Looking back at the article about Roberto Baggio nearly 1 year ago, it not only evokes the story of the 900-page report that he and his colleagues and experts painstakingly made but was ignored by the Italian Football Federation, but also a sharing that shows the necessary heart of a visionary person.
I want to train people, not just players. Not everyone becomes a star, but everyone is one person”. It's almost a definition of a "leader with a heart". Before becoming a player, becoming a star, you must be a true person.
A leader can be good at tactics, good at management, but if you don't put people at the center, all success is only temporary. Baggio saw it very early. Ironically, the right things are often not paid attention to at the time they need to be chosen. 3 consecutive World Cups absent, possibly not only because Baggio's plan was not implemented, but it also shows many layers in the leadership story.
Chairman Gabriele Gravina or delegation leader Gianluigi Buffon leave their positions as a way to show responsibility when they fail, but "brave leadership" is also about daring to change when everything is still okay. This is much more difficult, because it requires oneself to open a perspective, accept all opinions, sacrifice short-term interests, and even accept personal risks.
This image is not uncommon in social life. There are organizations where the person who understands the problem is not the decision maker, and the decision maker is not decisive enough to change. That gap creates a void where warnings are delayed, opportunities are missed, and finally, crises can be predicted. A leader with a heart, in the end, is to put people at the center and know how to turn the right things into actions, at the right time.
Italian football must rebuild. Gravina, Buffon or a few other individuals, in any case, are not too much judged about their hearts and minds because football is an emotional story. It is different from leaders facing sentences of conscience, real sentences when their hearts cannot overcome personal interests.
