RIA Annual Conference: a personal perspective

The RIA conference is about issues and opportunities affecting the UK’s railway supply chain, as Clive Kessell reports. But a significant subtext was about people, leadership and attitudes. This was made clear when Martin Howell from Worldline was asked how his career in the military impacted on his work in industry.

Martin had been a Royal Marines officer and said that their form of leadership was intended to bring out the best from those around them. The required behaviours are: courage, determination, selflessness (credit the team for successes, taking the blame for failures; and cheerfulness in the face of adversity).

Claire Mann, managing director at South Western Railway (SWR), displayed those qualities in her keynote, as did Steve White from SouthEastern Trains, who quipped that a Meet the Manager session at Lewisham is not for the faint hearted.

Andrew Haines and John Larkinson focussed on the glass being half full, in that there’s an awful lot the railway community can (and should) do to work together for the benefit of the railway and its customers. We see this often, when everyone pulls together and delivers great success – something Claire Mann illustrated with how SWR transported 5,000 military personnel to and from the King’s Coronation in 2022.

But, returning to Martin Howell and quoting from his recent LinkedIn article. It concluded:

“So are there lessons for business in that year of hard, relentless training (Royal Marines’ basic training)? Maybe so:

Trust your team – show them what’s important to you, by living your values – and the team will follow. If you can’t trust the team or any people in it – do something about that.

Everyone is a leader – because if each person in the team lives and behaves according to those values and beliefs, they will each inspire others to perform better.

Trust your training – years of experience goes into it, and everything is done for a reason.

Have faith in yourself and trust your own judgement.”

That said, I doubt that anyone joining the rail industry would appreciate the tough love that Royal Marine recruits receive from their trainers.