Managing the world’s top talent with YMU’s Global CEO & Former MD of Fulham FC, Neil Rodford #10
Becoming MD of a football club emerging from the throes of their lowest ever final league position at the mere age of 26 is both a great privilege and an intimidating prospect. Now celebrating his 20th year at YMU, Group CEO Neil Rodford has demonstrated an incredible work ethic to make the most of the opportunities offered to him.
On episode 10 of Extrology, Neil explains how working harder than everyone else in the room formed the basis for his chemistry with Kevin Keegan, the transferable skills learned from football that he applied to talent management, and learning to take a step backwards to make the right kind of progress.
Lee & Neil discuss:
Becoming Managing Director of Fulham at a young age
Aligning goals of manager, owner, and back-end staff
The volatile nature of running a football club
Fulfilling your potential for growth
Surrounding yourself with with right people
Doing the right thing for the business, not just financially
Links & references:
Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/
Neil Rodford: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilrodford/
YMU: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ymu/
YMU: https://www.ymugroup.com/
Get in touch: lee@extrology.com
Episode highlights:
“I think I've had a history within my career, of finding people that gave me opportunities probably in advance of where my ability or track record was.” - 4:33 - Neil Rodford
“I've always worked disproportionately long hours. Because I'm not the most academic, I always thought in my subconscious that I may not be the most talented, but nobody's going to work harder than me.” - 9:17 - Neil Rodford
“Whether you want to use words like culture or leadership, I think trying to align as many people around a common goal is powerful, and well documented. And in a people business, which is ultimately what a football club is, from the players on the pitch through to the ownership structure. I think those marginal gains are fundamentally important and much more transparent.” - 16:14 - Neil Rodford
“Football clubs are very small businesses, but they are FTSE 100 profile. So I think that's what you take, I think anybody that's run an organization of that scale, from a PR perspective there are a lot of learnings because you are judged, criticized, and complimented. You get tested about character a lot in that sense, and that's what I would take away from it.” - 22:46 - Neil Rodford
“Whether you're a musician, an athlete, an actress, a writer, a TV host, there are consistent themes around what one needs. So therefore the transferable skills from being a football agent, which is what I was at the time, to representing TV hosts - actually the characteristics and the people that surrounded those talents were relatively similar.” - 31:13 - Neil Rodford
“When you're trying to acquire a business, I think sitting with the principals and the owners and trying to distill what is the motivation; it could be capital, could be status, could be tiredness, could be opportunity, or they want more capital to grow. So really taking time to sit with people, which often gets undervalued in my experience.” - 35:16 - Neil Rodford
“Most of the people that I work with are much more talented than myself. I just think that, coming back to a sport analogy, I'm a fetcher and carrier and I'm happy to do that. That's what my strength is - I'm not a centre forward, I'm not a superstar.” - 47:53 - Neil Rodford
Extrology is sponsored by Progresso Talent Partners who for more than 25 years have successfully delivered interim and permanent leadership talent to transform businesses and to hire the talent you need to enable your business to thrive: https://www.progressotalent.com/