postecoglou holds aloft the Premiership title after an astonishing debut campaign.
“Rather than trying to take, whether it’s a football manager like Sir Alex Ferguson, or a leader in industry or a political leader that you think: ‘Okay I really like the way he leads’. If you just try to copy and paste that, I just don’t think it’s going to work.
“It you use their words, it’s not going to work. People want to know that you’re genuine. There are many people along my journey that I’ve seen that I’ve really enjoyed their leadership, or it has affected me, but, ultimately, my own style is me, just who I am.”
Asked if experience had altered his outlook over the years, former Australia World Cup manager Postecoglou answered: “Experience, life experience, professional experience all those kinds of things – absolutely.
“That’s where staying true to yourself becomes really important.
“Because instead of involving your leadership to what maybe the latest trends are, it’s better if you evolve alongside the experiences you’ve had and, inevitably in life, whatever you do, as long as you’re doing something, you’re going to get some things right and some things wrong.
“You are going to make mistakes along the way, if you’re prepared to acknowledge that and use those bumps in the road to better yourself, then I think you’ll be in a better place with time.
“So, I’m definitely a different type of leader today than I was when I first started 26 years ago, but the world’s changed as well, so you need to be evolving with it.”
