I hadn’t discovered Premier League football throughout the majority of Alan’s career. I wish I did. His professionalism, determination, and leadership have given him a place in history alongside the greats.

All I’m left with are highlight reels, documentaries, interviews and Match of the Day’s. Even though I can’t help but feel like I’ve missed out, there’s still a lot to be explored and plenty to be learned from.

In this article I will focus on some of the key psychological aspects that were, in my opinion, among the crucial factors responsible for his remarkable career.

Love for the Game: Essential?

Alan Shearer is one of the best English strikers ever to have had the privilege to play the beautiful game. His words not mine. No, not “one of the best strikers” bit. The fact that he considers himself very lucky to have been able to play football as a career. A job he, in his words, would have gladly done for free.

Loving what you do is almost always an integral part of achieving excellence. When you consider the amount of competition in modern day sports, especially football, it’s hard to imagine anyone could achieve anything worth mentioning if they didn’t feel a deep, emotional connection with the sport and everything that goes with it. It is a great source of inspiration and motivation in general. A positive driving force that pulls us forward on a daily basis and picks us up when we’re feeling down.

Because of his love for football, Alan decided to go all in, and pursued football as a single, viable option. You can often hear him saying that he “got lucky”, as if to suggest his success was some sort of a coincidence. Even though this tells us he is very grateful for everything that has happened to him professionally, it also begs the question — what’s “luck” got to do with it?

Upbringing: Establishing the Hard-working Mindset

When discussing the key aspects and causes of his success, Alan’s mind is set. He believes everything he did was a result of dedication and hard work, a mindset he acquired from his parents early on. And, more often than not, when you put it like that, it tends to sound quite simple. Be there on time, put the hours in, rest and repeat. Ok, fair. But if it’s that simple, why aren’t more people doing it? Two reasons. It’s not that easy, and it’s not that simple.

The first problem is usually a question of motivation. How to find it and maintain it throughout your career. Loving what you do is a good start, but there is a lot more to consider, especially things like goal-setting, confidence-building, sustaining focus and attention, fighting boredom and monotony, and many other aspects you should be aware of, in order to optimize your improvement.

The second problem is that “working hard” is a complex term. It refers to an approach that consists of many different values, attitudes and behaviors. To some it might imply determination, to others discipline. The fact is, it is a relative term and it can mean different things to different people. But an important thing to focus on is that “hard work” often implies “smart work” — a related, but also a separate concept. “Working smart” allows us to optimize the effort that we put in by “working hard”. These two approaches to work and training don’t always go hand in hand, but they can and should, as their combination will inevitably lead to faster progress and higher achievement.

Whatever it meant to him, Shearer adopted it as his main point of distinction. Something he could excel at, something that gave him the edge.

Figuring out your strongest point early on can help you in more ways than one. Apart from giving you something to rely on at difficult times, it can also help you strategize your improvement and build an effective personalized development plan.

Leadership: Finding the Pieces to the Puzzle

According to Alan, his family emphasized the importance of respect and responsibility. He also had to grow up pretty quickly since he left home to join Southampton as a teenager. This particular event pushed him to develop courage, confidence, discipline and the overall mental toughness, which is often referred to simply as “having a strong character”, an essential part of being a team leader, in sports and general.

“He leads the attack with courage and quality. He’s a superb team player and an inspirational captain. As a player he is up there with the very best, with the Lofthouses, Lawtons, Linekers and any other great striker you care to mention.” — Sir Bobby Robson

Based on his punditry work on Match of the Day, we can presume he doesn’t shy away from criticizing others, often doing so in a very direct and open way.

Criticism usually isn’t something we take on fondly, but being able to give their honest feedback is something every leader needs to have in his arsenal. There are a couple of things to keep in mind when providing others with constructive criticism:

Point the comments at the behavior, not the personality of the player being criticized.

“You’re not passing the ball when we’re in a better position.” > ”You’re selfish!” Make a clear connection between a certain behavior and the ways it affects the team or the player.

“If you don’t pass the ball to us when we’re in better chance of scoring, we’ll score less goals.” Make a clear connection between a desired change in behavior and how it will affect the team and/or the player in the future.

“If you pass the ball to us when we’re in a better chance of scoring, we’ll score more goals.” In between these steps, try your best to listen and hear the responses and reactions of the people you are criticizing. They can provide you with additional information you might not yet be aware of.

Keep in mind that this model is flexible, and that it should be applied relatively, considering the situation. For example, If you don’t have a lot of time, and you need to get your message across quickly, focus on steps 1 and 2, and then make time afterwards to discuss the issue further if necessary.

This might not make you the most popular person in the team, but giving direct feedback focused on something a player can actually influence, is one of the key thing a leader should be able to do. You shouldn’t really be a dick about it though…

One thing to remember is that the right to criticize others in a team should be earned, it should not simply come with the role. It should develop naturally, as a combination of your team status, experience, knowledge, solid team relationships, but also with openness to be criticized by others, ability to accept criticism, as well as self-criticism. This insures the conflicts (which are often a natural consequence to negative feedback) will be constructive and will allow the opportunity for personal and team growth.

Final Musings

Based on what I’ve read about him so far, it’s safe to say that Shearer was a product of a different era. I even think that one of the reasons he decided to step away from management, could be because he felt that his beliefs and values weren’t shared with the majority of today’s footballers. Or at least that they’ve evolved into something he didn’t agree with.

“I was aware people were walking off training for no apparent reason… I was aware people were late for training. So what I did the first day was I put a fine system in. The first time you were late was 10% of your wages, the second time… it was 25% and the third time… 50%. But you had to get that passed by the players committee, and… As soon as the fine system hit the dressing room floor, the players committee knocked on my door and said: “That’s not acceptable, we don’t want that”. And my answer was, well, don’t be late!” — Alan Shearer

But his old school mentality is something that is lacking in modern day football, and it could help a lot of young players differentiate from the pack in the days to come. A determined, stubborn-like persistence in working on yourself day in, day out. Consistently working on improving yourself, growing stronger, all the while consciously building towards becoming a better player.

Building towards greatness…

For more insight regarding Alan Shearer’s life and career, check out his 2-hour interview on True Gordie Podcast here!