As England enters its first final major final since 1966, we decided to look at five qualities of England manager Gareth Southgate’s leadership and what you, as a business owner, can learn from them.
1. Create a team of individuals
The England football team effectively act as one unit, but Southgate is known for treating each member as an individual, taking into consideration their unique characters, their strengths and weaknesses and what each player needs to perform at their best. This requires a honed emotional intelligence and empathy.
As a business owner, creating a team that’s the effective sum of its parts begins with recruitment—instead of merely considering who’s the most qualified, take into account their personalities, their way of working and how they perceive both work and life. Once you’ve got your team together, watch for snags or clashes and work to understand and resolve them as quickly as possible, while at the same time regularly making clear to everyone who plays what role and what every member expects from each other and themselves.
2. Know how and when to apportion responsibility
In this article on Boot Room, Southgate says, “I like players to have responsibility; to think about what we are asking them to do, to have an opinion on the way we are asking them to play and the way we are asking them to train. I think if the players have some ownership of what’s going on then that’s going to help them make better decisions on the field and also buy into the way that we are trying to progress.”
Yes, you are the primary leader of your business. However, giving each member of your team responsibilities not only makes them feel more valued, it can also push them out of their comfort zone a little and help them develop and realise their full potential.
Another good thing is to include your team in big decisions, to ask what they think instead of just telling them how it is. Sharing or relinquishing control over certain aspects of your business not only shows confidence in your team members, it’s also a display of humility.
3. Make time for informal discussions
Southgate has often said he usually prefers informal discussions with players instead of formal meetings. He believes that an informal chat—whether together as a team or one-to-one—tends to make individuals open up more and also gives him a good opportunity to know each player as a person as well as a player.
As a business owner, there’s no doubt you’ll attest to the difficulties of maintaining team cohesion during the past 18 months. No longer having your team physically together has affected team morale and creativity to varying degrees. This was undoubtedly one of the greatest revelations from the pandemic—the role of ‘water cooler’ discussions in maintaining team spirit and sparking ideas.
Now that we’re returning to ‘normal’ it’s time to re-embrace regular afterwork drinks. They’re a great space for everyone to forget work, relax and open up. Of course, some individuals might be more private than others, and this should be taken in to account. As well as afterwork drinks, monthly one-to-one conversations, if feasible, are another great way to get your team members to talk about their concerns and encourage them to reveal if anything outside of work is bothering them; you might have a solution for them.
4. Your leadership doesn’t stop at the workplace
Much has been said about Southgate’s humility as well as his willingness to be vulnerable. This is a persona he maintains both on and off the pitch. He has also instilled better habits and behavioural changes inside the team, while at the same time not being iron fisted about it.
As a leader, one of your greatest opportunities—and responsibilities—is to transcend the thing that you have an official leadership role in and use those same traits to benefit other people and the community. Remember, you are not only a leader five days a week—a true leader is always a leader in whatever they do, and that includes your personal values and the way you live and treat other people away from the office.
5. Recognise your mistakes, but don’t dwell on the them
One of the biggest pressures of leading in sport is being beholden to your team’s past. Whether good or bad, both the public and the media often use previous performances as a benchmark or as an illusory limiting factor. After England beat Germany, Southgate commented that his missed penalty against Germany in the semi-finals of Euro 1996 “will always hurt” but added that was all in the past and said the win against Germany was a way to give people another day to remember, but for good reasons.
Everyone has bad days and makes mistakes. The difference between good, great and even exceptional individuals is they first of all have the humility to admit when they mess up, and secondly, they reflect on the important lessons they learned from the experience, and then move on. This is the only way to to improve both as a person and a leader. You can’t change the past, so never look back unless it’s going to benefit your personal development.