Maximising Talent: Gary Lineker

Don’t Tell Me The Score

How to get the most out of the talent you have, with Gary Lineker. Gary is one of England’s greatest ever footballers- he won the golden boot at the 1986 World Cup for scoring the most goals- and is now one of Britain’s most successful broadcasters- presenting Match of the Day and a plethora of other top programmes. Gary insists however- he wasn’t outrageously talented at either football or broadcasting, but he found a way to maximise his talent and become a huge success at both- and that’s what we talk about in this episode. A big part of Gary’s success was down to his parenting- his weren’t the stereotypical pushy parents on the touchline- although his dad did step in when Gary got out of line, and that’s at least part why Gary never even received so much as a yellow card during his career. Gary explains how he used to relish pressure situations, and rarely felt nervous- by framing things like penalties as opportunities to succeed rather than chances to fail. He talks about continually looking to get out of your comfort zone- and why modelling people who have previously succeeded is a god idea, as he did when moving to Barcelona. He shares lessons on the importance of treating everyone the same, and also gets into the similarities between Britain post the EU referendum and the tribalism of football.