Resign or Be 'Asked to Resign'?

Yesterday evening saw the breaking news of Fabio Capello, the (now former) English Football team Manager, ‘resign’ from his post.

The official party line, until we hear otherwise, is that Capello resigned as he felt his position as manager was no longer tenable; given the fact certain key decisions have been made without his input. He felt he was no longer the manager as decisions were being made without him, these decisions would ultimately affect the team’s chances of success therefore affecting his own reputation as a successful manager.

There are arguments that the conversation was more along the lines of, ‘we have made this decision, if you don’t like it, you know where the door is...’ In other words, the FA thought it was better that both parties went their separate ways, as the relationship just wasn’t working for them anymore.

Obviously there has been more to this than one decision being made without him. There has been issue after issue behind the scenes with how the team is managed, how the team behave and how the team perform... ultimately this hasn’t been as good. It seems that if the FA thought Capello was the best possible person to lead us to glory they would have fought for him to stay – there doesn’t seem to have been any struggle at all.

This type of thing happens in business all the time. A General Manager, Senior Manager, Line Manager or Supervisor manages their team how they see fit, they have relative success. That success can sometimes bring out false confidence regarding their involvement in key decisions and when that doesn’t happen their noses can be put out of joint. This can lead to meetings which bring out issues from both parties – the employer expecting more success previously and the employee believing they are no longer ‘well thought of’.

There is then often only one outcome.

At the end of the day the employer/FA pays the wages and therefore has the right to make any decision they feel is in the best interests of the business/team – and Fabio may do well to remember that!