“Communication is not difficult”

With these words, Sandro Wagner, assistant coach of the DFB, interrupts the presenter at the Handelsblatt Summer Camp. The two of them open the second day of the Summer Camp. The topic is leadership styles and tactics that companies can learn from sport. A familiar topic and yet an entertaining talk. Maja Brankovic, deputy editor-in-chief of Wirtschaftswoche magazine, takes the opportunity to ask the assistant coach a few soccer and career questions, which he answers in a casual, funny and friendly manner. He talks about how being a father at an early age has changed him, how much he enjoys being a coach and, ultimately, what his management style looks like.

His leadership is characterized by seeing others as human beings. A message that he emphasizes several times. The coaching team lives this, for example, by involving the players' families and inviting them to the training camps. Every team member should be seen as more than “just” a player, but rather as a person.

The tangible team spirit during the summer of the home European Championships showed that this management style has borne fruit. So is there any truth in Sandro Wagner's theory that “communication is not difficult”? As great as that sounds and as amused as the audience was by this one-liner, it turns out that it is simplistic. When the presenter asked whether players should express themselves politically, the coach began to differentiate. Everyone should say what they want, he railed against the DFB's PR guidelines, but society must also be tolerant of players, some of whom are young, who are not yet able to express their emotions clearly. But isn't that too reckless these days?

Cristiano Ronaldo broke a world record for followers by launching a YouTube channel within two hours . Like few other people, athletes have a huge stage with which they can influence the public opinion of a wide variety of people. Of course, we must give every person the opportunity to express themselves freely. At the same time, we also need to make people in public life aware that their opinions can be spoken and heard on a big stage. So communication does not have to be difficult. What it does need to be is reflective, respectful, responsible and contextual. This, in turn, is not easy for everyone.

HeadlineAffairs therefore offers communication training courses in which everyone can test their own messages in realistic simulations.