How To Develop People - A Lesson from Belgian Football

In the year 2000 the Belgium men's national football team were unceremoniously dumped out of the European Championships on home soil. It was a turning point for the sport and action was needed at the very top.

Michel Sablon was the national team’s technical director at the time. He said the organization as tournament hosts was a “big success,” yet the performance on the field was anything but. “It was not good for the players, not good for the clubs, not good for the national team."

Sablon decided to act on creating a completely new vision for Belgian football. “We did it on a Saturday and Sunday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We started from scratch with a white piece of paper and we developed the whole thing.”

Sablon wanted to do it right and thus recruited four universities to help research the workload of youth players in either five-a-side or eight-a-side games. They analysed data from 1,500 youth games, enlisted the cooperation of 70 coaches at all levels of the game and made 120 presentations to the clubs that took almost a year.

Sablon also convinced his colleagues (at all levels of the game) to adopt the more flexible 4-3-3 formation so that young players would develop the knowledge and talents required to flourish from local team to international level.

Sablon's 'Project 2000' was born.

Putting Players First

At the core of Project 2000 were the players.

His theory (influenced by the great Johan Cruyff) was that if managers and coaches focused on developing the technical talents of young players, all with the same goal in mind, there would be a massive improvement across the sport. This had to have everyone's support but once that was assured it meant that all clubs and coaches were working with individual players and helping them experience playing in various roles in the 4-3-3 formation.

Sablon's project was huge and would take years to truly work and at the very start there were times when others frowned on his strategy...

“I remember that the first game we did it with was the Under-17 team against France. We lost 7-1 and then the reaction came, of course. But a year later, in the same age category, we dominated France and beat them.”

Putting Our People First

I must emphasise that this isn't just an empty slogan. This is my long-held view that if we put our staff (players) first and make intelligent strategic decisions about their development we will always improve.

With the incredible transformation of Belgian football in mind, when we apply a similar methodology to business we are bound to develop better professionals from the very first day they join us. When a new person joins the team we must firstly explain our vision to them. We can only explain the vision if we truly believe it, what we must not do is hand the responsibility of explaining the vision to someone with a half-hearted interest in it.

We should then develop their skills from a individual perspective, off the shelf just isn't good enough. We should do it with passion and belief because if we are anything like Michel Sablon we will want them to become outstanding individuals who contribute to a team that aims to be the best in the world.

Behaviours

Whilst football players develop technical skills our colleagues should be coached in behaviours that befit the brand vision. From the very basics of everyone picking up litter to developing an understanding of all products and services produced or delivered by the brand. Recognisable traits of people with appropriate behavioural skills might include a proven ability to communicate positively and confidently with colleagues at all levels, the ability to learn from mistakes and failures; and a general approach that is based on collaboration with colleagues rather than competition. Whichever behaviours we choose as important to our brand we must coach them with intensity.

Like the detail that went into the observation of young Belgian footballers we should then monitor and review each individual's behaviours via a behavioural management appraisal.

I was fortunate to be asked to develop such system for visionary CEO, Malcolm McPhail back in 2014. Malcolm's belief in 'preferred behaviours' placed a real emphasis on every single team member being aware of and accountable for their own behaviours. His organisation won numerous industry awards as company performance moved to a much higher level. An athlete himself, Malcolm believes in being clear about your vision and expectations on a consistent basis.

A lot of organisations make the right noises about employee development but it rarely starts with the end in mind. The vision is where every individual should start and each person must fully commit to it.

It really shouldn't be difficult to encourage anyone to want to be the best.

The Belgian Strategy Worked

Belgium’s rise in world football has exceeded all expectations. The country has a population of only 11m, with just 34 professional clubs competing across two leagues.

It's never easy to get everyone to buy into a vision as there are always people who think they know a better way of doing things. In 2000 Belgium were ranked 27th in the world and by 2007 they reached their lowest ever point when ranked 71st. In football terms this was squeaky bum time for project 2000 but by 2019 they were ranked 1st in the FIFA world rankings.

1st.

One player who has come through the Sablon system is Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne. Recently ranked as the world's number one player (knocking Lionel Messi off the top spot) De Bruyne is one of the many talents to come through the Belgian system. From a young age he was given the full attention of his coaches and his talent is unquestionable and hard to put a price on in today's football market.

What Sablon has proved is that if you develop a clear, intelligent strategy and focus everything on the people who deliver your product you will reach the top. You will become revered for the quality of your team and people will be excited to support them.

It takes a lot of hard work and considerable time to become the number one team in the world but if everyone believes you can do it together nothing will stop you.

So what will you call your project?