#LeadingWithPurpose Spotlight: Steve Foster, People Director at Southeastern

Our #LeadingWithPurpose Spotlight interview series sees organisational leaders explain what leading with purpose means to them and how they strive to make their organisation a force for good in society.

In this episode, read how Steve Foster, People Director at Southeastern, does so.

Steve, what inspires you personally to lead with purpose?

I think this comes down to the saying that ‘you will not be remembered for your job title but for how you made people feel’.

If you combine that with a desire to improve the long term environment for people over short-term gains and profits it naturally draws you to lead with purpose.  I am now in a fortunate position where people in my team can all do their jobs well, which means I have to support, sometimes challenge a little but more importantly help set how they can make a difference.

Getting people to work or to an appointment is clearly important but walking through London Bridge at night brings home the wider purpose of rail as you see thousands of people all travelling for different reasons and colleagues looking to help them. 

Can you share a story or moment that shaped your own leadership?  

My own leadership has evolved over time and been shaped by family, friends, a manager that helped me progress, and being part of sports teams.

Over the last 6 years in particular my leadership has been refined by a series of projects that ranged from six months to just over two years.  Each of these were intense times.  That included business development and bidding, short term placements to stable operations and working in Covid and on transformation.

For people to trust you, particularly in short placements, it became I had to lead with purpose, be values driven and involve people in the changes. 

Why is your organisation committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity?  

Southeastern trains vision is ‘Proud to serve the South East’ and with Network Rail we are working together to secure a thriving future for the railway and for the communities we serve.

This is goes beyond running a train service and is about being purpose lead and making a difference to individuals, families, and communities.  To make this work we need to live these values internally and we are doing this by celebrating ‘Tiny Moments that Matter’ as part of ways of working which includes ‘think what if’, ‘show you care’ and ‘make great things happen’.

To help people with employment we have applied our ways of working to break down barriers such as changing the schools we partner with, placing Purpose Coalition Student Ambassadors as summer interns, working with Princes Trust, launching more Colleague Network Groups, changing how and where we advertise jobs, changing our assessment processes and how we develop careers.