Gareth Southgate and the power of quiet leadership

I’ve been thinking about Gareth Southgate and the quiet effectiveness of his leadership style.

Our contemporary understanding of leadership is often formed through constant exposure to loud, colourful demagogues (Johnson, Musk, Trump. While it’s hard to deny the success of this style, it’s not the only one whose stock is rising.

England men’s football team’s historic victory over Germany this week was built on pragmatism, professionalism and humility. It was boring but unproblematic and effective, and that’s the essence of Southgate. The secret to his success? Firstly, his conduct; intelligent and personable, he’s also humble and uncontroversial; he doesn’t drag opponents or referees and backs his players to the hilt. But he’s no pushover, as his excoriation of Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell’s enforced COVID-isolation showed.

Southgate has also been decisive and sensible in managing off-field issues that affect his team’s reputation. Sending players home for COVID protocol breaches showed that we’ve moved beyond any stroking of star egos. His support of his team taking the knee has prevented the tribal issue from eclipsing the football. Harry Kane will thus have known when wearing a rainbow armband that his manager would have his back.

If this all seems pretty basic, imagine if the footballing equivalent of a Musk-Trump-Johnson-esque figure was in charge instead. Let’s call him Mose Jourinho. He cultivates a siege mentality – lambasting and concocting conspiracies about opponents and referees; he criticises his players; he piles his two cents into every socio-cultural issue surrounding the tournament, building pressure on his team to address them as well.

There’s a quiet competence in Southgate’s ability to avoid any of this nonsense: the beauty of it is often in the negative space. It’s not flashy; it’s not always inspiring: but it’s working.