Deutsche Post und DHL

Meredith Wellard

In 1994 I attended a workshop focused on the changing nature of work and what the future of leadership would look like. Participants were provided with a list comparing management and leadership in a sort of ‘from – to’ model. The model, which subsequently appeared in various publications, challenged leadership development professionals to focus on developing leaders who were focused on their ‘soft’ skills, more engaging and who enabled their people, recognizing that performance is linked to satisfaction and engagement. That was 30 years ago and today, we take these principles for granted, but a new set of leadership challenges have emerged along with a seismic shift in the labor market as talent and skills become scarce across the globe.

Today the demands on people leaders have exponentially expanded, whether it be related to customer, investor, compliance and regulations, globalization, or product innovation, leaders’ roles in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) are immense. Also, their responsibility for current people topics has increased and now includes important topics such as company culture, engagement, diversity and belonging, psychological safety, retention, growth, and performance. There seems to be a never-ending set of demands on leaders. With all that on their plate, along comes HR with the next leadership development initiative. Oh no!

As vice president of group talent acquisition learning and growth at DHL Group, I am convinced that leadership development has never been more important. Including building leaders’ skills across the digital landscape, helping them understand changing customer demands, how to work with their people effectively and how to manage themselves to respond to the new world. With the global talent market tightening, many leaders are finding themselves needing to manage in a world of talent scarcity, something many have never had to deal with before. They also need to learn how to work in flatter, more agile organizations and create a sustainable talent strategy for long-term business success. But how can it be achieved when there are so many demands and no more time?

"With the global talent market tightening, many leaders are finding themselves needing to manage in a world of talent scarcity, something many have never had to deal with before"

The new approach to developing leaders is to structure leadership capability development in a holistic manner, linking talent, development, and strategic initiatives, utilizing AI-enabled technology and embedding and aligning messaging and experiences that reinforce expectations of leadership across all levels of the organization, all team members, and all opportunities for growth. This is a shift from the traditional event or project-based development model towards a holistic leadership strategy that starts with an understanding of organizational culture and capabilities your organizational roadmaps require, what key skills and messages are critical, and what technology can support and provide the right data. Moreover, ends with a deep understanding through people analytics of the current state and future requirements of your workforce.

At DHL Group, with our 600,000 employees in over 220 countries and territories, we have built a learning landscape that protects and develops our strong culture and includes a globally consistent engagement program ‘certified’ which encompasses the group leadership attributes, strategy and group initiatives such as our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), compliance, digitalization and first choice programs.   The certified program builds and reinforces the culture of DHL Group by ensuring these are embedded across the development opportunities and reinforced with a series of management development programs from a first-level supervisor level to C-suite education, that focus on a globally consistent approach to feedback, coaching, well-being, facilitation, and engagement.

The certified program is complemented by a platform of highly personalized learning and growth opportunities to support individual development for the future and is linked to formal talent management processes and succession planning. The technology that supports this is cutting-edge, based on recent developments in AI and our broad understanding of skills, attributes and knowledge required to be successful in any role, including leadership.

This standardized and sustainable model, which results in a continuous reinforcement of culture and key skills and enables the opportunity to embed additional requirements of a strategic nature, is also a platform on which to ‘hook’ new programs and events. We know leaders are exposed to the key messaging and basic skills required to be a successful leader in DHL Group. This includes programs targeted at young talent, tech talent, or the successful female talent initiative. It provides a basis for developing new programs for executive onboarding or succession pipeline. And it sends a clear positive message to all who work at DHL Group that development is not optional; it is a necessary skill for all to be successful. This model, which is well embedded in our employer brand position and EVP (Employer Value Proposition), is a platform for long-term success in all aspects of leadership culture and growth at DHL Group.