I was lucky enough to be in Croke Park the Sunday before last to see Armagh win their second All-Ireland. It wasn’t a classic game, but I was utterly absorbed by it from start to finish.
Six weeks ago, after the Ulster final, you would have been pretty brave to suggest that Armagh were going to win the All-Ireland, but they did it - and they did it with a unity of purpose and a resilience that made the sum of their parts much greater than any of the flashes of individual brilliance also on display in their run in and win.
Armagh’s achievement will give confidence and heart to at least 10 other counties across the country who have been building and developing their teams over the last five or six years. Now that the period of Dublin dominance is over and a team like Armagh can win an All-Ireland, then plenty of others can too, so the story goes.
On the face of it, that is hard to argue with. Who would have said that Armagh were going to win the All-Ireland after the Ulster final or even when they won their quarter-final against Roscommon? I didn’t check the odds, but I am pretty confident they were fourth favourites before the semi-finals behind Dublin, Kerry and Galway.
I was confident they could beat Kerry and told anybody who would listen they were going to win the final once they did. For me, the decisive factor was Kieran McGeeney. That Armagh win was at least 10 years in the making. It was a combination of thought and action that created a group of players who were equipped in every way possible to give Armagh the best chance to win.
That attention to detail, that focus on the smallest of fine margins and the set of values from which Armagh’s team culture grew, all leads back to Kieran McGeeney. Of course, he had a fantastic management set-up around him but, that group of players became the winners they are now because of Kieran.
For a very long time, people in business have been taking ideas from leadership in sport in order to create winning cultures in companies. If Kieran McGeeney were to stop GAA management now, he could have a distinguished career in business leadership consultancy. He has been a student of sports leadership and good coaching his entire adult life. He relentlessly seeks out better ways to do things, small improvements to make marginal gains, learning from the best in other sports too, like the famous American basketball coach, John Wooden.
I remember his former boss at the Irish Sports Council and Olympic marathon silver medallist John Treacy speak glowingly about him, saying his level of commitment and pursuit of excellence meant he was destined for great things. Treacy is a good judge.
And yet, what if Shane Walsh had a better day last Sunday or Joe ‘the block’ McIlroy did not make that block and Galway won the game? Would I be feting Kieran McGeeney still? Maybe not, but Joe (a good St Pat’s Armagh man) did make that block and, with good use of the bench, Armagh got themselves a three-point cushion going into the final minutes.
They did enough, the small margins counted and who is to say Armagh won’t be able to do it again, in the coming years. I would not bet against them; I will be surprised if Kieran is content with just one title. John Wooden won 10 national basketball titles with UCLA in 12 years.
Thinking about business then, when considering all of this, I went looking at the Harvard Business Review, because when the Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Harvard did a big piece of research on his success (38 trophies in 26 years, including 13 Premier League titles).
The ‘Ferguson’s Formula’ Harvard Case study* is one of the most popular papers Harvard has ever produced – based on interviews with Sir Alex and a whole series of ex-players, coaches, scouts, and other staff at Old Trafford. If you are interested in leadership in management, it is worth a read.
It identifies eight strategies that Ferguson employed to keep United at the top of the tree for over 20 years. Many of them are traits you can see in Kieran McGeeney’s approach to management and many of the best other managers and counties too, starting with the youth foundation, or in GAA parlance, the development squads.
Armagh’s development squads have been coming for some time and their minor team got to this year’s All-Ireland minor final, only to be beaten by Derry. Some of the other traits include setting high standards and holding everyone to them; never, ever ceding control; matching the message to the moment; preparing to win; relying on the power of observation; never stop adapting. Unfortunately, I don’t have space today to get into these in more detail, but I found the Harvard piece very interesting when considering the reasons why Armagh are now All-Ireland champions.
I also count myself very lucky to know many business leaders who have exhibited similar traits in managing and growing their businesses. The one trait though the GAA has in abundance, which is lacking even in the best professional sports environments, is identity.
When Kieran McGeeney, Jim McGuinness, Jim Gavin or Feargal Logan & Brian Dooher make the sacrifices they do, they are driven by a unique and powerful sense of community and place. It’s hard to describe, but it’s one of the things that makes the GAA so special. And I’m very glad Armagh and Kieran McGeeney got a chance to savour this year’s success after years of hard work to get there.
- Paul McErlean is managing director of Cavendish Ireland.
*Ferguson’s Formula, Harvard Business Review - https://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula
