Dundee boss Steven Pressley: There were elements of my managerial style I didn't like

The Courier

14-06-2025

When Steven Pressley last stepped into a Scottish football dugout the world was a different place.
Rangers were in the Third Division, Donald Trump was just a TV personality and Manchester City had only one Premier League title to their name.
John Brown was manager at Dundee as the Dark Blues were relegated in miserable fashion.
Ambition for Pressley was burning brightly, he was off to conquer English football after learning the managerial ropes at Falkirk.
He readily admits his ego was off the scale but failures followed and that ego was diminished, prompting much introspection during his time away from the spotlight at Brentford.
Pressley was involved at first-team level within one of the most forward-thinking clubs in world football, learning under highly-regarded boss Thomas Frank. He's now taken over at Tottenham Hotspur.
More than that, the new Dundee head coach was hard at work studying. The degree was strategic leadership at Liverpool University. The goal was to become a better leader.
That's what he plans to bring to the job at Dundee as he steps back into a Scottish football dugout 12 years after departing for the bright lights down south.
'One of the things that I most enjoyed about my degree was self-reflection and looking at how I was as a leader and how I can improve as a leader,' Pressley said.
'When I was a player, I was generally a captain. And then I went from that to being almost a manager immediately.
'And you almost, through your title alone, can make people do things.
'Then you go into a job, which I was involved in for four years, where you don't. You have to build relationships.
'You have to manage people in different ways. And it's been brilliant education for me. So I think I've changed a lot.
'I do think as a person I've changed a lot. I'm a lot calmer, a lot more controlled, a much smaller ego.
'I think part of that has been that when you're a young manager, you want to take on the world.
'I still see it with so many young managers.
'Then you have the difficulties, you have the setbacks, you have the failures, you have all of those things.
'Eventually it shapes you and moulds you and changes you.
'And I've had a lot of that, a lot of experience, a lot of disappointments, a lot of self-reflection. And I think a lot of growth.
'I think I'm a different character, but that's normal throughout your life.'
He added: 'There were certain elements of my own management style that I didn't like in self-reflection.
'But equally, there were certain elements of my management that I did like and I think that have helped me and I would continue with.
'So I think it's just a natural process.
'I think the most important thing is to be able to reflect and be able to improve and be able to grow.
'And that's what I see. I see it as a journey. And I think that especially the last four or five years have really changed me a lot in many ways.
'I am a lot calmer, a lot more understanding, especially understanding of others around about you.
'You can have a leadership style, which is very much a runaway style where you're going to follow.
'It's about making people feel part of that journey, giving people more autonomy, trusting people more.
'I think that that's a really important factor.
'It's bringing those people with you on that journey, about working with those people to make things better.
'I was hugely driven and I was going to get there regardless.
'And probably less understanding of those around me.'
Pressley also plans to move to Dundee after selling his house in Leamington Spa in the West Midlands.
'My wife will live between the kids and up here but I'll live here permanently,' Pressley said.
'The difficulty I've had is my kids now see England as home.
'That's the challenge. I always wanted to move back to Edinburgh. That was always our plan.
'But as time went on it's become harder and harder.
'So I'm really excited to be back in Scotland.'