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.