There’s plenty of discussion about training people to use AI. I’m interested in whether we’re preparing managers to manage the changes it creates. Leaders set direction. Managers create reality. That applies just as much to AI as it does to any other organisational change. McKinsey’s July 2026 research found that 70% of respondents felt personally ready to adopt AI, yet only 27% of leaders believed their organisations were ready for the changes required. That suggests knowing

If you read anything about AI and leadership this year, you'd think we're all about to be replaced, outsmarted or made redundant by a chatbot. Here is a question I ended up asking myself. When did you last read something about AI that made you feel optimistic about leading? When it comes to leadership, I think there are clear upsides of AI. Let me have a go at sharing a few. What I'm seeing in the leaders I work with gives much more reason to be optimistic than the daily head

The warning signs are familiar I’ve met managers who are working late, picking up tasks their team should own and replaying difficult conversations on the drive home. They’re still delivering, so from a distance everything looks fine. By the time someone suggests development, they’re often exhausted. What strikes me is how predictable this can be. We promote someone because they’re brilliant at their job, give them a team and assume they’ll work out the people side as they go

“I’m not sure I’m very good at this” I’ve worked with managers who can solve problems at speed, keep a team going through a difficult week and spot things everyone else has missed. Then, in a workshop, they’ll quietly say, “I’m not sure I’m very good at this management thing.” I’ve heard some version of that more times than I’d like. A promotion changes the job Often, they were excellent at their previous job. That’s why they were promoted. But now their success depends less

The Promotion That Changes Everything One day, they’re part of the team. They share the jokes, join in with the frustrations and work alongside their colleagues as equals. The next day, they’re responsible for managing them. Suddenly, they’re expected to set expectations, delegate work, give feedback and address underperformance. It’s a significant change, but one that many new managers are expected to navigate with very little support. When Relationships Get in the Way Manag

Over the last two weeks, I've laid out the trap that catches your best experts at 'Head of' level, and the identity shift it takes to free them. So let's finish on the thing you really care about. Does it work, and how would you know? Here's what it looks like when someone truly makes the shift. They stop being the busiest person in the building. The firefighting calms down, not because there are fewer fires, but because they've finally built a team that can deal with them. T

One of the most common challenges I see when working with managers starts with the best of intentions. A team member brings them a problem. The manager knows the answer, so they step in, fix it and send the person happily on their way. Problem solved. Everyone feels good. Until the same person returns with the next problem. Before long, the manager has become the team’s answer machine—working longer hours while everyone else waits for their turn at the door. The Hidden Cost o

Last week I described the trap. The brilliant expert who gets stuck at 'Head of' because the things that made them successful are now the things holding them back. So how do you get someone out of it? Most programmes will tell you the answer is skills. Teach them to delegate. To think strategically. To handle the hard conversations. All worth doing. None of it is where the real work sits. Because this isn't really a skills problem. It's an identity one. Here's what I mean. Fo

Whenever I work with a group of managers, I’m reminded just how much organisations expect from them. They’re juggling operational demands, endless meetings, changing priorities and the occasional “quick question” that somehow consumes half the afternoon. Yet very few of them lack commitment. Most care deeply about their people and want to do a good job. The problem isn’t their effort. It’s how we prepare them to manage. Promoted for What They Know I regularly meet managers wh

You'll know someone like this. Brilliant at the job. Respected, trusted, the person everyone goes to when the sh*t hits the fan. Despite all of that, they get stuck at the 'Head of' level of your organisation. They've been promoted before, but the leadership roles they really want keep going to other people, and nobody quite explains why. Sound familiar? I bet you have someone in mind already. Here's what I've watched happen hundreds of times. It isn't a lack of ability that

Through my experience of working with managers across a wide range of organisations, I’ve learned that good managers rarely struggle because they don’t care. Most work incredibly hard. The challenge is that many were promoted for their technical expertise and then expected to lead people - often without the confidence, skills or practical tools they need. That experience is what led me to create The Shift: six interconnected workshops designed to help managers think different

It's fair to say that every organisation wants high performing teams. As a senior leader, you don't want your teams to be average. But could you describe the habits and behaviours that make it obvious that a team is high performing? I think the challenge is that we use the phrase so often it's nearly lost its meaning. To the people inside these teams, none of what makes them high performing feels remarkable. It's just how they operate. But these everyday ways of working are w

After more than 30 years working in leadership and management development, I have noticed something. Organisations can spend months creating a brilliant strategy, launch it with an impressive presentation and perhaps even produce a new set of branded coffee mugs. Then they hand it to their middle managers and expect them to make it work. In my experience, strategy rarely succeeds because of the PowerPoint. It succeeds because managers have the confidence, capability and suppo

The most admired characteristic in a leader according to my favourite piece of leadership research (Kouzes and Posner's The Leadership Challenge), is honesty. When I first saw that, I thought it was a problem. The truth about the truth is that as a leader, it isn't possible to be 100% honest 100% of the time. More than that, it isn't desirable. You will know things you cannot share. A restructure that isn't confirmed. A departure that isn't announced. A commercial position th

Most strategies don’t fail because they were badly written. They fail because they never make the journey from the boardroom into everyday behaviour. Senior leaders set the direction. They define the priorities, communicate the ambition and explain where the organisation needs to go. But then someone has to make it happen. And that responsibility usually lands with your middle managers. The Most Important Layer? Middle managers sit at the point where strategy meets reality. T

Almost every leader I meet tells me they're committed to developing their people. I believe them. But wanting to develop people and being able to are two different things. How do you actually develop someone without real coaching skills? And I don't mean giving feedback or making suggestions. I don't mean the thing a lot of leaders call coaching, which is really just advice with a question mark on the end. "Have you thought about doing it this way?" isn't a coaching question.

Every day, organisations promote their highest performers into management roles. It feels like the obvious reward. They know the business, deliver results and have built credibility through their expertise. Yet many of these newly promoted managers struggle. Not because they lack ability, but because the role has fundamentally changed. They were promoted for what they could do. Now they are expected to succeed through what other people can do. Expertise Doesn't Equal Manageme

It staggers me how vague many strategies are. They talk about growth. Not by how much, in what periods, by what increments. They talk about the penetration of new markets. Not which markets, nor with what degree of success, profit or cost. HR strategies point to an immeasurable ambition to be an employer of choice. IT strategies talk of digital transformation and being AI-enabled, with no definition of what that means, by when, or what good actually looks like. If any of this

New strategies are launched. Operating models are redesigned. Leaders announce bold ambitions. Millions are invested in transformation. Yet many change programmes still fail to deliver the results they promised. Why? Because organisations often overlook the people responsible for making change happen. Middle managers are the bridge between strategy and execution. They turn decisions into behaviours, ambition into action and vision into results. When they aren't equipped to le

More than 90 per cent of employees (in the US) report to a middle manager. Yet McKinsey found that managers spend less than 25 per cent of their time actually managing people and nurturing talent. The people with the greatest day-to-day influence on employee performance, engagement and retention are spending three quarters of their time doing something else. The Corporate Dumping Ground It is not because managers do not care. It is because organisations have turned middle man