Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach Steve Komphela says the maturity within the coaching setup at the club has enabled them to work in harmony.
The Sundowns technical bench is currently led by Manqoba Mngqithi with Komphela working as a senior coach while ex-AmaZulu tactician Romain Folz is also one of the coaches.
Previously, Mngqithi and Komphela, who are widely experienced, worked under Rulani Mokwena, who was the head coach, and they still managed to produce the best, and the ex-Kaizer Chiefs coach says there has never been room for egos at Sundowns given the demands that come with the job.
How do Sundowns coaches avoid ego amongst themselves?
“The leadership environment at Sundowns is very complex and not only now, it has always been like that and in high performance environments, you cannot hold too much sentiment because it is about production,” Komphela told the media.
“And to answer the question directly, what is holding us together? Maturity and selflessness and understanding leadership. If you are in a very complex environment like that and you are selfish, you will have a problem.
“If you are in an environment like that and you lack maturity, you will have a problem because you can imagine if I go in there and I am egoistic, then coach Manqoba [Mngqithi] is there, and I say; Steve Komphela has coached at [Golden] Arrows, Kaizer Chiefs and all that, and then you don’t want to accept the fact that leadership is about sharing opinions and understanding [that] positions are not a reflection of leadership.
“But inputs and maturity in dealing with matters to get maximum output, that is leadership and if you lack that, you cannot work at Mamelodi Sundowns and anywhere else.”
Kompela shares vital ingredients need in modern management
Komphela feels management of players and people at football clubs, and even corporate organisations, has changed and those at the top now need soft skills to succeed rather than being authoritarian.
“So, modern leadership and which goes to everybody in corporate, you need to have soft skills no matter how good you are in modern life. You can be a top person and all that [but] when you lack soft skills, you will see nothing,” he added.
“You don’t bulldoze people, tell me now Carlos Quiroz working at Real Madrid and [David] Beckham has to go to LA, there is a shoot of Gillette whatever and Carlos says no, no or [Cristiano] Ronaldo takes his private jet from Spain to Portugal and these guys have money like….
“You want to tell me you will treat them like a small boy? That time is gone, the management today has changed. Have soft skills, speak sense to these people to understand why it has to be done not what has to be done.”
