![Gareth Southgate speaks to the press ahead of the Euro 2024 final](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/14/TELEMMGLPICT000385487302_17209762124940_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoSE8lRu1qGtzoDHUwlWD806xmMyXo7s-SJ1yPs4Xats.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Gareth Southgate read self-help book by Mormon professor for tips on coaching
The England manager has drawn inspiration and comfort from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
![Gareth Southgate speaks to the press ahead of the Euro 2024 final](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/14/TELEMMGLPICT000385487302_17209762124940_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoSE8lRu1qGtzoDHUwlWD806xmMyXo7s-SJ1yPs4Xats.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Gareth Southgate has revealed he turned to a self-help book by a Mormon professor when he was preparing to become a coach.
The England manager said that he read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Professor Stephen Covey, a practicing Mormon who died in 2012.
He said the lessons learned from the book have helped with not only his management style but also his family life.
Speaking to the High Performance Podcast last month, he said: “When I was finishing playing I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
“There are lots of books – I was always into those about management, Good to Great, there are clues in all these different books aren’t there? It’s sad, but I’m always relating everything I read to, ‘how would this work with the team or how would this work with my kids?’
“There is almost never a switch-off which is, in some respects, a bit sad. You’re watching a film and you think, ‘oh, that might be like a relationship thing’. You’re searching for small messages that can help you improve.”
![Southgate celebrates England's Euro 2024 semi-final win over the Netherlands](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/14/TELEMMGLPICT000385196929_17209762381070_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqSDX4J92ll_rWeb6hSkeN5ODIKPTsSkEcxa_ujpP--D8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
It is thought that Southgate’s psychological preparations have helped England get ready for the pressure of Euro 2024 and nerve-wracking penalty shoot-outs.
Southgate has admitted his penalty miss that saw England lose the Euro 96 semi-final against Germany continued to haunt him but later found humour in a self-mocking advert for Pizza Hut.
He has since used his experience of feeling guilt at letting teammates down to come up with England’s “buddy” penalty system.
Each penalty taker is assigned a teammate to walk them halfway to the penalty spot and meet them on their return so they feel safe and valued and are able to take clinical penalties on auto-pilot – as England’s successful five did in the quarter-final.
Southgate has also read Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by James C Collins, but said it was Covey’s book he read after he retired from playing football.
![England striker Ivan Toney scores a penalty in the shoot-out win over Switzerland](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/14/TELEMMGLPICT000384719598_17209762672830_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqytxLMmtfp3sC_cEhhtHl349EaMGRU5uBPvUYQDJ5-Ds.jpeg?imwidth=350)
In the book, Covey emphasises how winning for everyone is better long-term than winning alone, manifested in how England now call substitutes “finishers” whose job is to win games late on.
The guide, first published in 1989, says a second habit is to focus on what you can influence and take responsibility for your reaction to your experiences, relevant to Southgate’s lessons from his penalty pain.
Its third lesson is to “seek first to understand, then be understood”, meaning take time to listen then others will do the same with you.
Covey, who as a practicing Mormon came to England for his two-year mission period, also says to prioritise matters that are both urgent and important, then important things ahead of just urgent ones.
The final principles are to work towards how you want to be remembered, combining the strengths of teamwork to achieve what’s not possible alone, and to “sharpen the saw”, which is doing exercise, reading, service to society, and renewing health and energy.
Covey was named by Time magazine in 1996 as one of the 25 most influential Americans, and 20 million copies of his best-selling book had been bought before he died following a bike accident in 2012.