Middle managers experience the strongest tension between power and purpose. Positioned between layers they are both holders of authority, and subjects of it. This means their role straddles the most uncertain of tightropes - as both the powerful and the powerless in equal measure. It’s one of the most powerful forces that shapes manager behaviour.

We’ve talked so much about the aspirational state of leadership that we’ve forgotten what it is that managers actually do. This was highlighted when a giant of the org development world recently claimed that - if you’re not leading, you’re ‘just a manager’. Here’s why I disagree.

In Australia, PwC estimates poor leadership costs $10 billion annually, with disengaged teams 37% less productive and nearly 50% more likely to quit. To make it worse, this layer is leaving faster than it can be replenished. To underestimate its importance, is a major mistake.