There are 5 principles of leadership that I live by, and while I was CEO, these principles helped DPD UK and the team to stay ahead of the pack, by being hungry, dynamic, disruptive and agile.

DPD led the parcel delivery market by always putting customers at the forefront of everything it did. We had a full-on culture, a dynamic leadership team and an engaging vision. Underpinning every step of our success, are 5 principles of leadership:

DNA

DPD managers had a simple mission: leading and inspiring their teams to deliver amazing service every day. But, you can only create and nurture effective leaders if there is a clear definition of what this looks like for your organisation.

That’s why core values – known at DPD as our DNA – have been the inspiration for how we led our people. Our six DNA values defined who we are, what we care about and what’s most important to us. These values are: passion, respect, honesty, flexibility, hard work and accountability. The company lived by these six small words every day. We wanted our friends and colleagues to use these words to describe us.

They’re also the principles of teamwork, customer service and success.

The principles of leadership

Leadership is all about creating an environment where people can reach their full potential in order to deliver amazing service every day. Leadership is about inspiring people to make life easier for customers, because everything we do starts and ends with a customer.

Great leaders are not born, but neither can they be developed from nothing. Leadership is an art and a science, but most of all it is an attitude, a way of being. The first is the ability to put others before yourself.

Leadership is also a craft that can be learned through doing. Attitude matters far more than letters after your name. I left school at 16 and most of DPD UK’s Board of Directors started on the shop floor with no formal qualifications. Together we created a culture where success was celebrated as well as calling out failure. The leadership style was direct: we told it like it was, so people always knew where they stood with us. In this honest and accountable climate, people could grow their careers with the company.

Now, here’s more about those 5 principles of leadership that I live by. They’re not a one-size-fits-all definition. But defining what good leadership means to your organisation is the initial step. Once this is in place, you can then use these principles of leadership to develop and shape your leaders.

Principle 1 – leading through purpose

What is the primary motivator for your people? Getting paid, yes. But people want to do more than ‘just get by’. They want a sense of  meaning and purpose and they perform best when they have exciting goals. In particular, when times get tough, a clearly defined shared purpose can make all the difference.

The drive and sense of purpose at DPD UK was exactly what pushed us to ever greater heights. And we constantly pushed ourselves to innovate for our customers. Take the DPD ground-breaking app, for example, the first of its kind. In 2018, 3.6 million people downloaded it, now we have over 6 million downloads and thousands of truly engaged customers. But when we started developing it in 2015, we were told it couldn’t be done. Honestly, there were times we wanted to jack it in. It was just too difficult. But we didn’t. Why? Because our defined purpose is to keep improving what we offer customers. So we kept going and we came up with an industry-leading app that we’re all proud of and our customers love.

Having a purpose is vital. This applies to every level, every stage of business, and every position within an organisation. Strong leaders make sure their people know why they are doing what they are doing and are on board with it.

Sometimes I compared DPD to the Red Arrows, because when we set our sights on something for our customers, we moved at lightning speed and we were a synchronised team, flying in a perfect and precise formation.

Principle 2 – leading by example

It’s not just what you say, it’s what you do, and that’s why leaders affect their organisations through the examples they set.  So the next of my 5 principles of leadership is simply to think about how you want to lead by example. Then do it.

Principle 3 – getting it right for the customer

At DPD UK, everything was geared towards getting it right for the customer. While I was CEO, I knew that it was important to understand where our competitors were (behind us these days!), but we really obsessed over our customers. This is what was behind our internal structure, our company culture and our drive to continuously improve.

We never stopped innovating, and we didn’t rest on our laurels. This is why we have been consistently voted the nation’s favourite UK courier company. Truly effective, successful leaders don’t stop planning and they’re constantly working towards a better future for their teams and customers. We want customers to feel delighted with the best service money can buy, impressed by the best technology available, and amazed by the most customer-centric people in the industry.

Principle 4 – leading by innovation and simplification

Each step you take as a leader should be about cutting complexity, simplifying the offering and making it better for the customer.

When I became CEO, I switched the strategy, focus and ambitions of the company. From a complicated values, vision and philosophy statement that didn’t translate across the board, I simplified what DPD stood for. In came a simple, effective 1-2-3 strategy:

Our 1-2-3 strategy served us well during the last 10 years. As an example of our continual innovation, the 1-2-3 strategy was extended to incorporate a 4th key element:

DPD was not the cheapest, but the best. And we never compromised the quality of the DPD brand, no matter what.

Principle 5 – leading with passion and belief

And finally, when it comes to the principles of leadership, it’s vital to lead with passion and belief. Always thinking big, innovating, raising your game and asking yourself how to really wow your customers.

Leading with passion and belief is about calculated strategic risk-taking. If your entire industry says something isn’t possible, find a way to make it possible. That’s how you stand out from the crowd and push your organisation to the front of the pack.

Ten years ago, DPD UK started reinventing itself as the leader for the home delivery market. It was a strategy of calculated risk and it has totally paid off. It transformed the company, with revenues of £1.4 billion. By 2025 DPD hopes to smash £2 billion turnover. And it will never stop innovating, leading by example and transforming itself. That’s how successful leadership works.

And these are the principles of leadership.