WHAT defines leadership? Genuine, effective, outstanding leadership?  

Where you galvanise and motivate people to trust and follow your instructions to the letter, not because they’re being forced to, through an imposed hierarchy, but because they intrinsically believe in what you’re saying.  

I’d venture that you need the requisite experience, resilience, skills and competence before you even start the conversation. What then? 

Being an excellent communicator helps in establishing a strong rapport with your charges. Being honest, authentic and genuine is crucial. Understanding the organisation you work for is important in building a culture around a club or a team. A clear sense of purpose, direction and vision. And shared goals. 

And then? You need to have a strong team around you. You need to assemble that strong team. You need to be able to delegate. But you also need to know when to step in and take charge. Taking responsibility. The buck stops with you.  

To inspire your employees. For them to know that you are on their side, for you to respect their judgement as much as fostering their respect of you.  

This, I would venture, is the ethos of leadership. But I would also call it something else entirely. I would call it emotional intelligence. Empathy.  

A number of incidents this week made me think of this. I’ll tell you why.  

Sean Dyche's EI

The long drive back from Merseyside is never an easy one after a defeat. Covering Arsenal’s fully deserved 1-0 defeat at Everton prompted me to consider just what defines leadership, and a good leader.

Anyone who knows football knows The Toffees are a giant of the game. Their history and heritage, their passionate fan base, the money their current owners have spent and are said to possess. Their future possibilities in terms of leveraging their move to a brand new £500 million stadium at Bramley Dock all indicate a footballing behemoth.

But they couldn’t buy a win. Prior to last weekend Everton had won three league games in seven months, leading, unsurprisingly, to Frank Lampard’s sacking.  

Now, the former Chelsea boss is not a bad manager per se. He guided the Stamford Bridge outfit to the 2020 FA Cup final and qualified for the Champions League. But he simply couldn’t lead his team to victory on the majority of occasions he was the boss during his 18-month tenure on Merseyside.  

Yet Everton’s newly appointed boss Sean Dyche, sacked at Burnley weeks before the Clarets were relegated from the Premier League last season, led the Toffees to victory against the top team in the division, after only being in charge for a matter of days.  

How did that happen? From my vantage point in the (cramped) Goodison press box, Everton were incredibly motivated. They threw themselves into every tackle, chased down every ball, lost causes and all, harried and hassled the normally serene Gunners defence while closing off Arsenal’s usually varied attacking options from the top as well as the flanks. It was a majestic piece of managerial nous.

According to the engaging and knowledgeable Evertonians I spoke to around the Goodison press box, it didn’t mean that Lampard was a bad manager.

It was just that he couldn’t motivate his players, nor organise his team to the level of Dyche. Of course, one game doesn’t make a hypothesis, but despite being able to raise heights for a time at his previous club, Lampard was unable to extract such determination and configure a successful system over a long-term basis at Chelsea, nor build one at Everton.  

Why? Dyche’s pronouncements before the match were hugely instructive to observers such as myself, let alone his own players in answering that question.   

Simple messages, underlined. He employed emotional intelligence in other words. “Our aim is to put out a team that works, that fights and wears the badge with pride,” is what Dyche said. So much so that the words were highlighted in the official match programme. Not simply in his manager’s notes, but on the front cover, no less.  

No mixed messages. No confusing tactics. Just work hard, do the basics well and we’ll build on that. Of course, you can argue just how far those elemental instructions will take Everton, but for now, avoiding relegation is all that counts.  

And Dyche’s players made a great start by buying into his ethos. Buying into his leadership. Responding to the emotional intelligence he displayed earlier in the week at the club’s training complex Finch Farm, when asking the players to fill in a questionnaire asking for their opinion on matters — rather than simply demanding their focus. By displaying empathy, he won theirs.  

Nathan Jones lacking EI

I also thought of emotional intelligence when listening to Southampton boss Nathan Jones. Now, Jones is a fiery character and his passion is very much part of his success. I’ve asked him a couple of questions in the past after matches at Luton Town’s evocative Kenilworth Road and he is engaging company at times.

Which is why he is still loved by the majority of Hatters fans, even if his switch to Stoke from Luton failed – as much as his return to Bedfordshire was a success. Yet, his move to the south coast has been far from a resounding success so far, with a recent post-match interview acutely underlining just why.  

Speaking after his Saints side lost 3-0 to a vibrant Brentford side — with the Bees led by a firm disciple of emotional intelligence, Thomas Frank — Jones appeared to make a number of excuses.  

Blaming others for the loss, while bizarrely attempting – and failing dismally – to use historic statistics from his time at Luton to bolster his position.  

In leadership terms, Jones was refusing to take liability for the loss. Worse, he was abdicating his power. By denying the buck stopped with him, he was effectively eschewing responsibility. Whatever the reasons behind Jones’s outburst, quite simply that is not good management, whether it be in business or sport.  

No wonder the Saints hierarchy are already reviewing Jones’s position, after only seven games in charge. Clearly, a lack of emotional intelligence and empathy has serious ramifications.  

Odegaard on Arteta’s EI

I also thought of those qualities when reading Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard’s assessment of his boss Arteta this week.  

Writing in the Player’s Tribune the talented midfielder — who despite joining Real Madrid as a precocious young teenager had struggled to make an impact at the Bernabeu – revealed the crucial conversation with Arteta that sealed his decision to uproot from Madrid to North London. It was also a sign of Arteta’s huge reserves of emotional intelligence.  

“I spoke to Mikel Arteta on a Zoom call and he told me all about the project,” Odegaard explained. “At the time, Arsenal were not doing well. They were way down like 15th in the table, but that meeting … Honestly, I challenge anyone to come away from a meeting with Arteta and not believe everything he tells you. 

“He is next level. It’s hard to explain. He’s passionate, he’s intense and sometimes, yeah, he’s a bit crazy … but when he speaks, you understand that whatever he says will happen, will happen. 

“He told me his plan, everything he was building towards. He knew exactly what needed to change at the club. He told me all about these amazing young players in the squad — Saka, Martinelli, Smith Rowe. He told me how he wanted me to fit in and how I was going to improve.  

“I got this strong feeling that he was onto something really special.” 

All the above is wonderful for Gunners supporters to read.

The excitement over Arteta’s young team is palpable, even for one of his own players in Odegaard.  

However, this revealing vignette also speaks of true leadership.

For in a single Zoom call Arteta has shown empathy first and foremost by actually taking the time and effort to speak with the player – rather than leave it to his director of football and others.  

In effect he is earning Odegaard’s respect from the start – rather than the other way around. Arteta also defined a clear sense of direction, purpose, vision and shared goals through being an excellent communicator. Building a rapport by outlining the culture of his club.

No wonder Odegaard and the rest of the league leaders have been so motivated this season. It’s easy when the boss outlines a clear sense of purpose, which allied with his inherent honesty, authenticity and decency means whatever happens now on in with Arsenal’s season, the campaign has been a memorable one.

Arteta’s empathy

Need any more evidence that Arteta is a hugely successful example of the importance of emotional intelligence and empathy in leadership? OK, here’s a personal example. 

I once interviewed Arteta one-on-one at the training ground when he was a player with Arsenal nearly a decade ago. I have also been fortunate enough to attend a number of his press conferences from his very first at the club’s training ground back in December 2019, up until my father died last month. Not to mention a large number of post-match press conferences at Arsenal and up and down the country. Yet, as a complete nobody, I wouldn’t expect Arteta to know me from Adam.  

So, for my mother to receive a personal letter from the Arsenal boss this week, offering his sincere condolences at the loss of my beloved Gunners-supporting dad, was as comforting as it was heartening, and a wonderfully sensitive and selfless act that will always be appreciated among my family. 

The letter, which was also personally signed, included incredibly kind words of comfort for mum and our family. On top of such a gracious and sympathetic letter, to my complete surprise the Arsenal boss, in underlining his attention to detail, made an unexpectedly moving reference to the work I do as a journalist that covers the club.

Such an empathetic letter simply underlines what a class act Arteta really is.  

If Arsenal under Arsene Wenger were said to have won the league thanks to the concept of boiled broccoli – as part of the legendary Frenchman’s wider sports science revolution – the Gunners under the impressive leadership of the equally progressive Arteta, could certainly lay claim to being powered towards glory by emotional intelligence and empathy.  

Now wonder emotional intelligence and empathy is the essence of outstanding leadership. 

Just ask Martin Odegaard. Or my family.