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I’ve launched a new LinkedIn newsletter: Leader × Manager.
It reflects a persistent tension I see in capable professionals and senior leaders:
the growing gap between what organisations say they want from leaders, and what they actually reward, tolerate, or constrain.
This newsletter explores leadership and management as distinct but entangled roles, not as a hierarchy of virtue, but as a set of practical trade-offs.
At the managerial level, we’ll examine:
– delivering through systems, process, and control
– accountability, prioritisation, and execution under constraint
– managing performance, risk, and predictability
– the realities of operating inside organisational structures
– delivering through systems, process, and control
– accountability, prioritisation, and execution under constraint
– managing performance, risk, and predictability
– the realities of operating inside organisational structures
At the leadership level, we’ll explore:
– setting direction amid ambiguity
– exercising judgement when rules run out
– shaping meaning, context, and narrative
– holding authority without over-reliance on position
– setting direction amid ambiguity
– exercising judgement when rules run out
– shaping meaning, context, and narrative
– holding authority without over-reliance on position
Much of the difficulty sits in the cross-pressure between the two.
When to stabilise versus disrupt.
When to protect the system versus challenge it.
When execution is the work — and when it’s avoidance.
When to stabilise versus disrupt.
When to protect the system versus challenge it.
When execution is the work — and when it’s avoidance.
The underlying stance is pragmatic, not ideological.
Most roles require both. Most careers stall when people over-identify with one and neglect the other.
Most roles require both. Most careers stall when people over-identify with one and neglect the other.
Each edition blends organisational psychology, leadership theory, and lived executive reality; grounded, unsentimental and oriented toward usefulness rather than slogans. I’m interested in the tension, not the taxonomy.
If you’ve ever felt caught between being reliable and being relevant, this conversation is likely yours too.
I’d welcome your perspective as it develops.
Leader x Manager Archive