The 30-Day Management Playbook

The management playbook nobody gave you when you got promoted.

30 days. One short email a day. Each one tackles a real management challenge - the conversations you're avoiding, the team you're carrying, the bottleneck you've become. By day 30, you'll manage differently.

Watch · 90 sec
What's actually in the 30 days, and who it's for.
If this is you

You got the title because you were good at the work. Then the work changed.

And nobody trained you for the new job. Sound familiar?

01

You're rehearsing a difficult conversation in the shower for the third week running.

02

Your team brings you problems you should have stopped solving six months ago.

03

You can't take a week off without things wobbling.

04

You ask "how's it going?" and get "fine" - and you're not sure if it actually is.

05

You've been sitting on feedback for weeks, hoping it'll fix itself.

06

You wonder if your best person is quietly looking somewhere else.

What changes

By day 30, you'll be doing this differently.

No theory dumps. No corporate filler. Each email lands one idea you can use that week.

The 11 things you'll know how to do

  • Know your leadership style - and when to use a different one
  • Spot the triggers and tells your team already sees but you don't
  • Give feedback without sitting on it for three weeks
  • Have the difficult conversations you've been rehearsing in the shower
  • Stop being the bottleneck your team can't function without
  • Know when to be hands-on, hands-off, or fully let go
  • Build a culture where people tell you the truth, not what you want to hear
  • Run 1:1s that retain people instead of boring status updates
  • Hire for what your team lacks, not mini versions of yourself
  • Onboard people properly instead of throwing them in and hoping
  • Keep your best people before they quietly start looking elsewhere

Run a team? The playbook is written for managers - but if you lead the business, forward this to yours. They'll thank you.

How it works

Simple. Daily. Easy to read on your commute.

STEP 01

Sign up

Drop your email in the form. The first email lands in your inbox within a minute.

STEP 02

Read for 90 seconds

One email a day at 7:30am. One idea per email. Under 300 words. Read it before your first meeting.

STEP 03

Try the thing

Each email gives you something to actually try that day or week. The point isn't to read more management content. It's to manage differently.

Who this is from

15 years of doing the job. The playbook I wish someone had sent me.

Arran Russell, founder of Set The Tone

Arran Russell

Founder, Set The Tone

I was the senior exec inside a business that grew from 25 people to well over 100 - the person the founder relied on to develop the management layer beneath them. I directly managed 100+ people, made 200+ hires, and led teams of 300+.

I made every mistake in this playbook before I figured out the ones that mattered. The 30 days are what I wish someone had sent me when I got my first promotion.

"
Most management training is written by people who've never managed a team through a hard year. This is the opposite.
- Arran Russell, founder
Questions

Things you might be wondering.

Is this really free?
Yes. 30 emails. No paywall. No "first email's free, the rest costs you" trick. After day 30 you'll move to the regular Manager's Edge newsletter (also free), which you can leave any time.
I'm a new manager. Will this be too advanced?
No. The playbook is built for the 82% of managers who got promoted without proper training. It starts with the foundations - how you show up, what your team reads in you - before getting into delegation, hiring, and culture. New managers and experienced ones both find stuff they didn't know.
I've been managing for years. Is there anything new here?
Probably more than you'd think. The hardest stuff - sitting on feedback, being the bottleneck, the affiliative trap, the cost of being too nice - is rarely the stuff experienced managers have actually solved. Most are still working around it. The playbook names it and gives you what to do instead.
Will I get sold to?
Some emails mention what we do - coaching, team training, the bigger programme - usually as a PS. Most don't. The playbook's job is to be useful first. If you want to talk about training your team after day 30, the door's open. If not, that's fine too.
What if I miss a day?
Doesn't matter. Each email stands on its own. Read them in order if you can, but if you skip a day, just pick up where you left off. They don't expire.
Can I unsubscribe?
One click, any time. No questions, no winback emails, no hassle.
One last thing

30 days. One idea per day. Manage differently by the end of the month.

Free. No fluff. Unsubscribe in one click.

Start the 30 days →