Water industry needs better leaders

The water industry needs to develop better leaders, delegates heard at the Institute of Water's annual conference yesterday.

Simon Cocks, wastewater service director at Severn Trent, said the industry needed to change its approach as the needs of customers change. 

“Customer’s expectations are becoming ever more demanding, they want to know more about what we do and how we do it, so they can second guess us. We have to be prepared for that. We are good at judging the technology and the physical assets and we spend a lot of time on that, but I wonder if we spend as much time on the skills and management of our people so they are resilient to deal with those challenges,” he said 

“Our history is that we have promoted a lot of people based on technical ability and its not necessarily a fault of their own that they are not living up to the leadership challenge but this needs to change.” 

Cocks said the industry needed leaders that were “open and transparent and willing to have their assumptions challenged”. This would allow water firms to achieve their goals, he said. 

Cocks also said the industry needed to recruit a diverse range of people with different skills.