MANQOBA Mngqithi has given the best explanation yet as to what many have perceived to be him being a ‘comfort zone’ kind of coach, given his seeming unwillingness to take up a sole leadership role.
For a long time a team member at Mamelodi Sundowns – where he played second fiddle to first Pitso Mosimane and then Rulani Mokwena – the former Golden Arrows mentor is considered by many to be worthy of a lead coach role.
Many had even suggested he be considered for the Kaizer Chiefs job when it was vacant, while a former player of his felt he would do well to return to Abafana Bes’thende instead of sharing technical responsibilities at the Brazilians.
Now the club’s ‘head coach’, where he will still be working in tandem with Steve Komphela and Romain Folz, Mngqithi opened up on his views about leadership during yesterday’s launch of the MTN8 tournament in Johannesburg.
“Positions are not the most important thing,” he told a group of newshounds eager to find out how he felt about being the head coach.
“In my opinion, a position is the lowest point of leadership. What is more important is your level of influence in everything you do.”
His influence at Sundowns, even though he was merely an assistant, has been praised by a number of players in the past as the Brazilians chalked up success after success.
“I am never a fan of positions, and I am never perturbed when I see all this (his current title as head coach) because in our country, we have different positions and names,” he said.
“Maybe tomorrow I will also get a new position, and we will get so excited or incensed sometimes. But positions for me (don’t matter).”
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Mngqithi, a former educator, then went all philosophical as he strove to make his interrogators get his stance.
“According to some writers, they say the first thing you have to worry about as a leader is the permission. Do you get the permission to lead from those you lead? And the permission you will only get if a person believes you possess the qualities to lead.”
That Sundowns have tasked him with ‘leading’ the club this campaign suggests he has those qualities which he disclosed as “intellectual capacity, which is your selflessness, which is your trustworthiness, which is your sternness, and all these other qualities that make somebody to say I am happy to be led by this guy”.
“This position thing is not the most important thing, and there is a level beyond that.”
Mngqithi went on to suggest that, as a leader, he is not one to see himself as solely responsible for the club’s success.
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— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) July 31, 2024
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“Good leaders know their strengths, but great leaders know their strength and the strengths of those that are surrounding them.
“And great leaders will always know that is it not always up to their leadership qualities only for the organisation to succeed.”
In the game of football, where the head coach always takes the fall when clubs fail, Mngqithi would do well to know that for this coming campaign, the buck will stop with him – his views on leadership notwithstanding.