LidVa Magazine
Num. 1, June 2023
01
Leading is anticipating, communicating, trusting
Pep Guardiola Sala,
Director of the Values-Based Leadership Chair
I am often asked how to lead an elite football team to success. I am sure there are many possible answers to this question, all valid, but in my case, to answer it, I put myself in the shoes of the player I was and know that what is expected of me is to anticipate what will happen in the next match, to dream about how it will go, and to make decisions based on that vision.
It is not an easy job and, moreover, it is often lonely and misunderstood. In this anticipation, you have to combine intense work to know the opponent with a deep understanding of your team’s capabilities. Finally, in making the decision, all this background is concretized into an intuition, equally the result of your background and the analysis of the specific circumstances you face. Experience and inspiration come together to build unique decisions adapted to the particular situation posed by each match.
Once the decision is made, it is essential to know how to communicate it, to make it understood and, as far as possible, to share it. Adapting the message to each player is key. We all deserve the same respect but not all of us want or can be treated the same. Often, you have to use different strategies to connect with different people. And this is an essential skill for leading: understanding each individual’s uniqueness and keeping it in mind to bring out the best for the benefit of the team.
In fact, much of the communication has to do with your vision of what should happen during the match. When conveying it, you must know how to provide certainty where there is disorientation, give security where there is fear, and be able to create the conditions for what you want to happen, what you have dreamed of. Every action, every pass, must have a meaning, a function within the match; it is not simply about passing the ball for the sake of it. I have said many times, I do not like tiki-taka, I prefer intelligent play.
And finally, you must trust the talent you have in the locker room. Encourage players to take risks, give them permission to make mistakes. I am convinced that everyone goes out on the field to do well. And when results go awry, you need to analyze what happened and learn from it. When you lose, it’s about accepting defeat, acknowledging that the opponent was more accurate, getting up, and working to do better in the next match. And the same when you win: understand what happened and incorporate that learning. It’s the way to train the sixth sense that comes into play when making decisions adapted to each specific reality.
However, trust must start with oneself. It is essential to be true to your own intuition, based on work and experience and focused on objectives. Managing a team means managing those who play but also those who sit on the bench or in the stands. Or those who stay at home. There is nothing like having generous players capable of thinking about collective goals rather than individual protagonism.
And one last reflection: I prefer leagues over cups. I believe, above all, in the consistency of the team’s work, which rewards perseverance and gives value to success. We can all have a lucky day, but leadership, on the other hand, builds luck, decision by decision.
Pep Guardiola Sala,
director of the Values-based Leadership Chair
02
A 4-3-3 lineup of values in the service of ethical leadership
The Chair of Leadership in Values was born with a mission: to generate, disseminate, and transfer knowledge about value-based leadership and to promote professional environments of ethical practice in relation to people, the economy, and the environment. This aspirational approach has been concretized into a theoretical model that reflects the life trajectory of its directors: Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte, and the University Foundation, the sponsoring institution. This work has been carried out under the academic direction of Valentí Martínez, Òscar Dalmau, Albert Estiarte, and Carlota Riera.
Values such as exemplarity, honesty, discipline, commitment, generosity, audacity, innovation, excellence, and gratitude are organized in this theoretical model on an imaginary playing field in the form of a football lineup. Each one contains a seed of ethical leadership that translates into behaviors, attitudes, and experiences that allow them to be grounded from abstraction to concreteness.
A 4-3-3 lineup
The 4-3-3 lineup is completed with a 1, the goalkeeper, and another 1, the twelfth player, the audience. Read from horizontal lines, this lineup leads us to a model with four dimensions that allows reflection in an organizational or personal key. Thus, from the organizational point of view, leadership is structured from the self to the environment, passing through the team and the organization. On the other hand, from a personal perspective, it invites us to think about what one feels, says, thinks, or does, the relationships one establishes with others, and finally, to question why one does what one does.
The arrangement of values on the field also fosters the identification of different intelligences linked to leadership: intrapersonal intelligence, which allows one to lead oneself from awareness; emotional intelligence, which transmits enthusiasm to the team and the environment; linguistic intelligence, capable of mobilizing people and teams with persuasion through words; interpersonal intelligence, which is often the key to the magnetism that some leaders convey; and finally, spiritual/existential intelligence, which leaves a mark on the environment because it is directly connected to a purpose that transcends individuals, the team, and even the organization itself.
Sports, Education, Health and Business
Leadership is an intrinsic part of any context where different people come together to work towards common or complementary goals. Undoubtedly, sports is one such context that generates passions and mobilizes masses. However, the chair aims to make contributions in other fields where the trajectory of the University Foundation of Bages, as the Manresa campus of the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia, is long and solid. Thus, the worlds of Business, Health, and Education are also other fields where the chair will roll the ball, following the football metaphor of its conceptual model.
Twelve pairs of values
Values must be lived and be able to be translated into concrete behaviors in specific situations. This is another contribution made by the conceptual model of the Chair of Leadership in Values. The long trajectory of the two directors and the significance of their actions and opinions are a source of inspiration to give entity and concreteness to the different values on which the chair builds its theoretical model.
1
Integral and Noble.
Exemplarity and honesty are at the base of the leader’s moral authority and are directly linked to their own principles and beliefs.
2
Energetic and Methodical.
Method is the sum of attitudes turned into habit. It includes discipline, perseverance, and a culture of effort.
3
Passionate and Optimistic.
Enthusiasm and love for what one does improve both the result and the process.
4
Empathetic and Humane.
The leader puts people first, using resources like gratitude and recognition. It’s not about treating everyone the same but about understanding each individual’s uniqueness.
5
Communicative and Receptive.
The leader knows how to manage conflict through dialogue, making relational and communication skills essential. Emotional intelligence also plays a role, allowing one to articulate both personal and others’ feelings.
6
Learners and Adaptive.
Good leadership requires a thorough understanding of each situation and challenge to adapt and provide a tailored response. This skill requires flexibility and the ability to incorporate new ideas without giving up one’s identity.
7
Team Talents.
The team’s talent is what allows achieving goals: it must be developed and trusted.
8
Intense and Detail-Oriented.
Planning and training make the future more predictable, without forgetting that there are always spaces for improvement and growth in every process.
9
Creative and Dreamers.
Far from complacency, the leader constantly exposes themselves to new challenges and pushes their team to new limits. They are capable of offering an inspiring yet achievable vision and sharing it.
10
Designers and Creators.
Style is what makes the difference between teams, so the leader not only focuses on the result but also on the way it is achieved.
11
Connectors and Distributors.
Teams do not work in isolation, so the leader is a bridge builder with the environment, seeking and establishing alliances.
12
With Purpose and Value.
The team’s work must be aligned with the organization’s objectives, which ultimately should seek to create a positive impact on its environment, people, society, and the Planet.
03
Albert Estiarte recommends...
Albert Estiarte Duocastella,
Deputy Director
of the Chair of Values-Based Leadership
Autobiography of Manel Estiarte in which he reflects on leadership. According to his words: “The leader is the one who, by nature, is positive for the team, not the one who has learned the role and executes it by rote.” He also recounts the process that led him to assume this role, a process that was progressive and culminated in a change of attitude that took him from the selfishness of wanting to be the best to altruism towards the team. For him, one can be a good player, but excellence is only achieved with generosity.
Manel Estiarte was fortunate to be part of a perfect team, not because they never lost, but because when they did lose, it was, according to his words, “because we had forced the opponents to be better than us, because we always played very well.” “We were not perfect because we won everything, but because of the attitude.”
Albert Estiarte i Duocastella,
Deputy director of the Values-Based Leadership Chair
04
The value of values, a game about values
Recommended by:
CAE, formació i serveis socioculturals
Author(s): Simon L. Dolan / David Alonso Garcia
Brief Presentation: Card game based on the Coaching by Values methodology. More than a game, it is a playful resource that allows generating dynamics to reflect, individually and in groups, on personal values: which ones we prioritize, how we incorporate them…
Recommended Ages: From 6 years old
Participants: 1-4 players
Components: 54 cards (51 value cards + 1 trust card + 3 joker cards) 1 manual with 8 game proposals
How it Works: Each of the 51 cards represents a different value. Additionally, each value is associated with a different color, depending on its focus:
- Green: values more oriented towards emotion
- Red: values more oriented towards action
- Blue: values more oriented towards social participation
At the beginning of the game, each player receives 5 cards and places them face up on the table in front of them. The remaining cards are placed in a pile, face down, in the middle of the table.
A player starts and draws a card from the pile. They show it and must decide if they consider this card and the value it shows to be more important than any of the 5 they have in front of them. If so, they replace it and offer the discarded value to the other players, in case anyone is interested. If someone wants it, they do the same and exchange it for one of their 5 values. If no one wants to make a change, the discarded card is placed in a discard pile, and the player to their left continues playing. Cards are drawn and evaluated until the central pile is exhausted.
Every time a player has to decide whether to keep a card or not, they must explain their reasons to the other players.
At the end of the game, everyone has the 5 values that they have considered the most important throughout the dynamic. Each player must order their values according to the importance they give them and explain this to the rest of the players.
From here, work can begin to share different aspects of the dynamic and the selected values. We propose a few:
Rate, from 1 to 10, the satisfaction with the fulfillment of each of the 5 selected values.
Analyze the orientation of the 5 selected values, based on their color.
If the dynamic has been done in a work team, compare the values with those of the other team members.
This dynamic can also be used or modified to choose the 5 values that define or best represent an organization. And even compare personal values with the organization’s values.
The game includes a guide that proposes up to 8 different variants of the game.
More information: www.elvalordelosvalores.net
