Ep 41: Leaders Performance Podcast: Mark Warburton

Leaders Performance Podcast

Mark Warburton, the former Manager of Nottingham Forest, Glasgow Rangers and Brentford, is recounting the tale of a recent job interview for the benefit of the Leaders Performance Institute.

"I went for this interview and they asked me what my first 30 days in the job would look like," he says incredulously. "Someone had said it to me jokingly two weeks earlier; 'forget the 100 days it's the one month'."

In one small anecdote Warburton, who also served as Technical Director during his time at Brentford, sums up the cut-throat nature of elite British football, as well as his desire to return to the fray.

Warburton was delivering some sessions on executive leadership development to a group of Qatari professionals working on delivery for the 2020 Fifa World Cup in Qatar and he references these sessions throughout this wide-ranging interview.

It was in a moment of downtime at the conclusion of day where he ran us through his unique journey from the world of finance and the trading floor to the training pitch, which has established his reputation as one of the smartest operators in the British game.

He also spoke about:

• His 24-year finance career and why he ultimately returned to football [3:30];
• The evolving role of the technical director in British football [17:00];
• Managing powerful and idiosyncratic owners [19:30];
• His time handling the pressure and scrutiny that came with the manager's role at Rangers [36:00]
• Managing the media and 'taking the bullets for the board' [39:00]

Previous episode:

Leaders Performance Podcast: Duncan French, UFC

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