It's important to get away from the concept of leadership and get to the concept of followership. What makes people want to follow somebody? You need to listen to your workforce and treat them the way you would want to be treated. Leaders are made, not born.

We drew up values for the Met by involving 5,000 staff in talking about the type of organisation they wanted to work in. They came up with values like teamwork and respect. It was important that we were then able to say this was what the workforce wanted and not the top-down decision of management.

There's a place for making decisions other people disagree with. After the bombs had gone off on 7 July, 2005 nothing was being said by government or anyone else as the hours ticked by. I decided someone in uniform needed to say some reassuring things. My advisers said no, it's too early. I said, sorry but someone's got to do it and it had better be me.

While commissioner I drove hard at cultural change. If I could have done anything differently I would have driven even harder. But the Met is a very large organisation. One is always trying to build on its values and traditions while at the same time trying to equip the force for a modern, fast-changing and diverse society.

There were two major issues facing the Met when I was commissioner. The first was the rise into the streets of London of a form of terrorism that we had not seen before in Britain. We were left with the difficult balance of how to deal with that pulsing threat without taking actions that might frighten various parts of the community. Second, it was vital that the Met looked like London: we needed to get members of black and minority ethnic communities to join. From 2000 to 2010 the number of officers from these communities increased from five to 25 per cent.

People want a diverse workforce for three reasons. First, it's a business imperative: you get the widest range of the gene pool. Second, it's a moral imperative because it's fair. Third, it's an operational imperative. During the Damilola Taylor murder investigation, having black police officers who could speak [Nigerian language] Yoruba helped open doors.

I don't know what the government are going to do with the cuts but I think it depends on how courageous they are going to be. The big issue is: will political parties get away from the concentration on officer numbers? You don't judge the NHS by the number of nurses.

Unless you test yourself, you won't go far. The best piece of advice I've been given was when I was a detective inspector. A much more senior officer said to me, "This is good, Ian, but you're not taking any risks with yourself, you're staying inside your own capabilities."

Since stepping down as commissioner I've written a book and done a lot of teaching and lecturing. I'm about to become a non-exec chairman of a small organisation; I'm chair of a charity and trustee for a couple of others.

I was merely the steward of the office I held and as I said at the time of my resignation, if it's necessary for the steward to step aside to save the office then that's what he does. I don't think I should have been asked, but it was the right decision to go.