It’s been tragic this week to see arguably the most talented footballer of a generation, Paul Gascoigne, being admitted for treatment again after years of depression and alcoholism. One of the most thought provoking reactions to the news came from our most successful club manager of all time, Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson. He reminded us that he tried to sign Gascoigne for United in the late 1980s and, he believes, that things could have been very different had he done so. He was quoted as saying the following:
“We had a structure of players who could have helped him and I think it would have given him some discipline. Maybe it would have helped him, too.”
There are lessons here about the perils of following a career path driven by the quest for thrills and money, whatever the occupation. Indeed, it has been reported that it started badly when Sir Alex left the UK for his holiday that year believing he had signed his man, only to return to discover alledgedly that another club had tempted Gascoigne to sign for them by buying his mother a very large house. This would have been undeniably tempting for a young man, but is hardly the right platform for a stable, open and two-way psychological contract between player and club.
Ferguson’s point about structure and discipline is the important one though – we all want to tap into the raw talent and enthusiasm of younger employees, but it needs to be carefully nurtured if we are to generate sustained levels of high performance that serve the organisation over the long-term. Managers of all kinds have a responsibility for creating a climate where discipline and structure sits in the background, but is not constraining and does not stamp out energy and creativity.
There’s no doubt that younger workers can benefit from the parental / mentoring role that Ferguson plays for his team members and it can be that which makes the difference between a career defined by 2-3 explosive years followed by burn-out and twenty years of sustained brilliance. Returning to the football example – just look at two players from Gascoigne’s era who have just lifted the European Champion’s League trophy for the second time - Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. The latter has also just broken Sir Bobby Charlton’s all time appearance record for Manchester United at the age of 34. That could have been Paul Gascoigne.
