So, I will take the opportunity to rest on that good news and discuss the importance of real leadership. And what better way to do that by looking at Jurgen Klopp.
Many of you will say "who??" but the 'JurgenMeister' is the manager of Liverpool Football Club who last week secured their first English Premier League football title (in more than 30 years of trying).
What is more remarkable is that the team is widely acknowledged to have very few out and out stars and is being hailed in sport, business and social circles as the epitome of great teamwork.
From day one he put his stamp on the organisation and quickly tapped into the club's two greatest assets – its fanbase and its home ground (Anfield).
Too many times 'leaders' apply themselves as the greatest asset – some even call themselves 'the special one' – whereas Klopp brought an interesting mix of humility and exuberance (calling himself 'the normal one').
Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp. Photo / 123rf.com
He also brought a love of the game and energy to the task to which he was applying himself.
And out of that came innovation and a different playing style – which it has to be said it took the players a while to get used to.
Then he populated his team with players who fitted his strategy and the 'EQ' of the culture he was building rather than just being awesome footballers.
Potential recruits, rather than going through a typical interview process / medical / skill evaluation, had more stock placed on how they interacted with Klopp in social settings and with future teammates.
The team was very clearly greater than the man and this was the foundation upon which success was built.
Organisations which take the approach of appointing or retaining leaders who are selfish or like the spotlight, like Tottenham's Jose Mourinho, tend to wait longer for true success or expend more resources to get it.
Too often people think they are leaders because they are good operationally, or because they have strong personalities, or because they simply own a business.
True leadership is found when a person can mould a group to perform at the highest levels while being in the background supporting the team to greater things.
The true leader also needs support and the freedom to actually lead which LFC's owners gave to Klopp.
Once the fans were on board, the home ground established as a 'fortress' and the team was assembled the next great trait of Klopp emerged – patience in focus.
The success of last week was almost five years in the making and there have been some tremendous highs and lows along the way.
But Klopp never wavered from his overall plan – sure, the strategy was tweaked from time to time – but there was no wholesale departure from the agreed plan.
Weak leaders (or should I say fake ones) will materially change an agreed strategy and some abandon it completely.
In sport you see plenty of these situations where a 'leader' changes the strategy at the first sign of trouble or when the results are not their liking – it can happen anywhere really and seldom leads to success.
Finally, and maybe this is why Klopp is already being singled out as a future German Chancellor, he knows what responsibility is and how to demonstrate that to his team and how to showl that to the community.
You will never find him publicly criticising a player or anyone from his team but you will see him take responsibility in the few times that his tactics didn't work.
The good lessons in his journey are many and I have only mentioned a few here.
But if business leaders (in fact all leaders) took a short time to study and understand his methods, perhaps we would see even more success than we have to this point.
