From Managing People to Enabling Them

Rashid Ahmed

Head of HR, Termigas Bergamo

Rashid Ahmed on accountable leadership, continuous learning, AI-enabled work and why HR must become the architect of organizational capability

Leadership is often described through decisions, authority and personal conviction. For Rashid Ahmed, its more enduring measure is what happens to other people: whether they gain the clarity, confidence and capability to perform without dependence. In this conversation with The Leadership Gazette, Ahmed discusses the balance between empathy and accountability, the business case for continuous learning and the capabilities leaders will need in an AI-shaped workplace.

1 . How would you describe the way your leadership approach has evolved over the course of your career?

Earlier in my career, I believed leadership was primarily about having the right answers and making the right decisions. With experience, I have learned that leadership is less about being the smartest person in the room and more about creating an environment where people can perform, grow and take ownership. My leadership approach has therefore evolved from managing people to enabling them. Today, I focus on clarity of expectations, accountability, psychological safety, capability building and empowering people to make decisions. I also believe effective leadership must ultimately translate into business results. Empathy without accountability is ineffective, while accountability without empathy is unsustainable. The real leadership challenge is to build both.

2. In a workplace that is constantly evolving, how important has continuous learning become?

Continuous learning is no longer an HR initiative; it is a business survival strategy. The half-life of skills is becoming shorter, technology is changing jobs faster than job descriptions can be rewritten, and AI is redefining how work gets done. Organizations that stop learning eventually stop competing. However, I do not believe continuous learning means sending employees to more training programmes. It means creating a workplace where people continuously learn, apply, experiment, receive feedback and improve. The real question for organizations is not, “How many training hours did we deliver?” but, “What can our people do today that they could not do yesterday – and what business value did that create?”

3. What are some effective ways leaders can build a strong culture of learning within their organizations?

Learning culture starts with leadership behaviour, not an L&D calendar.

I would focus on five actions:

Make learning part of the job, not an additional task. Give employees the time, tools and opportunities to learn while working.

Make managers learning multipliers. Managers should coach, give feedback, conduct meaningful development conversations and create stretch opportunities.

Move from course-centric to capability-centric learning. Start with the business capability required, then determine whether the solution is training, coaching, technology, job rotation, mentoring or something else.

Reward application, not attendance. Recognize employees who convert learning into improved productivity, quality, innovation, customer experience or business results.

Measure the impact. If learning cannot ultimately demonstrate behavioural or business impact, we need to question the intervention rather than simply celebrate participation numbers.

A strong learning culture exists when employees stop asking, “When is the next training?” and start asking, “What do I need to learn to solve this problem?”

4. With AI transforming the workplace, how can organizations help employees adapt and remain future-ready?

Organizations should stop positioning AI primarily as a technology project and start treating it as a workforce-transformation agenda.

I would approach it through three levels.

First, AI literacy. Every employee should understand what AI can and cannot do, including responsible use, data privacy, accuracy, bias and human oversight.

Second, role-based AI capability. Employees should learn how AI can transform their specific workflows, rather than simply attending generic AI-awareness sessions.

Third, human capability. As AI handles more routine cognitive work, organizations must deliberately strengthen the capabilities that become more valuable: critical thinking, judgement, creativity, collaboration, communication, adaptability, emotional intelligence and ethical decision-making.

The objective should not be “AI replacing people”. It should be “people augmented by AI”.

The organizations that succeed will be those that redesign work intelligently and continuously reskill their workforce alongside that transformation.

5. How can organizations evaluate whether their learning and development initiatives are creating meaningful business impact?

I believe L&D needs to move from activity measurement to outcome measurement. Training attendance, completion rates and satisfaction scores are useful operational metrics, but they do not demonstrate business impact. Before launching a learning intervention, I would establish a clear business baseline and define the expected outcome. The chain should be explicit: business problem, capability gap, learning intervention, behaviour change and business outcome. Depending on the intervention, that outcome could be improved productivity, fewer errors, higher sales, lower turnover, stronger succession readiness, improved customer satisfaction or faster time to competence. I would also compare performance before and after the intervention wherever practical and, ideally, use control or comparison groups for major programmes. Ultimately, L&D should be able to answer three questions: What changed? Why did it change? What value did that change create for the business? If we cannot answer those questions, we may have delivered training – but we have not necessarily delivered development.

6. Looking ahead, which key skills will future leaders need to develop to succeed?

Future leaders will need a combination of technological fluency and deeply human capabilities. I would highlight strategic thinking; AI and digital fluency; adaptability; critical thinking and judgement; emotional intelligence and empathy; learning agility; and business acumen. Strategic thinking helps leaders see beyond today’s operational problems. AI and digital fluency enable them to understand how technology can reshape work and decisions. Adaptability becomes essential when assumptions, markets and structures change. Critical thinking and judgement matter particularly when AI provides abundant but imperfect information. Emotional intelligence and empathy remain essential because trust becomes more important, not less, during uncertainty. Learning agility is the ability to acquire, unlearn and relearn continuously. Business acumen connects people decisions with revenue, cost, productivity, risk and growth. I would add one more capability: the ability to develop other leaders. The ultimate measure of leadership is not how many people depend on you; it is how many capable people you develop who can succeed without you.

7. What advice would you share with the next generation of HR and Learning & Development leaders?

My advice is simple: do not become the custodian of HR processes; become the architect of organizational capability.

Learn the business before designing the HR solution. Understand the numbers. Understand customers. Understand operations. Understand technology. Then connect people strategy to those realities.

Do not measure HR success by how busy the HR team is. Measure it by whether the organization is becoming more capable, more productive, more resilient and more ready for the future.

And never stop learning yourself.

The future HR leader will not be the person who knows the most HR policies. It will be the person who can connect people, technology, psychology, data and business strategy to create measurable organizational value.

If I could leave the next generation with one principle, it would be this:

“Think like a business leader, understand people like a psychologist, use data like an analyst, embrace technology like an innovator – and lead with humanity.”

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