Win the Room Before You Win the Match

To be strong because others lean on your strength. To give cheer because hearts hunger for sunlight. To respect. 

Thank you for listening!

Take this reflection into the silence, and I'll see you next time.

Transcript

“The togetherness…” he said, “the way we interacted with the kitchen staff… the respect we showed every day to the kit men, the gardeners, all the people there. You realize that the respect you show is the respect you get.”

You’d think it was tactics. Periodized training. Data. Budgets. But he pointed somewhere simpler. Mundane, even. Say hello. Learn names. Look people in the eye. Respect everyone.

Jurgen Klopp is one of the defining managers of modern football (soccer). He took Mainz to the Bundesliga, rebuilt Borussia Dortmund into title winners, and returned Liverpool to the summit of Europe and England.

So what does respecting the gardeners have to do with winning football matches?

Because micro becomes macro. If you can’t appreciate what the gardener does, you won’t truly see what your teammate does. If you can’t hold respect in small moments, you will drop it in big ones. Culture is a thousand daily courtesies compounding into belief. That’s how he was able to create “their own world” inside the clubs. Stronger than the noise outside.

Like the Yogis who teach to be kind because everyone is carrying something. To be strong because others lean on your strength. To give cheer because hearts hunger for sunlight. To respect. The Yogi knows there is no hierarchy in consciousness, only variety in costume. The man who cuts the grass and the man who scores the goal both contain the same infinite Self.

This is how Klopp achieved what few managers have. By instilling this togetherness in his team. And he didn't lecture his players about this. He modeled it. You'd watch him greet everyone by name. The kitchen staff. The groundskeepers. The analysts. He created a culture where everyone felt seen, and that visibility became contagious.

The football followed. Klopp understood that a team's togetherness on the pitch is merely a reflection of its togetherness everywhere else.