Coach Park Hang-Seo, from the wings to the podium

DNHN - Korean coach Park Hang-seo, the national football team, and U23 Vietnam have enjoyed significant success since 2017, owing to the art of 'papa leadership,' in which Mr Park treats the players as if they are his children.

After our men's football team overcame Spain in the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, the entire country of Korea erupted in flames like an erupting volcano in summer 2002. I boarded the plane immediately following the game. Fly to Vietnam to see my folks who live there.

Although this is my second visit to Vietnam, it is easy to sense the people's enthusiasm for football when, regardless of the time of day or night, there are always people sitting on the streets or in cafes to watch football.

However, football fans are unlikely to know the popular coach Park Hang-seo, who was instrumental in the Korean team's World Cup win. Indeed, he was not acknowledged by the public at the time since he was "only" one of the assistant coaches. However, many people in the football world feel that, while it is not visible, Coach Park played a critical role in linking Mr Guus Hiddink - the foreign head coach at the time - and the Korean players, because there are communication and cultural obstacles between them.

After Coach Park's recent triumph at the 2022 SEA Games, perhaps we can look at the reasons why he becomes such a good leader.

In 2003, I relocated to Vietnam. Since then, Vietnam has been a haven for me to freely exchange and express my ideas and culture. I find numerous similarities between Vietnam and Korea, maybe because both countries are greatly influenced by Confucian principles. Indeed, the literature on leadership theory demonstrates that citizens in Confucian-influenced cultures expect their leaders to function as father figures.

In other words, when a leader is both giving and capable of communicating and leading like a loving and respected mother or father, people are drawn to and inspired to perform above expectations.

Coach Park's leadership style is known as 'leader like a father' (or 'papa leadership' in English). Many anecdotes have been reported in the media about how he constantly seeks to create a family-like relationship amongst the members of the teams he leads, as well as his acts demonstrating care and death with his kindness to the players.

Coach Park's passionate emotions and gestures on television caused not just the entire team but also the entire viewers to cry every time the Vietnamese players scored or missed. Coach Park resembles a "football crazy" at times, never missing a single game of his son's and sobbing over every triumph and setback.

Coach Park, on the other hand, cannot be so successful if he is only a good father. Mr Park heard how Guus Hiddink destroyed the poisonous culture that prioritized connections above success during his tenure with the 2002 World Cup, which used to cause players to lose the incentive to strive their hardest.

Coach Park is a friendly father who always makes the players smile and comes together as a team, but he is also a scientific and fair leader – someone who always makes decisions based on facts and right, someone who always encourages and sends a clear message that the players' efforts will be appreciated in reality.

Coach Park's tale might be especially inspiring to foreigners operating multinational firms in Vietnam because it shows how to create leadership abilities that are more situationally appropriate, based on values like kindness, connection, and scientific and equitable decision-making.

Because the main company model in Vietnam is a family enterprise, this might be an essential lesson for Vietnamese business leaders. This corporate strategy has been chastised for encouraging nepotism and favouritism, which in turn reduces employee enthusiasm and performance.

However, if a company has the appropriate 'family leader,' who treats everyone fairly and equitably, this might be the finest strategy to motivating people to work hard. for the organization's success According to research, younger generations, such as Gen Z, are more driven by justice and equality, emphasizing the lesson of equality - 'lead like a father' for corporate leaders worldwide.

Back to Coach Park, everyone is waiting to see how far he can take the national team and how popular his 'fatherly leadership' approach will become. Meanwhile, let us continue to share the delight of seeing Mr Park leap and raise his fist to the sky every time the Vietnamese team scores.

Dr Han Jung Woo, Acting Senior Dean of Human Resource Management, RMIT University Vietnam