Speech of the Month, March 2025 - Sir Gareth Southgate

Timing is everything, right? So while Sir Gareth Southgate’s Dimbleby Lecture received more media covering than it might have done if it hadn’t been delivered as Adolescence was being aired, it also meant that some of the messages in the speech – good messages – might be missed because everyone assumes the speech is about stopping young men and boys turning to toxic influencers. 

If you haven’t watched the speech in full, then I’d urge you to before it disappears from iplayer- The Richard Dimbleby Lecture - Sir Gareth Southgate - BBC iPlayer

I’m not the lecture’s target audience, yet I came away from it reflecting on a few questions and deciding to stop protecting my child from failure so much. 

Ultimately, the measure of a successful speech is that audience members go on to make a change, do something differently. But often poor arrangement and delivery can hinder a speech’s success. Southgate’s speech was helped by strong structure, good storytelling, wit and a desire to hold the audience’s eye when he was making his serious, earnest points. Here’s what we can all learn – in terms of presentation technique – from the speech…

An intro statement which gave his speech structure

He opens by setting out his stall, “Tonight I'm going to talk about two very different penalty kicks, separated by two decades, but connected by two characteristics more powerful than football: belief and resilience.”

Then he got straight into describing his notorious, career-defining penalty miss in 1996, but we knew we’d be coming back to that other penalty kick later in the speech. And so we did. We didn’t know exactly when, but this gave the speech an arc, it set up an expectation and we waited for it to be paid off. 

Humorous storytelling

In describing his penalty miss in 1996, he set up his story with the fail-proof ‘Time & Place’ opener. “Now I’d like you to picture the old Wembley Stadium. It’s England versus Germany. Semi final of Euro ’96.” Smashing. All an audience needs when it knows it’s going to be told a story is a 'Time & Place' opener. We don’t want much background. 

As he tells the tale, he moves brilliantly between what’s going on on the pitch, and what’s going on inside his head. This switch between the external and the internal always delivers comedy because the two usually contrast, and we appreciate hearing what a person (despite what their body appears to be saying) is truly thinking. 

Then later, he relives a conversation with Stuart Pearce. As he does, he acts out the dialogue, and because he captures Pearce’s voice convincingly, it gets laughs. 

Consider employing these storytelling devices when you next tell a story, even if that’s just giving an example. 

He proudly and purposefully talked about values

It’s an odd thing, isn’t it, how we can feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when we talk about our values? Maybe we don’t like to come across as sanctimonious? Or maybe we don’t want to bang on about them in case we flout them later and look like a hypocrite? I know, it’s tricky. 

But actually, we’re much happier to watch someone state their values confidently, than do it in a faint-hearted, apologetic way. Check out Southgate’s earnestness is this clip. It works. People nod. He doesn’t come across as holier-than-thou at all. 

So what are we going to do? Send the embarrassment packing! 

No visuals

Would visuals have improved his speech? Not at all. If anything, they’d have moved the focus from him. Also, and more controversially, no waistcoat! 

Areas of improvement

There’s no such thing as a perfect speech, so here are the areas that could’ve been better:

• In the section where Southgate sets out how we can build resilience and belief in the young, he says we do this with: identity, connectivity and culture. However, I felt those points/ tips bled into one another, and therefore could be easily forgotten. 
• I thought there should have been a clearer call to action. What did he want people in the room to go on and do? Encourage their boys to become teachers, become youth leaders, petition government so councils have the funding for more youth clubs, take fatherless boys that they know under their wing…? 
• Sir Gareth is a wedding ring spinner. Lots of us do this when we're nervous - but try not to.