View: Daily Bilic ‘ritual’ proves what a classy manager West Brom have got
Any successful manager has to be good with people and West Brom man Slaven Bilic is proving he’s got the Midas touch here.
When your job is to get the best out of people, man-management skills are absolutely vital and it’s something other managers are lacking.
Jose Mourinho might be a great tactician but he’s not great at getting the best from players when things are going wrong.
Slaven Bilic has hit the ground running at West Brom. Top-of-the-table after 11 games on goal difference and it could have been so much better if the Baggies had got what they deserved from a fantastic match against Leeds at Elland Road.
He’s got things right on the pitch and it sounds like this starts off the pitch at The Hawthorns.
Athletic journalist Steve Madeley said that Bilic has a ritual that he does every morning when he comes into work – walking around the corridors and shaking hands with everyone he meets.
“Every morning at West Bromwich Albion’s training ground near Walsall, a ritual unfolds,” Madeley wrote.
“It began in July and cuts to the heart of a quiet revolution that has driven Albion to the top of the Championship.
“Each day, when Slaven Bilic arrives for work, the head coach takes a stroll around the corridors, shaking hands with anyone he finds.
“When he visits the staff canteen for his breakfast, he goes behind the counter and into the kitchen to greet the chefs. He makes similar gestures in other departments.
“It is often the smallest gestures that make the biggest difference and Bilic’s daily goodwill tour is emblematic of the new mood he has instilled at a club that badly needed a transformation.
“Bilic has made a huge impact in a short time at The Hawthorns, not by rabble-rousing or grand gestures but by bringing charisma, gravitas and man-management skills that have, in the words of staff, made Albion a fun place to work at again.”
This is very classy from the West Brom manager, but it’s not just a hollow gesture. You get the most from people when they’re happy to work with you and for you, and fostering that environment everywhere is brilliant on a human level and also from a results perspective.
Being surrounded by happy people all helping to make the workplace the best it can be is something that can only have a positive effect on the team, and we think we’re lucky to have someone like Bilic as the manager.
He’s no soft-touch though. His style is described later as “Inclusive management with a death stare” and that seems to be absolutely perfect for a top-level football manager.
In other West Brom news: ‘I think I speak for all the players’ – Sam Johnstone raves about West Brom senior man