Ferguson's dressing room. Thatcher's cabinet. Starmer's reshuffle. Cook's succession plan. One short read every Sunday, on what the operators in sport, politics, and history teach us about leading a team.
"The best career move I ever made was making myself replaceable."
Wayne Rooney called him one of the best coaches ever. Chelsea's players called him the supply teacher.
"Sitting at the front of the DLR." It looks like you're driving. You're not.
8am to noon. That's all you get. Most managers waste it.
One short read every Sunday. Free. Unsubscribe in one click.
It's framework after framework, list after list, and very little that sticks past Wednesday. Behind Closed Doors is the opposite. Each issue takes one operator who actually did the job, and pulls out the one lesson worth remembering.
Not academics. Not consultants. People who ran teams when the stakes were measured in trophies, elections, and earnings calls. Their wins and their misses both teach you something.
Each issue lands one specific management idea, told through one specific moment. You'll remember it because the story does the work the framework can't.
Short enough to read on a Sunday evening. Sharp enough that you'll think about it during the Monday conversation you've been putting off.
Four recent issues. A flavour of what lands in your inbox every Sunday.
The best career move I ever made was making myself replaceable. Three acquisitions, two promotions, a massive tech project. All because someone below me could step up on day one.
Read the issue →Wayne Rooney called him one of the best coaches he'd ever worked with. Chelsea's players called him the supply teacher. Both things were true. That's what makes 107 days at Chelsea worth your time.
Read the issue →He delegates the strategic and keeps the tactical. That's exactly backwards. One of his own aides described him as sitting "at the front of the DLR." It looks like you're driving. You're not.
Read the issue →Darwin knew it. Bezos knows it. Most managers waste it. You have three employees that turn up for you every day. Employee 1 shows up first thing. Sharp. Focused. Capable of your best thinking.
Read the issue →The operators who actually moved the world didn't read more management books. They watched, they tried, they failed, and they remembered.— That's the job of this newsletter
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. 15 years of doing the job before I started writing about it.
Behind Closed Doors is what I'd send a younger version of myself. Short, specific, and useful enough that you'll actually do something different on Monday because of it.
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