Learn & Grow
- March 23, 2021

Empowering great leaders at Delivery Hero: Our People Leader Principles

What does it mean to be a good leader? The topic of leadership and management has come up a lot in recent years, within the Delivery Hero family and beyond. As we continue to work remotely, it is more important than ever to create inclusive working environments where all employees feel accepted and empowered. 

Nicole Mills joined Delivery Hero as Senior Director of Talent Development six months ago, and alongside her team, has recently launched Delivery Hero’s People Leader Principles to nurture and support leadership development at Delivery Hero. This month, Nicole also chaired a panel discussion alongside some of Delivery Hero’s female leaders as part of our Womxn Connect Summit to celebrate International Women’s Day. 

We caught up with Nicole to talk about the importance of good leadership, empowered teams, and seeing every interaction as an opportunity to learn. 

Hi Nicole, thank you for taking part in this interview. How have your first six months at Delivery Hero been? 
Nicole Mills is Senior Director of Talent Development

It’s been an exciting and unique time, onboarding remotely, as many others have, and still feeling part of a bigger family. In some ways, it feels like such a natural fit with our Talent Development and People Operations teams that it seems I’ve been here far longer, and in other ways it feels like I am still trying to get my head around our company structure (brands, regions) and overall needs. 

Your role really centres around leadership and development. What is the difference between leading and managing at Delivery Hero?

For me, leadership is about getting our Heroes to understand and believe in our vision (company, department, team) and to work with us to achieve our ambitious goals, while managing is more about making sure the day-to-day things are running as they should. Both are important and the key is knowing what is needed when.

One of your core projects so far has been to launch Delivery Hero’s People Leader Principles. What are these exactly and how did you go about creating them? 

The team started the journey to define our PLPs in early 2019 with the basic question of ‘how do great leaders at Delivery Hero behave?’ In order to create an inclusive working environment, we wanted to give our managers the tools to empower their teams. 

From the beginning, we knew we wanted the journey to be inclusive of all our Heroes and so we had a bottom-up and top-down global approach through surveys, focus groups, workshops and interviews. It has been an absolute team effort across Talent Development, People Partners, Communications, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Diversity & Inclusion and more, to continue to roll the People Leader Principles out and integrate them into how we recruit, onboard, develop and review our people managers.

Delivery Hero has three core values. We always aim higher. We deliver solutions. We are Heroes because we care. As leaders – how do we ensure we live these?

When we think about ‘how’ we actually live our values, this is where our People Leader Principles come in. Starting with find potential, grow potential, we as leaders take time and effort to develop others. We embrace humility and are humble and empathetic in our approach, and roll up our sleeves to do the work. We are 100% ourselves; we know who we are and stay true to that. We empower and trust to build accountability and ownership and trust others to achieve their goals. We focus on what matters to have a clear vision and goal and work together as a team so we win as a team. And we seize the opportunity by looking for the next possibility with an entrepreneurial mindset. And we champion inclusion by embracing and driving diversity and inclusion at Delivery Hero.

How do great leaders at Delivery Hero behave?’ From the beginning, we knew we wanted the journey to be inclusive of all our Heroes

What are the two PLPs that resonate with you the most?

It’s a tough one, as I identify with all of the PLPs, however, the two that stand out to me are: Embrace humility and Win as a team. Embrace humility is all about being a servant leader, being vulnerable and open to the fact that I don’t have all the answers, however, I am committed and know that by working together we will find the right answer. Win as a team is about creating this incredible team environment where everyone feels heard, recognized and contributes so that together we are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves. 

Do you have any advice for new leaders? 

I believe all of us are leaders and it’s the small things we do in everyday moments that make the difference. So using the lens of our values and People Leader Principles, when sharing or hearing a new solution, approach or implementation, if we think ‘what could make this 10% better?’ Or, when faced with a challenge, we think ‘how could we make this work?’; ‘what is one thing we could do to move this forward?’ and start from there. 

And most importantly, as we work together with our teams, if we think ‘what is one small thing I can do right now to show I care?’ we will elevate our teams, our work and our impact. And I believe that every conversation, meeting, and interaction is an opportunity to learn – it’s just a matter of taking a moment to reflect on what we take away from each situation. Such a beautiful thing!

I believe that every conversation, meeting, and interaction is an opportunity to learn – it’s just a matter of taking a moment to reflect on what we take away from each situation

We have dedicated the month of March to celebrating and elevating women at Delivery Hero. Having joined the company as a woman and a mother (and joining remotely), how do you navigate the challenges that brings? 

In many ways I feel that by joining remotely it’s been easier for me to build some semblance of work-life balance. For instance, it allows me to be home for dinner each night. I realize that’s not the case for everyone so I’m also curious and open to what works for others as there is always more to learn! 

I’ve found it important to build some simple, healthy habits such as: schedule time for small breaks like going for a walk with my son or blocking time for lunch. I am a runner and run either in the morning or during lunch. This helps keep my mind and body working more clearly. I’m also a big fan of HeadSpace and use it for sleep meditation when going to bed each night.

And, I must say, I have learned that I am not cut out to be a home-schooling teacher while working full time. I’m guessing I’m not alone in this! I am extremely lucky to have a partner that works independently and is able to support, allowing me more flexibility with my work schedule.

If there were one project that is particularly important to you this year – what is it? 

The work we are doing around our People Leader Principles is such a critical part of reinforcing our culture and evolving how we work. Each of us is a role model and the more we can build small habits around our living these People Leader Principles, the greater impact we will have together.

Written by


Joanna Schild

Senior Manager Internal Communications Delivery Hero

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