Alex Ferguson is an alpha-male primate and this is why he was a great manager. (2013)

“The more successful he became, the bigger the egos he had to deal with among his millionaire players. Success, like power, is a strong drug which inflates egos and can distort judgment and personality.

Professor Ian Robertson, holder of the Chair in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin.
9 May 2013

Alex Ferguson’s gift is to be a dominant, alpha-male primate, who maintains the perfect balance between ensuring that his young male players pay proper obeisance to his dominant status on the one hand, while nurturing them like a protecting father on the other.

Being a leader is stressful, and one of the best antidotes to stress is the power that goes with leadership. Power means having control over things which other people want, need or fear, and Ferguson had this in spades. Power makes you smarter, bolder, goal focussed, strategic in your thinking – as well as more confident, less depressed and less anxious. It does this by changing brain chemistry via the hormone testosterone.

But the more successful he became, the bigger the egos he had to deal with among his millionaire players. Success, like power, is a strong drug which inflates egos and can distort judgment and personality.

Ferguson’s management greatness was not just down to raw primate dominance. He managed his huge success and considerable power well, not allowing it to inflate his ego too much and avoiding the trap which befalls so many successful people – hubris. My hunch is that he was protected from the narcissism and ego-inflation that great power and success often bring, by his devotion to the greater cause which was Manchester United.

Read the full blog here : Alex Ferguson is an alpha-male primate