Listen

In Scottish football, Glasgow giants Celtic and Rangers have won every league title for the last 39 years.

The last team to beat ‘The Old Firm’ was Aberdeen in 1985, coached by a young man named Alex Ferguson.

While many are familiar with his exploits at Manchester United (13 x Premier Leagues, 5 x FA Cups, 2 x Champions Leagues), it is at Aberdeen where Ferguson really honed his craft.

During his seven years with the club, Aberdeen won 3 x Scottish league championships, 4 x Scottish Cups and both the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Super Cup. They not only topped Celtic and Rangers, but Dundee United and Hearts, both of whom were strong at the time.

At the end of his tenure in Scotland, Ferguson wrote a book called A Light in the North which, when paired with his later books, gives us a marvellous insight into the mind of a young coach learning his trade. A Light in the North shows us glimmers of the future master and his unquenchable desire to win, but also vulnerabilities and self-doubt that he was required to work through.

When we look back on masters, we can tend to assume they always had it figured out — as if they arrived on the scene with all the craft knowledge they needed. Alex Ferguson paints a picture to the contrary, going to great lengths to point out that, particularly at Aberdeen, his approach was shaped by listening to advice from others.

Here are five early lessons that Fergie learned by listening to others:

Listening to…His Players

Before his first league match against Rangers at Ibrox, Ferguson overheard his players talking about slowing the game down to frustrate the home crowd. It was a losing mentality, and one which incensed Ferguson. “I wanted to create and develop a side that was feared,” he had stated. Having a team that was trying not to lose would not strike fear into anyone.

“I just couldn’t understand that philosophy,” he wrote, “I wanted to go to Ibrox to beat them. How about letting them worry about us? It was an attitude that disappointed me.”

This was an early lesson for Ferguson, but one which we can all learn from. If you are tasked with changing behaviour and instilling a winning mentality, you cannot be locked in your office with the door shut. You need to be out on the floor, listening, observing, looking for cues that are to the contrary.

“I mentally pencilled that in as something that would need to be sorted out,” Ferguson writes ominously.

Listening to…Bill Shankly

Liverpool were the dominant British team of the era, and they were coached by a fellow Scotsman, Bill Shankly. Ferguson regularly visited, and always left with a lesson.

One on occasion, Shankly was giving him a tour of the boardroom when Ferguson noticed the time. “It was 7:25pm and kickoff was at 7:30pm, so I asked Bill whether he should be with his players,” Ferguson recalls. Bemused, Shankly calmly responded: “Son, if I’ve got to be with my players for the deciding game of the season, there’s something wrong with them.”

In his book Leading, Ferguson reflects: “It is one example of the power of delegation that I always carried with me from early in my career.”

Listening to…Archie Knox

Some lessons don’t make sense until they collide with another piece of knowledge, as was the case with Shankly’s demonstration of delegation.

It took Ferguson hiring Archie Knox as his assistant coach for the message to truly sink in. “Shortly after he arrived at Aberdeen, Archie sat me down and asked me why I had hired him,” Ferguson writes. Knox was restless and bored because Ferguson insisted on doing everything himself.

Knox told Ferguson: “You shouldn’t be conducting training sessions, you should be on the sidelines watching and supervising.”

Reluctantly, Ferguson took Knox’s advice, later admitting, “Archie’s observation was the making of me.”

Listening to…Jock Stein

Stein was Ferguson’s hero and mentor, and the two were side-by-side when Stein collapsed and died after coaching Scotland’s World Cup qualifier against Wales in 1985.

In his writing, Ferguson regularly references Stein as a calming influence on him, as well as being a shrewd teacher of the dark arts of coaching. Ferguson would go on to become known for his gamesmanship, and it’s easy to see why with a mentor like Stein.

“Jock told me two things that I’ll never forget: Firstly, make sure you are the second team on the ground for training on the day before the game. That way, your opponent will think you are watching them while they work. Secondly, take a bottle of Macallan whisky for the opposition manager. He’ll think you’re in awe of him, that he was the big guy, and that you were beaten already.”

Stein’s advice came before Aberdeen played Real Madrid in the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup. “I’m glad I listened to Jock because both of his tips helped,” Ferguson wrote.

Aberdeen won 2-1.

Listening to…Jock Wallace and John Lyall

Five years into his spell at Manchester United, Ferguson’s teams had finished 11th, 2nd, 11th, 13th, and 6th. They had some success, winning the FA Cup, but for a club who prides itself on league titles and European trophies, it was still not enough.

Ferguson’s self-belief was wavering.

That was until he received a visit from former Rangers head coach Jock Wallace. After the game against Southampton, the pair went out to dinner, where Wallace lifted the weight of Ferguson’s shoulders with one simple remark: “That’s not an Alex Ferguson team. Once you get an Alex Ferguson team, you’ll be right.”

John Lyall, West Ham’s manager at the time, told Ferguson something similar around the same time: “He said: make sure you see Alex Ferguson in your team.”

Reflecting on the timely interventions from his colleagues, Ferguson writes: “Jock and John were implicitly telling me to be true to my own beliefs and convictions. Today, I use the same line with other managers I am trying to encourage.”

From time-to-time, even the most self-assured leaders need someone to believe in them.

Cody’s Notes

• Mastery can not be achieved through independent experience alone. Go directly to the keepers of the knowledge, those who’ve gone before us, and seek their guidance and wisdom.