As Tuchel and Bayern Munich part ways, professor of management Michael Smets examines the risks and rewards of returning to a job
Thomas Tuchel: Should He Stay or Should He Go?
That’s the key question in European football now that most seasons have ended. Jurgen Klopp answered for himself and bid an emotional farewell to Liverpool FC while Chelsea FC decided on behalf of Mauricio Pochettino that it was time to go.
In the Bundesliga, FC Bayern Munich has managed to answer that seemingly simple question with some intriguing twists and turns, which are instructive for other executives and those who appoint them.
To recap: Things were not going well in February, so Bayern Munich and manager Thomas Tuchel agreed to part ways at the end of the season. FC Bayern ended their first title-less season in over a decade. Nonetheless, the club’s leadership performed a remarkable U-turn and approached Tuchel to stay on as manager. In the end, they couldn’t agree on terms, and it was goodbye for good.
Now I ask you: If your organization asked you to leave and before you were even out the door, persuaded you to stay, would you? Why?
History abounds with examples of business leaders who returned to run companies they left or were ousted from. Think of Steve Jobs at Apple, Howard Schultz at Starbucks, or Sam Altman at OpenAI. With the notable exception of Altman, these CEOs returned years later to fundamentally different circumstances. So, what are the conditions and drivers that might make a return successful?
Unfinished Business
Tuchel’s inaugural season was marred by injuries that never allowed him and his squad to show their best. Such a sense of unfinished business would prove tempting to most. Take Jobs, Schultz, or even Michael Dell, all founders who clearly felt they had unfinished business when they got back in the hot seat. So ask yourself, what’s left for me to do, and what legacy do I want to leave?
Leadership Change
When Tuchel joined Bayern in 2023 his predecessors hadn’t enjoyed long tenures, and even in the upper echelons of the club, there was unprecedented turnover. Is getting another chance in a less turbulent environment with a team of your own choosing a tempting proposition? Possibly – possibly not. Corporate leaders who return typically step in during moments of crisis. A more stable leadership environment only helps if it is different from the one in which leaders struggled originally. In Tuchel’s case, senior managers seemed willing to re-evaluate Tuchel’s performance, but club patriarch Uli Hoeneβ remained critical. If the people who wanted you gone in the first place are still firmly in charge, it’s not a good time to go back, unless you can mobilize powerful backing from elsewhere.
Stakeholder Backing
Even bosses have to listen to some key stakeholders, be it players and fans or key staff, customers and investors. Here, Sam Altman is the closest conceivable parallel to Tuchel. Ousted by the board, staff petitioned for Altman to be reinstated as CEO, which eventually happened, with the board resigning. There are better odds of success for returners if they are confident they can create a more conducive environment for long-term projects with the help of others. Of course, in that context, your personal bargaining power matters. In Tuchel’s case, Bayern Munich had just had an unprecedented string of rejections from its top picks to succeed Tuchel. So if they have nowhere else to go, are you going to be their White Knight?
What About You?
Finally, critically question your ability to re-imagine your own leadership. If nothing else has changed, your old self would not stand a good chance of success. Where corporate leaders have successfully returned to their old companies, their companies had changed profoundly, but so had they. Before returning to Apple, Jobs had founded Pixar. Before making the choice to return to your old leadership arena, ask how the organisation has changed and how much you are willing to change to make it work.
Michael Smets is professor of management at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford