INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 1

(A FAMOUS CONTEMPORARY LEADER)

COURSE NAME : PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

OF MANAGEMENT
COURSE CODE : MGT420
STUDENTS’ NAMES : MUHAMMAD SYAFIQ BIN MD
HAFFIS

LECTURER’S NAME : MADAM MUSRAMAINI BINTI

MUSTAPHA
PROGRAM : DEGREE IN PURE BIOLOGY
GROUP : AS2012A
 A Famous Contemporary Leader: Ralf Rangnick

Introduction

Leadership is the process by which a person exerts influence over other people and
inspires, motivates, and directs their activities to help achieve group or organisational
goals. It is a responsibility, not a title, position, or privilege. When leaders are influential,
the power they wield over others aids a group or organisation in achieving its objectives.
When leaders are ineffective, their influence does not help and hinders goal
achievement in many cases. Some people are born to be leaders who lead others,
some are just leaders of themselves, and some might not even know how to lead. But
as far as a leader goes, they always have different styles of approach to lead people
and an organisation. Whether its leader centred, follower centred, or interactive
approach. This report will explain leadership traits, skills, behaviour, and power while
relating them to a famous contemporary leader I have chosen.

Leader's Background

He is a very tactical football coach and one of the best in the generation of German
coaches. In this report, I will analyse Ralf Rangnick's leadership background. Ralf
Rangnick is a German football coach and former footballer who is a defensive midfielder
for many German clubs. Rangnick gained the nickname "football professor" because he
is a trained teacher who discussed a team's tactical strategy on a chalkboard during a
television show. The football professor began studying sports and English at Stuttgart
University in 1977. He had previously completed a year as a midfielder for VfB
Stuttgart's amateur side at the time. Rangnick ended up in Brighton as part of a study
assignment, where he joined the minor team Southwick FC. After that, he returned to
Germany and joined VfR Heilbronn in the top amateur tier. Afterwards, he spent a year
with SSV Ulm 1846. Rangnick then became a player-trainer with FC Victoria Backnang
in 1983. Meanwhile, he was a student at Cologne's Sports University. He received his
trainer's certificate there. He temporarily played for TAD Lippoldsweiler during the
1987/88 season. Rangnick has coached Bundesliga teams such as VfB Stuttgart (1999-
2001), Hannover 96 (2001-2004), FC Schalke 04 (2004-2005), and TSG 1899
Hoffenheim after stints with many teams in Germany's lower leagues (2006-2011). He
was particularly successful at Hoffenheim, as he guided the team from the Regionalliga
Süd to the Bundesliga in just two seasons. He was the sports director of FC Red Bull
Salzburg from 2012 to 2015 and the sporting director of RB Leipzig. Recently, he was
appointed as the manager of sports development at Lokomotiv Moscow.

Leadership Approach

Managers at all levels and organisations have their personal leadership styles, which
determine how they lead their employees and perform other management tasks. Ralf
Rangnick had adapted a leader centred approach throughout his leadership tenure. He
achieved organisational success through self-realisation and self-projection of his very
own success visions. He improved many football clubs to date with a particular and
clear direction, starting from the very core of their management hierarchy.

Ralf Rangnick has evident leadership skills and traits as a successful leader. In
the summer of 2012, after he accepted Mateschitz’s offer as the director of football for
both RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig, he immediately instilled a culture within the clubs.
This culture shift is the perfect example of Rangnick’s knowledge, expertise, and
dominance to influence the club towards success. The club has had a current squad of
players with an average age of 30 plus or players approaching their final years of
footballing career. Rangnick’s change of approach was to get players in the market who
were signing their first or second contract in their career. Thus, targeting young and
exciting upcoming talents to let them develop at the club. His modus operandi was
clear; he wanted squads full of players willing and able to perform the required work to
play the dynamic and aggressive game he favoured. Young and hungry to grow players
are perfect for this role. He did not stop at just that; Rangnick always communicated
well with others, making his vision clear to the whole organisation. As a result, RB
Leipzig entered the UEFA champions league for the first time since their establishment
as a club after five years he took charge.
 Effective leadership relates closely to the leader’s behaviour in managing their
employees. They are always conscious of what they need to do rather than what they
are. Thus, leading them to use a range of behaviours between task orientation and
relations orientation. Rangnick implemented a task orientation-based philosophy called
‘The 500-piece jigsaw’ to influence his squad's performance positively. According to
Rangnick, suppose the development of the players consists of a jigsaw of 500 pieces.
To complete the puzzle, no matter how irrelevant they might seem at first sight, they
have to make it count. He wanted all the employees, whether the sporting director or a
bus driver, to provide the best service to ensure their 25 players squad developed in the
best possible way. Ralf Rangnick had initiated a solid structure for the organisation. His
relation orientation behaviour was shown by how much he trusted his players. He gave
the debut to many young and upcoming youth players from the academy. His leadership
behaviour leads players with a strong desire to develop as they feel trusted and
supported by their manager.

Regardless of one's leadership style, one of the most important aspects of

effective leadership is the leader's power to influence others' behaviour and persuade
others to act in specific ways. There are several power positions, but to highlight Ralf
Rangnick’s main approach, he strongly radiates coercive, expert and referent power in
his leadership. Every club he had managed throughout his managerial career has
always been adapted to his policy of three C’s – Capital, Concept and Competence. An
article in German had quoted his words, “if those three C’s come together, then you can
be successful, if you only have one or two of them, it’s more difficult” A good amount of
capital means you don’t have to worry about spending big money for a good football
development programme. He ensures his team play in his own revolutionary tactical of
counter-pressure footballing concept. While also having a relatively young and
developing squad, every player must show competence to be at the highest level of the
competition. His charisma and demeanour are what gels all these principles together.
Conclusion

In a nutshell, the leadership concepts in management were evidently portrayed

by Ralf Rangnick. The outcome of this report had managed to relate to his leadership
approaches, behaviours, as well as his leadership power to manage an organisation
towards success.

References

1. Boon, J. (2021, November 25). Meet Ralf Rangnick, potential next man utd boss
who inspired Klopp and tuchel. The Sun. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/16683390/man-utd-who-ralf-rangnick-inspired-
jurgen-klopp-gegenpress/.
2. Hamilton, T. (2020, October 28). Ralf Rangnick on RB Leipzig's success and
being the godfather of gegenpressing. ESPN. Retrieved November 26, 2021,
from https://www.espn.com/soccer/german-bundesliga/story/4218884/ralf-
rangnick-on-rb-leipzigs-success-and-being-the-godfather-of-gegenpressing.
3. How to sustain and scale culture across an elite team. Leaders. (2021, April 14).
Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://leadersinsport.com/performance/how-
to-sustain-and-scale-culture-across-an-elite-team/.
4. SportMob. (2021, July 5). Ralf Rangnick Biography. SportMob. Retrieved
November 26, 2021, from https://sportmob.com/en/article/970919-Ralf-Rangnick-
Biography.
5. Who is Ralf Rangnick: The brains behind RB Leipzig's remarkable rise.
bundesliga.com - the official Bundesliga website. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26,
2021, from https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/Bundesliga/brains-behind-rb-
leipzig-s-rise-ralf-rangnick-contract-2021-red-bull-464992.jsp.
6. JENNIFER, J. O. N. E. S. G. A. R. E. T. H. G. E. O. R. G. E. (2021). Contemporary
Management. MCGRAW-HILL EDUCATION.