Stephen Kelly

And I'm sitting in these rooms in 70 Whitehall with all these dames and lords and sirs.

And, you know, just amazing people like Jeremy Haywood.

And he very kindly, I asked him in the first two weeks, would you mentor me?

Just go for a coffee every month.

He was just taken over.

Gus O'Donnell was there.

So when he arrived, it was Gus, and then he handed over to Jeremy.

Yeah, but Gus, again, wonderful guy from clapping down the road, actually.

Yeah.

But these people, you know, they've got a public perception very different from the reality, and they were very helpful in getting me acclimatised and supporting me, and also just saying, actually, Stephen, you could probably do this differently.

Because invariably as a leader, I think the crux of it come to the right point.

I think with great leadership, they can inspire any organisation, whether it's public or private sector.

And I think, honestly, in the last 40 years, since all that privatisation of water industry and stuff, we've lost sight of actually what matters.

I think, you know, maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but actually business is simple.

It's about, you know, delighting citizens in this case, treating the taxpayers' money as if it's your own, spending money wisely on behalf of the taxpayer, and for the government to make sure you align and drive the policy initiatives.

So with these things, honestly, and the civil service is no difference, you know, people run a mile if you're not successful, but success has many followers.

So what I sought to do in the first three, six months, and I took this through the ministers, I said, right, here's the plan.

This is what we're going to do.

This is what we're going to deliver.

And it was like, this is a, so we went to actually start back.