Peter Linden
October 30, 2025
)
After 15 years working in L&D in-house, I stepped into the world of Executive Education. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
“How do you get better leaders?” It’s one of the most common questions we hear in leadership development. And (no surprises) there isn’t a straightforward answer. I do sometimes get the impression that there’s an assumption of a defined answer – the idea that there’s a magic formula.
But when people ask for ‘better’ leaders, what they're asking for tends to be specific to their organization – the pressures they're facing, their growth plans, or the strategy of their organization. In-house, you're deeply involved in that space and what is important for leadership within that context.
When you step out, you're less influenced by the business environment. When I joined Hult Ashridge Executive Education as Global Learning Solutions Director, it was my first experience of being on the ‘other’ side, working with L&D teams from many different types of organizations. I started to realize that, actually, the idea of leadership is more fluid than it feels when you're in-house.
That’s the paradox of ‘better’ leaders.
Tuning the levels
When I think about leadership development and the role of the L&D leader, I picture them at a mixing soundboard. You may have slightly different models in different organizations, but ultimately, it’s the same set of keys influencing the levels of sound – leadership – in your auditorium.
The thing is, you can’t focus on everything. You're trying to balance your ambitions and the ambitions of the organization with the realities of bandwidth, time, and resources available for you. For me, that balancing act was often the frustration.
If you’re trying to resolve everything and have everything turned up, it becomes a cacophony of noise. It'll almost become overwhelming for your leaders – where should they focus?
A skilled L&D leader is looking at the strategy of the organization and connecting it with the mindset shifts and skills that they need in their leaders to take them there – and then focusing on those.
Often, you get a lot of feedback and input from key stakeholders on what that should look like. So there’s expertise as an L&D person to work through that and identify the critical elements you need to shift at that time.
When you align development to strategy, it becomes part of a wider movement. L&D professionals can begin to think of themselves not just as solution providers but as change influencers.
Make your own kind of music
Organizational cultures are made up of shared stories. Within those, there are assumptions about who we are, the way we work, and what it means to be a leader. Learning and development can be a tool to either support those stories – or shift the narrative.
Let’s say there’s a belief in your organization that leaders need to be highly directive and aggressive but that's not working. As an L&D leader, you have influence in the choices that you make. If you bring in a new, challenging perspective – especially at the senior level – you start hearing different stories being told in the organization as a result.
You're able to take the challenges of the organization and translate that into a learning offer which then translates back into your organization as a shift in the narrative. It's actually quite a gift.
There’s also something to be said of anticipating the future. At the moment, maybe you've got classical music playing and it's all very calm. But you know the next act is a rock band because you can see that it's going to be a turbulent time for the industry. What do you need to prepare your leaders so that the noise doesn’t destroy your theater?
Knowing what I know today, one thing I would have done differently is lean into my network more. I now get to see such a broad view across so many different organizations and it’s so refreshing to see organizations facing similar but different challenges. There are different answers to similar questions.
Another way to explore this is to rely on your vendors as an outside perspective, because it really is a partnership.
And that transparency works best when it goes both ways. I've been working on a proposal for an L&D team who’ve been incredibly open about wanting to shift a culture of ‘we know best’ because it’s hampering their growth. As a vendor, having that clarity and a sense of the prevailing mindset that they wanted to shift within the organization really helped us shape the design.
I still understand why people are hesitant to be open – sometimes you're worried to let people ‘behind the curtain’ too much because you feel like maybe you're giving away organizational secrets. But being open about your context, pressures and constraints can be really powerful for creating a solution that’s right for your organization.
)
"Often, it's trying to move their mindset away from ‘How do I deliver with my expertise?’ to ‘How do I step outside my expertise and deliver through others?"
– Peter Linden, Global Learning Solutions Director, Hult Ashridge Executive Education
Can your leaders read the mood music?
One aspect where I often see a lot of ‘overplay’ on the mixing board is the technical aspect of leadership i.e., skills, rather than mindset shifts – the human part. From my own experience, there was a tendency to reach for skills because that always felt really tangible. It's something you can impart and measure quite easily with a clear learning outcome – “by the end of this session, you will be able to delegate”.
When you start moving into the world of leadership, you're sometimes still looking for that sort of formula. Less experienced leaders need more direct input, but at the senior level, you’re talking about people who have been within their profession for a long time. It’s often their mindsets and behaviors that are – not underestimated, necessarily – but perhaps more challenging to focus on.
Take, for example, someone who's gone through a really technical journey in their career. They've often been rewarded for technical capability and skill, and now they're stepping into this much more ambiguous world of leadership. Often, it's trying to move their mindset away from ‘How do I deliver with my expertise?’ to ‘How do I step outside my expertise and deliver through others?’
What you’re looking for is the shift of stepping into the space of setting the agenda and direction. But you see leaders still get pulled into the day-to-day, the transactional, that world of delivery, and they don't yet step into that role of setting the direction, the agenda, and the culture. That was always a focus for me as an L&D leader – and often a frustration. How do you create that space where people will step into that mindset?
I worked in a business that wanted people to start taking a little bit more risk. What we in the L&D team started to focus on were the behaviors that existed around innovation and creativity. That led us to how you build psychologically safe teams and a speak up culture so people are willing to share their ideas more openly. Instead of focusing on the problem and a training solution, we were looking at how we move mindsets to support that aim of becoming more innovative.
I've started to lean into that space more with Hult Ashridge as one of our specialisms is the mindset shifts that people go through when they step into what is a really challenging role in their career journey. They're moving away from being the ‘deliverer’ to being the person who motivates, directs, provides purpose, and creates the space for others to deliver. That requires a shift of thinking.
I'm not saying that skills aren't important. But if you stay only in the world of skills, there is a risk of going too technical with leadership. And if you just focus on skills, you could actually miss the opportunity to shift the narrative.
With the pace of change being what it is, any skills that you develop go out of date so quickly. How do you keep pace? The future of leadership lies in mindsets – leaders who can adapt and move with this changing world.
What I would do differently as an L&D leader today:
1. Use networks as a learning source
Look out of your own context and into broader networks of L&D professionals and industry peers. There may be learnings that you can bring in to support your organization. It also allows you to anticipate challenges that will disrupt your industry or organization.
2. Focus less on skills and more on mindsets
While skills are essential, any capabilities that you develop are likely to go out of date with the pace of change being what it is. The future of leadership lies in mindsets that can adapt and move with this changing world.
3. Explore learning solutions beyond formal programs
Sometimes there is a bit of an ‘overplay’ around structured delivery with an expert at the front of the room, imparting information. Other approaches may address your needs better, whether that be coaching or assessments.
4. Be clear and upfront about what you need from your vendor
Let them know what you want, what you don’t want, and the constraints you’re facing. This level of transparency and trust is what creates really impactful partnerships.
5. Team practices inform how people think and behave
Look at how teams organize their meetings and interactions to ensure their working processes enable the learning that’s required to sustain high performance.
Meet the expert
Peter Linden
Global Learning Solutions Director, Hult Ashridge Executive Education
As Global Learning Solutions Director at Hult Ashridge, Peter brings over 18 years of Learning & Development experience supporting organizations achieve business priorities through an effective learning strategy and measuring its impact.
He is passionate about building an inclusive learning culture that enables people to develop the skills & capabilities at the right time to reach their full potential.
Explore more articles
)
)
)
)
