“I would say the ability to withstand and respond to difficulties, setbacks,” he says, adding: “I’ve never thought of defining it before. I have a picture in my head of what it would look like.”
What is that picture? “It looks like King Canute on the beach with all the waves crashing in and him standing there trying to keep everything out – or probably me playing at Anfield a few times with Crystal Palace – that’s what it looks like!”
Canute the Great, the 11th Century King of Denmark, Norway and England, failed to keep the advancing tide at bay in the apocryphal tale, yet history records that Southgate won 2-1 with Palace on his first trip to play Liverpool at Anfield in November 1991. No doubt his next two visits – 5-0 and 6-1 Palace defeats – are uppermost in his mind at this point.
The England men’s Head Coach, direct from his home in Yorkshire, logged on to record an episode of the Rules of the Game podcast with Leaders’ Founder Jimmy Worrall ahead of his team’s Euro 2020 campaign. Several months later, as we bring this chat to the Leaders Performance Hub, it feels poignant to be discussing resilience following England’s progression to the final, where they narrowly lost 3-2 on penalties to Italy at Wembley Stadium.
England, with the youngest squad in the tournament, went one better than their semi-final appearance at the 2018 World Cup in Russia – no mean feat given that the previous five decades yielded just three semi-final appearances for England’s men. If their technical and tactical progression continues under Southgate and his staff, there is hope that the team will be genuine contenders at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. They will also need to put their heartbreaking defeat to Italy behind them, tapping into their resilience in the process.
Of resilience, Southgate explains that he considers it a skill like any other. “Without doubt, I think it’s developed over time,” he says before highlighting a significant distinction. “With lots of skills and attributes, you can develop, read and educate yourself, you can study. But I think, in the end, this type of attribute, you have to suffer, I’m afraid, to really develop it, understand it, and recognise its importance.” Unwittingly, the World Cup in Russia and the Euros have afforded both the coach and his players ample opportunity to ‘suffer’ and the question now is: what happens next?
Springing back
‘Resilience’ derives from the Latin ‘resilio’, which means ‘ to spring back’ and, throughout his playing and coaching career, Southgate has endured numerous setbacks and, in every case, has sprung back in better shape, whether personally or at a team level.
“Without a doubt, I think people can help you through the process and give you an understanding of what you’ve actually experienced; and that would be a good idea for developing athletes or coaches,” he says, “but I think, in the end, [resilience] is about how you respond and the things you take from those different experiences.”
Southgate endured his most noted setback towards the end of Euro 96, a tournament where he had consistently been one of England’s best performers. In England’s semi-final penalty shootout with eventual winners Germany, Southgate’s penalty was saved by German goalkeeper Andreas Köpke. The defeat came in an era where mass media scrutiny was strong, but nowhere near on the levels of the internet and social media age.
A quarter of a century later, and having been in English sport’s most high-profile coaching role for almost five years, Southgate feels the public gaze more intensely than at any point during a playing career that saw him play for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough in the English Premier League and represent England on 57 occasions. He admits it can affect him but tries to make light of that fact. “The reality is that every now and then we’ll Google what’s going on and see what’s there, have a little peek, then curl up in a ball and try and hide from it!
“In the old days, it was just the newspapers; that was difficult, but they went to print at 11 o’clock and you had at least a day before they came again. Now, within 30 seconds of something happening, there’s this instant social media reaction, which means, to stay balanced and calm, is even more important than ever. The conversations that used to happen in the pub, that you didn’t hear after a game, now happen and they’re out there and other people pick them up, the rest of the media pick them up, and they become the questions that are asked of you or the narrative that exists. I think the world of sport is far more dynamic and intrusive than it’s ever been and I don’t see that reverting back, frankly. It’s going to be where we are now and probably further beyond.”
Staying ‘balanced and calm’, as he puts it, can be easier said than done. A vital stage in Southgate’s own development was recognising the link between his resilience and his wellbeing. “What I recognise about myself is that if I feel in a good place, that my own wellbeing is in a good place in terms of sleep, exercise, then in actual fact I feel stronger to take those things on and less affected by it. If I’m not sleeping well and I’ve been travelling a lot, if I’m rundown, I’m not physically in as good a place, I find that can affect my mood a little bit more and then I’ve got to be careful with my decision making.
“I’m very aware of my own personal state and [I am] able to control that and react to that a little bit more and put things into perspective better as I get older.”
Southgate has always expressed an appetite for self-development and, having been sacked from his first coaching role with Middlesbrough in 2009, began rebuilding his coaching career within the auspices of the Football Association, initially as Head of Elite Development, then as Head Coach of the England men’s under-21s, before taking the senior men’s team, first in a caretaker capacity and then, seven weeks later, in November 2016, as a permanent appointment.
As Head Coach, he has attended a series of courses where wellbeing and resilience have been the focus, including one at UK Sport. “What really interested me was that the first part of all of these courses was about knowing yourself, and I hadn’t really considered that. At first I thought: ‘what are we doing here? Why are we going into this?’ and then as I got through probably the third time of doing it suddenly the penny dropped. That understanding of how you react, your responses in certain situations, until you’ve got that real awareness, until you can look after yourself, then how can you realistically…” he tails off as his thoughts shift to the upcoming Euros.
“We’re going into a major championship now, probably 45 days away. My energy levels and how I am have got to be spot-on to be able to affect the group. If I can’t have my own awareness and be in a good place and in control of those things, then it’s very difficult to affect others to the best possible level. I think going on those courses, having an understanding of that, so that I can recognise those moments was important.”
He gradually overcame his initial scepticism. “I was expecting gimmicky solutions or really scientific, modern solutions but, actually, I’ve not heard anything that’s been more helpful than probably things that we’ve done for centuries on sleep, recovery, nutrition, perhaps breathing exercises, meditation, those types of things. Whenever I’ve sat and people have been delivering a talk or a lecture on this area, I’ve been expecting something really scientific, and it hasn’t been that way.”
How does Southgate take that understanding and work to ensure that his resilience levels are where they need to be come competition time? “I would definitely [take] a little more time to myself ,” he says. “Again, I think an understanding of where you get your energy from. For some people, that would be socialising and being with a group, and I like those situations at certain times and it would have to be with the right group – you’re in, Jimmy, that’s the good news! – but then I know that one of my weaknesses is to take too much on and not allow myself breathing space. Josie [Molloy – the Football Association’s Technical Directorate Office Business Support Coordinator], who looks after me diary-wise, she’s brilliant at making sure I’ve got time and she’s better at that than I am.
“I get energy from having moments where perhaps I’m just out walking the dogs or listening to some music or a podcast or whatever. I need to give myself that space to almost physically breathe that fresh air in; but then I am able to come back into the group.
“When I was younger, I would have felt that I have to be in the office every day; first in, last to leave, now I recognise that I’ve got to be a little bit more selfish with my time at certain moments. Inevitably, as a leader, you’ve got to give to everybody else for the majority of the time, but I’m comfortable at making space for myself in those moments.”
There is, however, room for improvement and he admits to his shortcomings as a leader with real openness and honesty. “Taking too much on would be one because there’s always somebody you think you can help and you’re just leaving the office and they want 20 minutes, and 20 minutes becomes 45. That is definitely a watch-out for me. And I would say one area that I’ve got a lot better at but can still be even better is being more demanding of other people. I’m very demanding of myself and I think, if I reflect back, there’s been moments where I’ve allowed others to get away with things I shouldn’t have or that could have pushed the team even more. So probably being in lockdown for 12 months, I’ve become a more irritated, grumpy, grouchy so-and-so and I’ve had even lower tolerance levels! So that’s been a good reflection for me.”
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A full version of this interview appeared in our latest Performance journal, which also featured the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball, as well as the world-renowned New Zealand Rugby, and British Wheelchair Basketball, who runs some of the finest programmes in the sport. Edd Vahid of Premier League club Southampton FC also penned a column focusing on talent pathways.
