Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people, has launched six videos revealing how Manchester City players stay focused on their ongoing success.
Hays, the Official Recruitment Partner of Manchester City, centred the videos around six themes, each exploring the parallels between elite football and the world of work, including leadership, teamwork and skills development. To discover what drives Manchester City’s players, Hays spoke to Raheem Sterling, Rodri, İlkay Gündoğan, Matilde Fidalgo, Pauline Bremer and Steph Houghton.
The series is part of Hays’ “Behind Every Goal” campaign, which looks at the goals that people work towards every day in their careers and the devotion it takes to reach them.
Sholto Douglas-Home, Hays Chief Marketing Officer, commented on the videos; “Manchester City are recognised as a high-performing team and Hays wanted to discover what it takes to be the very best by exploring the players dedication away from the pitch, the relationships that help them thrive and what success really means to them. Their responses provide lessons which can be applied to the world of work, resonating across professions and sectors, and we hope they inspire people in their own careers.”
Pauline Bremer, talked about the influence a good leader can have on a team; “I think leaders have a great impact on teams, it’s really important in a high performing team that you have leaders. Not only one, it can be more people who take responsibility. When it doesn’t go so well, they can carry the whole team, talking positively to help the team in tough situations.”
Ilkay Gündoğan, spoke about the importance of the leadership style of Manchester City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, commenting; “The way that he talks to you is in a very energetic way, the way he wants to improve you, to make you better. He always tries to keep you focused on the things that matter. That’s what makes him so special.”
Talking about the personal traits that have helped him progress to this elite level, Raheem Sterling said; “There will always be setbacks but at the end of the day I always have a positive mindset to know, ok cool, I will do this to get better and I will set myself targets.”
Steph Houghton, spoke about the importance of learning from others and asking for advice in order to develop your talent; “For me it’s trying to ask people for advice. I think it’s important you realise you can’t just do it on your own. You have to use people that are experts.”
Matilde Fidalgo, spoke about dealing with setbacks and challenging herself; “If you feel like you’re doing everything perfectly, there’s no margin to improve. You want to be improving all the time.”
Pauline Bremer, offered this advice to anyone who is facing a big challenge; “It’s important that you set small goals. Because you can’t just reach for the big goal, then you get frustrated as you’re not getting there as fast as you would like. Small goals are really important to stick to and just trust the process.”
Rodri was asked about the importance of learning from teammates;“I try to learn every day, off my teammates, off my coach. I think I’m in the best hands, to grow individually and as a team. For me, it’s incredible.”
Steph Houghton spoke about achieving goals as a team; “A key factor, is everyone knowing their roles and responsibilities. I think for me, individually, if you get your job right, on and off the pitch, and contribute to the team, that gives us a better chance of winning.”
Pauline Bremer spoke about how the coaches ensure the players continue to develop and improve; “The coaches are really helpful in improving my performance. They give me lots of advice, but they also motivate us a lot and push us to get better as a team, and as an individual.”
When asked if he sets himself personal goals, Raheem Sterling said;“In every walk of life, not just on the football field, there’s personal goals to set, and personal goals to achieve.”
When asked how he adapts to learning a new skill, Rodri responded by saying; “I had to adapt. There were many aspects of the game that I was not used to. That makes me grow as a player, it makes me a better player, more complete. I had to adapt myself to the team, to the league. It was not easy at the start.”
Matilde Fidalgo spoke about seeking advice from teammates in order to learn a new skill; “Be humble and understand that people have different experiences and they might help you with some things. The same sense that you can help them at any other time. So, just keep that mind. And take the advice.”
To view the videos, click here.
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Contact name: Jonathan Beasley
Contact job title: Group Communications Manager
Contact email address: jonathan.beasley@hays.com
Contact telephone number: 020 3978 3188
About Hays and Manchester City Partnership
Hays became the Official Recruitment Partner of Manchester City in 2013 and renewed the agreement for the first time in 2016 and more recently in 2019, extending the partnership to 2023. During the past six years, Hays has broadened the relationship with City Football Group to become the Official Recruitment Partner of New York City FC in 2015, as well as Manchester City Women in 2017 and most recently with Japanese side, Yokohama F. Marinos, in 2019.
As an industry leader who works with thousands of job seekers and employers every day, Hays has helped the Club to build a winning team off the pitch, including recruiting roles across City’s legal, finance, HR, commercial, marketing and communications teams across their offices in Manchester, London, New York and Singapore.
About Hays
Hays plc (the “Group”) is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:
– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA.
About City Football Group
Established in May 2013, City Football Group is the world’s leading private owner and operator of football clubs, with total or partial ownership of seven clubs in major cities across the world: Premier League Champions Manchester City in the UK, New York City FC in the US, Melbourne FC in Australia, Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan, Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay, Girona Futbol Club in Spain, Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China and Mumbai City FC in India. With 13 offices around the world, CFA also invests in other football related businesses and projects and serves as a global commercial platform for its partners, whilst fulfilling its vision of using football for social good on a local and global scale through its clubs’ charities, foundations and other CSR initiatives.
Abu Dhabi United Group, the investment vehicle owned by His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the majority CFG shareholder (c.77%). In addition, c.12% of CFG equity is held by a consortium of Chinese institutional investors led by China’s leading media and entertainment conglomerate CMC Inc. A further c.10% is owned by Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing.