Globally renowned and respected sports and mental coach Paddy Upton has a simple advice to companies and organisations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia – the two countries he described as the Arab world’s economic giants: The time has come for them to integrate foreign ideas and international best practices to become major global players.
Upton, who previously coached several business leaders in the Arab world, said even with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt being among the fastest-growing economic bloc in the world, “there is still much work to be done”.
“While Saudi Arabia is the first trillion-dollar economy in MENA and the UAE has delivered record non-oil growth, integration of different international practices has become paramount,” Upton, who guided the Indian hockey team to a bronze medal at the just concluded Paris Olympics and coached in five cricket World Cups, told Arabian Business.
“It’s not about adopting a leadership style from another country; it’s about learning best practices from another country and integrating that with local culture,” said the South African leadership and high-performance coach, who is also an author, speaker and professor.
Upton was instrumental in leading the Indian cricket team to win the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup for the first time in 28 years and to become the World’s No. 1 Test Team for the first time.
As Performance Director, he also helped lead the South African cricket team to become the first to simultaneously hold the World No. 1 ranking in all three game formats.
“One of the things that Indian hockey has done – and that Indian cricket did previously – is to bring in overseas coaches and consultants.”
Upton said in any company or organisation today, the way to succeed is to firstly understand what it is one brings to the table as a business or nation and then understand the best practices happening in other countries.
“As a leadership coach to entities across the globe, what I have learnt is that remaining in silos and shunning foreign influence inevitably limits the potential for expansion and multinational success.”
Time to appreciate that the leadership landscape is changing globally
Upton said Saudi Arabia and the UAE must appreciate that the leadership landscape is changing globally.
“They are behind in terms of the rate and change of leadership best practice.”
He said companies and organisations need to appreciate what the gold standard is internationally, not only within their industry or the country.
At the same time, Upton said, Gulf states must retain their unique character as integration processes unfold.
“You are looking to bring in that foreign best practice but also maintain the local essence of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. And that’s the art of business as we move into a more global village.”
Upton, who has previously run leadership workshops in Dubai and coached the senior leadership team at Saudi Arabia’s TONOMOUS – NEOM – the first subsidiary to emerge out of the Saudi futuristic city project NEOM – where top executives from different countries needed to harness their diversity to produce results, said working in such teams to fast-track their effectiveness is something he enjoyed.
“These experiences have given me great insight into how the region’s businesses operate.”
He said there is no point enlisting the services of foreign experts if an authoritarian leadership style persists at the senior level.
“Neither party benefits and the undertaking ends up being expensive but futile.”
What is applicable to corporate world is equally relevant for sports
Upton, who has helped sports teams and companies excel around the world, said what is needed for the corporate majors to achieve global status – integration of foreign ideas and international best practices – is equally applicable to the sports sectors in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to excel globally.
He said both nations have made no secret of their ambitions to become global sporting hubs, with vast sums of money being ploughed into football and golf, in particular.
The UAE has also hosted the lucrative Indian Premier League cricket tournament, and Pakistan and Afghanistan have used the Emirates as their bases during periods of unrest at home.
Upton said the region must look beyond the millions of dollars changing hands.
“Again, you need to look at which teams, countries or leagues have been successful, and more specifically, what they’ve done to earn that success.
“But you also need to look at the mistakes sport makes,” he said.
Upton also listed some of the issues impacting sports bodies in many countries around the world.
“One is sport being run by elected officials. Have you got a sports administrator leading the sport or a person with a proven business track record?”
He said sport is a profession, and we must pick senior management using the same principles that leading businesses use to pick their senior executives.
He also believed that officials in the Arab world need to appreciate that professional athletes have more power than before.
“Essentially, they need to be treated like an effective business leader treats an employee – with dignity and respect.
“If this does not happen, the player will choose another international league.”
Upton has one more piece of advice, before he blew the final whistle: The region’s sports officials should look after coaches, who, unlike players, are seldom given any feedback or presented with opportunities to upskill themselves.
“The assumption is always that a coach is the finished product. They are not.
“There needs to be programmes to set them up for success, not failure, as is the case now. Supporting leaders and coaches is what I am most interested in,” Upton signed off.
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