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What adland can learn from Gareth Southgate
July 30, 2024
Adland moves fast. But football fans move on faster. So, while fans felt the heartbreak of England’s 2-1 loss to Spain in this year’s Euro final, their attention is already turning to who will replace Gareth Southgate as England manager.
But before we forget all about the trials and tribulations of this summer’s tournament, and Southgate is replaced, let us take a moment to look at the parallels to be drawn from Southgate’s unique management style, and the running of businesses across adland. And there are certainly a few things the leaders of this industry can learn from his success…
No star player
On paper the England team is strong. From Jude Bellingham to Phil Foden to Bukayo Saka there are a fair few “star boys” in the squad. But we never saw Southgate sacrifice the integrity of the rest of the squad just to please one star player. In fact, Southgate’s focus over his eight-year tenure has been on building a cohesive team rather than relying on individual stars, creating a strong and unified squad.
Adland could learn a lot from this.
Seeding a sense of togetherness, shared purpose and shared goals throughout teams will not only encourage a better work culture with less internal competition and a more unified approach, but it will also boost morale to form a nicer and more collaborative work environment. Lean into this – foster collaboration between creatives, strategists and account managers rather than relying on single “stars”. And acknowledge the importance of every team member – then you will get the most out of your teams.
Embrace diversity of thought
The diverse range of expertise and backgrounds brought into the England coaching team by Southgate was part of his success. The chosen group of coaches – while having extensive expertise – had completely different experiences of the game, avoiding a suffocating echo chamber, where everyone reinforces each other’s biases, limiting creativity and innovation. Instead, their opposing experiences and points of view acted to inject fresh thinking into strategies.
The same can be said within the workforce. Diverse teams bring with them myriad different ideas, expertise and backgrounds. And only by combining these different viewpoints and experiences can collaborative teams be truly creative and innovative ideas bloom. You can’t market well to a diverse audience (and most target audiences are diverse) if your marketing team doesn’t represent that diversity.
DEI isn’t a buzzword; it’s an industry necessity.
Show empathy
Showing compassion and empathy to your team is the hallmark of a modern leader. So, as well as being there to celebrate the successes when things go to plan, to also be there when times are tough to lead your team out of the woods.
This is something Southgate has demonstrated time and time again. It’s particularly embodied in the way he has helped Saka, through the heartbreak as well as success.
It seems straight forward. But there are too many stories of tyrannical leaders with their own agendas stifling creativity and scaring off young talent in this industry. Leaders must nurture talent and foster a forgiving culture that enables creativity to thrive.
No England manager is ever going to please everyone and Southgate has been heavily criticised for some of his strategies, style and lack of substitutions (!) but he has undoubtedly delivered results and built an inspiring and exciting team of young talent. Far exceeding expectations, he has become arguably the most consistently successful manager England men’s team has ever had. Which means any leader could do well to take a leaf or two out of his book.
By Grace Masters