Maren Perry has spent 18 years coaching leaders from new managers to the C-suite, and her diagnosis of what holds them back is blunt: information is not the problem. In this conversation, the founder and CEO of Arden Coaching explains why AI can hand a leader 75 delegation tools in seconds but can’t tell them which one fits their fears, habits and organization, why leadership development has to start with an assessment rather than a content dump, and what the stars taught her about freedom.

Preparing Leaders for Organizations That Don’t Exist Yet

Maren founded Arden Coaching in 2007 after a career in global event management, with a degree in cognitive science behind her interest in how people think. Arden works across the whole employee life cycle: one-on-one coaching typically for directors through the C-suite, and programs that span new managers, high-potentials and succession planning for the most senior roles.

The number one challenge she sees is pace. Leaders used to plan for an organization 50 years out, then 10. With AI, she says, nobody knows what their organization will look like in the next six months, which makes preparing the next generation of leaders the defining question.

The ARDN8: Eight Dimensions Every Leader Works On

After 18 years of watching what leaders actually struggle with, Arden identified eight leadership dimensions, called the ARDN8. They range from emotional intelligence and self-awareness through execution, accountability and difficult conversations, all the way to strategic thinking. Every program tracks them, because they are the core elements leaders need to succeed.

Because every leader starts in a different place, the work begins with an assessment of where they are and what the gaps are. Their objectives are then aligned with the needs of the organization, since “leaders don’t exist in a vacuum.” A different leader is needed for a different company, and even for the same company at a different time.

AI Gives You Information. Leaders Still Have to Apply It.

Maren is not anti-AI. Her team uses it constantly, and it makes content development faster. But information has been readily available for years. The real challenge is sorting through it and applying it, and no tool does that for you.

Her example is delegation. AI can pull up 75 delegation techniques instantly, but one leader may need to work through the need to be liked, while another struggles to trust direct reports because they are the subject-matter expert and fear looking bad to their boss. Same tools, completely different work. That application gap is where Arden’s leadership development programs come in.

Standing Out in a Saturated Coaching Market

When Maren started, almost no one knew what coaching was, so she spent years educating the market. Today it is crowded with people calling themselves coaches. Arden’s edge is its people: every coach on her team holds top-level International Coach Federation certification, has held P&L roles and has an organizational development background. When you coach a CEO, she says, the person across the table needs real credibility. Just as important is the approach: helping each leader find an authentic version of their own leadership rather than a template.

Keep Going: Lessons From 18 Years as an Entrepreneur

Asked for the biggest lesson in building a business, Maren’s answer is two words: keep going. Entrepreneurs will try many things that don’t work, and the job is to keep trying until something sticks. When she mentors people, she sees them give up too early and stop learning.

On her own leadership style, she describes herself as inclusive, with a high bar, and treats joy as a core value at Arden Coaching. People spend a huge share of their lives at work, she argues, so it can be serious and joyful at the same time.

The Next Three to Five Years, and the Limits of Subscription Training

Arden is scaling its Leadership Academy, which has run for eight or nine years and is now split into two tiers: one for new managers and directors, and one for VP and senior-level leaders. The goal is to build a pipeline so companies have leaders for tomorrow, not just today.

On the wave of coaches launching subscription and LMS-style courses, Maren sees a place for them, but only when information is what’s missing. Most of us have taken a webinar, loved it and filed it in a drawer. If the gap is applying knowledge day in and day out, one-directional content usually isn’t enough.

For more on leading through change, listen to Victoria Mensch on whether AI can be a CEO’s best ally and Courtney Intersimone on the challenges C-suite executives rarely talk about. You can browse every conversation on this theme in our leadership, culture and scaling episodes.

The Advice That Changed Everything: The Stars Don’t Care

Around the age of 20, Maren was told that the stars have been there for billions of years and don’t care what you do. It sounds harsh, but she finds it freeing. It reminds you that you are here to experience what you can, in this body, at this time. Feeling tiny, she says, ironically makes you feel more empowered.