AILKEMY

"Think Further. Build Smarter. Lead Human."

After an intensive skunkworks and R&D phase, we launched AILKEMY for select client engagements. AILKEMY is a strategic intelligence consultancy that transforms information chaos into measurable alpha generation for investment professionals and leaders navigating AI transformation.

We help fund managers and executives generate measurable alpha by turning information chaos into decision-ready insights. We deliver private, board-ready intelligence that turns noise into decisive action. Confidential by default. It is either useful or it's not. We guarantee.

My Role as Co-Founder:
Product Management: Collaborated on the "Insight Engine", synthesis features, and verification methods across end-user needs.

Client Delivery: Lead MVP Insight Report pilots and the activation session that turns findings into actionable intelligence for our clients.

Go-to-Market: Built branding, sales, messaging, and narrative for executives, hedge funds, PE, VC, and large private investors.

Growth: Structured performance-aligned economics with zero long-term lock-in. Planned and launched campaigns to scale AILKEMY.

Why Clients Choose AILKEMY:
Hedge funds and multi-strategy platforms. Private equity and venture firms. Corporate strategy leaders and product teams. Large private investors and family offices.

✔️ Synthesis over summary: We reveal connections that change the decision.
✔️ Speed to signal: Time kills good ideas. We deliver while timing still pays.
✔️ Tailored intelligence: Built from first principles for your exact context.
✔️ Trusted foresight: Evidence-based and scenario-aware.
✔️ Founder accountability: You work directly with the founding team.

Signal mapping. Competitive and narrative intelligence. Scenario planning. Orthogonal validation. Regime awareness. Decision framing. Board-ready storytelling. Founder-led discovery and activation. The goal is simple: reduce decision latency and increase the quality of action.

Co-Founder, AILKEMY

Kaperider.com

About Kaperider Publishing, LLC

At Kaperider Publishing, we specialize in creating impactful books that inspire, educate, and empower readers across diverse topics, including technology, artificial intelligence, marketing, mental health, fitness, and more. Our mission is to bridge the gap between ambitious ideas and actionable outcomes, helping authors craft content that resonates with audiences and drives meaningful change.

Founded by Daniel Stouffer, a seasoned leader with over 20 years of experience in strategy, innovation, and digital transformation, Kaperider Publishing offers a unique blend of expertise, creativity, and results-oriented execution. From initial research and topic development to book outlining, authoring, and strategic marketing campaigns, we guide authors through every step of the publishing process to ensure their ideas reach the right audience.

At Kaperider, we believe that great books start with great strategies. That’s why we focus on:

🌟 Comprehensive Support: From concept to launch, we provide the tools, resources, and expertise to help authors succeed.

🌟 Actionable Insights: We simplify complex topics, transforming them into accessible, engaging content for real-world impact.

🌟 Strategic Marketing: Our tailored campaigns connect authors with readers, ensuring their work makes an impact in a competitive market.

What sets us apart is our commitment to excellence and community. Inspired by his role as a professional firefighter in Minneapolis, MN, Daniel Stouffer brings a team-first, mission-driven ethos to Kaperider Publishing. This unique perspective informs our collaborative approach, emphasizing trust, resilience, and the power of clear communication.

Whether you’re an experienced thought leader or a first-time author, Kaperider Publishing is here to help you bring your vision to life. Together, we’ll create books that inform, inspire, and leave a lasting legacy.

Author w/ Book & Newsletter Publishing

Winnebago

I'm in the middle of helping to steer a significant digital transformation initiative at Winnebago Outdoors. We're upgrading the ERP system to a new platform consisting of Microsoft D365, Salesforce, and the Teamcenter systems.

The Release Train Engineer (RTE) role is collaborative, involving deep engagement with the Agile Release Train (ART), a composite of agile teams working in concert to achieve a shared objective. Here's a closer look at what an RTE does day to day:

✔️ Navigating Complexity: An RTE acts as the captain of the ship in turbulent digital waters, guiding the ART through planning, execution, and delivery. This involves facilitating Program Increment (PI) planning sessions, a critical event where the roadmap for the next phase is charted, risks are assessed, and strategies are devised.

✔️ Fostering Synergy: One of the greatest strengths of an RTE lies in its ability to foster collaboration among diverse teams and stakeholders. This role ensures alignment across various functions, encouraging transparency and communication. The RTE serves as a bridge between strategic goals and tactical execution, ensuring everyone moves in unison towards common objectives.

✔️ Driving Value Delivery: At the heart of SAFe is the relentless focus on delivering value to customers. An RTE ensures that every element of the ART contributes to this goal, optimizing flows, removing impediments, and managing risks. This consistent drive towards efficiency and effectiveness culminates in accelerated time-to-market and enhanced product quality.

The presence of an RTE within a transformation initiative brings several advantages. These include improved coordination across teams, enhanced clarity and focus on business objectives, streamlined processes, and a significant uplift in the morale and productivity of agile teams. Essentially, an RTE turns chaos into clarity, complexity into simplicity, and plans into action.

Digital Transformation Manager

Fyndr Group

Get Your New Talent Found Faster with Fyndr.org
--------------------------------------------------------
Fyndr.org's mission is to create a more efficient, scalable, zero-cost process for hiring managers and candidates "to fynd each other", by leveraging AI technology to job search at scale.

At Fyndr.org, we help renewable energy, recycling, energy storage, and Green or Clean Tech companies find the perfect job candidate for their open positions; not just in terms of skills and qualifications, but also in personality, culture, and world outlook.

Our AI driven solutions support hiring managers and job seekers every step of the way — by connecting those hiring directly with those looking for opportunities. Job seekers are recommended by someone that knows them personally. 

Because finding your “next fyndr” isn’t just about credentials, it’s about creating opportunities for everyone involved to thrive with the resources, introductions, and opportunities to grow an awesome team.

Note: Fyndr.org is a concept, product, website, and marketing campaign created by Daniel Stouffer, as a case study to demonstrate his talents AND to help with his job search.

https://fyndr.org/about

Program & Product Manager, Owner

reThink-Solar

In 2007, a spark ignited my love for solar, fueling a drive toward a renewable future, one community at a time. Born from a desire to make solar energy accessible and affordable to all, we embarked on a quest to redefine the solar engagement. 

Starting with solar leasing in 2007, then residential sales, to commercial contracts, and now to Community Solar for all.

It's been an exhilarating ride, flavored with challenges, triumphs, and countless learning moments. Today, reThink Solar stands as a beacon for change, guiding individuals and businesses toward a brighter, more sustainable tomorrow. One that can be totally without costs or expense when you have the key ingredients.

reThink Solar's Mission

At the core of reThink Solar pulses a steadfast mission - to weave the benefits of solar energy into the fabric of everyday life. We dream of a world where everyone, regardless of whether they own or rent their home, can tap into the power of the sun.

Our mission is simple yet bold: connect our customers to local community solar farms, ensuring a minimum of 5% savings on their electric bills annually for up to two decades. Now, with our services extending across numerous states in the USA, that dream is becoming a reality. 

At reThink Solar, we believe that everyone should have access to clean and affordable energy, regardless of whether they own their home or business. That's why our community solar model is designed to connect with renters, homeowners, and small businesses alike.

The power of the sun is for everyone — because reThink Solar believes that change, like sunlight and all renewable energy, should be universal and unbound. There's no simpler path to saving on your electric bill while championing renewable energy.

https://rethink-solar.com

Renewable Energy Advisor, reThink Solar

SunPower Corporation

Coordinated prioritization, roadmap planning, product backlog management, and product team execution for $36M portfolio of related programs. Managed 9 product delivery teams, total of 50 members, engaging internal and external stakeholders and cross-functional teams to create energy storage solutions and renewable energy digital platform capabilities.

* Added 25K more customers to mobile app by developing and launching complex digital features.

* Managed 5 concurrent projects, from defining scope and allocating resources to mitigating risks, consistently delivering project plans, resource allocations, and prioritized backlogs.

* Reduced time-to-market for new SKUs from 6 months to 3 weeks by implementing new and improved new product introduction process (NPI).

What truly sets me apart is my tenacious passion, drive, and motivation. I don't back down when things get tough, even when it seems like everything is on fire. I learned this fearless attitude from my experience in the fire service. When faced with challenges, I don't run away – I run towards them. I bring this mindset to everything I do.

If you're looking for a Technical Program Manager who can navigate the complexities of your projects with confidence, deliver exceptional results, and bring a fiery passion to the table, then look no further. I'm a servant leader when it comes to agile product delivery processes, lean UX, and implementing business agility. I am ready to take on the challenge.

Technical Program Manager (storage solutions)

Elevance Health

Orchestrated product delivery timelines to achieve budget and delivery goals. Managed backlog for 25 user experience designers. Leader behind the scenes organizing and prioritizing projects with stakeholders across 7 different strategic objectives aligned to quarterly product plans. Crafted sprint plans outlining goals, tactics, schedules, risks, and resource allocation for 300+ digital products group.

* Wrote project charter and obtained team resources across 6 business units, built recurring 4-week cycles of “Plan, Do, & Measure” iterative planning cycles, resulting in formation of new business intelligence (BI) analytics team.

* Improved team throughput 11%, providing program support and direction for 5 to 7 scrum teams, clearing obstacles to ensure initiatives were delivered, meeting stakeholder requirements.

* Collaborated with procurement to improve supply chain operations for internal and vendor-maintained products, reducing onboarding of new technology into IT organizations from more than 4 months to less than 6 weeks.

But beyond all the technicalities, I am a firm believer in agile product delivery, lean UX, and embracing business agility at scale. In this fast-paced digital age, it's crucial to be able to adapt quickly to market changes and seize emerging opportunities with innovative, digitally-enabled solutions. 

That's why I leveraged lean and agile product development practices to continuously deliver top-notch products that truly impressed.

Strong advocate of agile product delivery, lean UX, and implementing business agility at scale. Support the ability to compete and thrive in the digital age by quickly responding to market changes and emerging opportunities with innovative, digitally-enabled business solutions. Leveraged lean and agile product development practices to continually deliver innovative, high-quality products (https://www.scaledagile.com).

Digital Program Manager (portfolio strategy)

Ideation, Product Management, and Strategic Thinking -- I have a proven record of managing process driven teams, as well as complex software products and web application development projects, both standard and extremely agile. 

I’ve been a contributor and leader of physical and virtual teams across many projects. I represent the user experience across the organization by breaking down the user needs, strategic vision, and delivery into achievable outcomes that drive user value.

I know exactly what it takes to drive the business, rally the engagement of diverse teams, and effectively manage programs. I’m really a Swiss Army knife relating to program management.

I help manage the user experience resources within the agile product and development processes within Anthem Healthcare. This role requires a cross-discipline approach to understanding process, workflow, and communications. I live "working in the grey" to help development, product, and user experience teams deliver valued product to the Anthem members.

Product Teams Manager (user experience)

Geostella

Executed product strategy, planned and managed road map for Solar SaaS engineering teams. Uncovered customer pain points and industry trends. Led cross-functional teams across 55-person start-up to create solar energy platform. Managed bi-weekly feature releases to drive growth and keeping ahead of the competition.

* Delivered innovative products, expanding market user adoption in first 6 months, by developing and executing revised product roadmap, aligned to company goals and customer needs, increasing leads generated 23% and PV system installations 1.1K.

* Developed and executed product roadmap, aligning with company goals and customer needs, reducing the 500+ backlog items to 75 actionable features

* Implemented agile product development methods, resulting in a 4 capability teams focused on core product lines which created 2 week release windows

* Collaborated with sales & marketing, product engineering, and field operations teams to develop effective roll-out strategies that minimized inventory costs

Geostellar pioneered big-data geomatics to make solar energy accessible, affordable and plentiful. The company is the recipient of numerous awards, including selection as an IHS Energy Innovation Pioneer, the Global Cleantech100, the Global Cleantech Cluster Association's Best of Solar, and the Always On Going Green Global 2000.

Director Product Management (field operations)

Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

User Experience Design with Mentoring of Agile Teams

Led user and client meetings, collected and analyze product data to determine product feasibility. Created personas, task scenarios, and navigation & solution hierarchies. Helped wireframe and prototype product with various levels of field study and usability testing to ensure ease of use.

* Launched 3 internationalized websites by placing end user in focus during entire design process.

* Co-developed new hybrid approach for agile project delivery across 8 scrum teams, reducing backlogged features 35% and team churn, and delivering more user-friendly solution.

* Decreased slack time between feature start by developers 3 days due to better requirements definition

* Wireframed and prototype the product with various levels of field study or usability testing to ensure ease of use and feasibility.

* Worked with design teams and developers to successfully launch a new partner website.

* Invented user-centered design processes and methodologies that worked within the corporate environment.

User Experience Manager with focus on wireframes, user experience, and mentoring agile teams. Examples of websites where I was the UX Lead include https://www.ameriprise.com/ and https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/.

Manager User Experience (product delivery)

Verisae | an Accruent company

Drove platform capabilities guided by roadmap aligned with company goals and customer needs. Conducted market research, identifying gaps in market and helped UX / UI designers better understand how research, feature value, and engineering effort connected.

* Increased market share 20% by conducting thorough market research and competitor analysis to identify opportunities for product innovation.

* Collaborated with key stakeholders, customers, and cross-functional product teams to iterate product and establish tracking metrics, improving user satisfaction ratings 30%.

* Developed and executed public relations plan with industry experts at Gartner, Forrester, and others resulting in several magazine publications and placement of Verisae in the top quadrant of energy and sustainability SaaS platforms.

As an Information Architect then promoted to Digital Product Manager, IOT Energy Management, I help design how to make the right content and features available to the right people at the right time. 

My role involved the development of content systems and product features that help users find and manage asset, energy, and environmental data and access insights through business intelligence more successfully across the Accruent IoT SaaS platform.

Verisae is a provider of technology (...purchased by Accruent) and services for big retailers, manufacturers and other complex organizations. They do one thing better than anyone else. They  help our clients manage energy, maintenance, GHG emissions, and environmental performance through a single set of closely related technologies, connected devices, and IoT innovation.

Lead Digital Product Manager (energy IoT & SaaS)

The Ground Beneath Leadership Is Shifting

If you’ve ever felt the pressure to lead through uncertainty without a map, welcome. This is where we draw the new ones. AI isn’t knocking politely at the door. It’s rewiring how teams operate, how decisions get made, and how value is created.

Old playbooks don’t bend. They break. And the burden of clarity? It’s falling squarely on you.

If you’re the one responsible for making sense of chaos for integrating new tech, managing team emotions, aligning systems, and staying strategic without burning out, then AILKEMY was built with you in mind.

You’re not a passive observer of change. You’re the one others look to when everything changes. 

AILKEMY exists to help you build that kind of organization. We don’t hype tools. We train humans to lead through disruption.

Why Read AILKEMY? 

AI won’t replace you. But teams who master human–AI collaboration will. This isn’t about man versus machine. It’s about hybrid orchestration, the art of blending automation with empathy, speed with systems thinking, and clarity with courage.

Who Reads AILKEMY? 

AILKEMY is written for the most accountable people in the room—those who don’t have the luxury of waiting for certainty. Whether you lead others, build products, run a team, or want to stay relevant, it helps you lead with clarity, not chaos.

Why I Publish AILKEMY?

I’m Daniel Stouffer. I’m an author of dozens of nonfiction books, a systems thinker, a firefighter, and a futurist. I’ve helped leaders navigate disruption for two decades, not from a theory lab, but from the front lines of change: in startups, classrooms, fire stations, and boardrooms.

I write AILKEMY because I’ve lived the pressure of needing answers when the playbook no longer works. I know what it feels like to be the one people look to in moments of uncertainty. 

This newsletter, and the “Insights-as-a-Service (AIS) we’re launching, is my way of offering a lifeline of clarity, one issue at a time.

https://news.ailkemy.com

Daniel Stouffer

Feedback encouraged.
I'm testing different ways to 'present me'. Have a look. Let me know if any of this resonates or needs a tweak. - Thanks!

----------
“AI is commoditizing most copywriting. 

I don’t sell words. I sell outcomes and risk control. I build the message framework, brand voice controls, and proof validations that make your Generative AI output sound unmistakably like you and perform as it should. 

If you want faster cycles, fewer revisions, and copy you can defend to leadership… and your customers, that’s what I do.

Do you have a voice system, or just a style guide nobody can enforce due to your tsunami of AI Slop Copy?”

Explore...👇
https://lnkd.in/eBxJH3aJ

JSESSIONID

li_at

Helping growth teams replace AI slop with copy that earns trust, converts, and scales. Think Further. Build Smarter. Lead Human.

“Your AI-generated slop content is now your stranded asset.”

Most teams think content decays slowly. That used to be true. Now it can collapse overnight. Not because your ideas got worse, but because the Internet got louder. 

AI made publishing easy. It also made trust harder. If your website, sales pages, and nurture emails sound like everyone else's, prospects do not argue. 

They simply drift away. 

The fix is not “write more.” The fix is to rebuild your content into a system that carries voice, proof, and intent. 

If your content used to convert, but now it just exists, this is for you.

Dig Deeper 👇
https://lnkd.in/gbVqYPy6

Change Leadership, General Manager PFA @ Batgroup & Member of the Board @ Putzfrauenagentur

Leadership isn’t about volume.
It’s about clarity, confidence and direction when the pressure is on.

I partner with HR leaders, GMs and Executive Teams across MENA & Asia to strengthen leadership capability from the ground up. My work sits where strategy, people and day-to-day execution meet in service-driven organisations.

Most performance issues in hospitality, retail and education aren’t about effort.
They come from three gaps:

❌ Leaders promoted before they’re ready to lead
❌ Executive Teams pulling in different directions
❌ No clear pipeline or succession to stabilise performance

So my work covers both sides of the leadership equation:

Strategy & alignment for senior teams
Facilitated Strategy Days that help GMs and Executive Teams:
✅ Agree a small set of must-win priorities
✅ Translate those into a 90-day execution plan
✅ Build the clarity and focus teams need to perform
✅ Name the leadership behaviours that sustain results

Leadership development for emerging & mid-level managers
Practical, human-centred programmes that build the skills to lead through others, communicate with clarity and coach across cultures.

Coaching & capability building
1:1 and group coaching, Train-the-Trainer, and tailored L&D that strengthen the pipeline and reduce turnover.

Across 25+ years with Apple Retail, Swissôtel, St. Regis and service organisations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, one truth holds: engagement and commercial performance rise when leaders at every level know where they’re going and how to bring their people with them.

If you’re building your leadership pipeline or want stronger alignment at the top, I’m happy to explore how we can work together.

📞 Book a call: https://cal.com/jeffross

Jeff Ross

I’ve been quiet on LinkedIn for a few weeks.
Intentionally.

The end of 2025, especially early Q4, was demanding. Not just professionally, but mentally and emotionally too. So I chose to step back, spend time with family, and create some much-needed white space.

Here’s the thing we don’t talk about enough in leadership:

Growth doesn’t only happen in motion.
Sometimes it happens in pause.

Over the break, I did what I often encourage leaders to do, though many struggle to make time for:
• Reflect honestly on what worked (and what didn’t)
• Revisit priorities instead of blindly setting new goals
• Notice patterns in my own behaviour under pressure
• Ask better questions, rather than rushing to better answers

Self-awareness isn’t built in the middle of constant execution.
It’s built in moments of distance.

The leaders I see grow the most aren’t the ones who push hardest every quarter.
They’re the ones who regularly step back, recalibrate, and return with more clarity than noise.

As we step into 2026, my focus is simple:
Fewer reactions.
Clearer priorities.
More intentional leadership, starting with myself.

If you haven’t created space to reflect yet, consider this your reminder:
White space isn’t time lost.
It’s leadership work.

Here’s to a more conscious, grounded, and human year ahead.

Helping service brands align strategy, strengthen pipelines and deliver consistent performance | Strategy Days, L&D and coaching | MENA and Asia

People are not “human capital”.
And they are not “assets” either.

I keep seeing employees described this way in leadership, L&D, and wellbeing content.

I understand the origin of the term.
Historically, human capital described skills and capabilities built through investment, not the people themselves.

But the distinction has blurred.

Here is the line I think we need to redraw.

❌ People are not capital
❌ People are not assets

They are human beings who choose, every day, how much energy and judgement they bring to work.

Human capital is what grows through investment
Skills. Confidence. Capability. Leadership depth.

That growth comes from:
✅ training done properly, not tick-box
✅ coaching that changes behaviour
✅ managers who develop people, not just measure them
✅ time and safety to learn, practise, and think

That is where human capital lives.

Language shapes decisions.
Decisions shape culture.

If we want more human leadership, we should start by speaking like humans, not balance sheets.

Calling people “human capital” is already the problem.

If people are capital, then what are they?

Owned?
Optimised?
Written off when returns dip?

No serious leader believes this.
Yet the language sticks.

Here is a cleaner distinction.

People are not human capital.
People are not assets.

Human capital is the outcome of investment, not the object of it.

You build it when you:
✅ develop managers instead of promoting the best technician
✅ coach leaders instead of just reviewing them
✅ invest in learning instead of squeezing efficiency
✅ play the long game, not just the quarter

Strong organisations do not extract value from people.

They create conditions where capability compounds.

If your culture talks about people like inventory,
do not be surprised when engagement feels transactional.

Words are never “just semantics”.
They are shortcuts to how decisions get justified.

In fast growing organisations across the UAE, managers are often promoted quickly to keep pace with expansion.

What usually does not scale at the same speed is leadership capability.

New managers are suddenly expected to lead multicultural teams, absorb pressure from both sides, and deliver consistency under operational intensity.

With little preparation.

When that happens, managers compensate.

➡️ They over control.
➡️ They escalate everything.
➡️ They work longer hours instead of building capability.

❌ This is not a motivation issue.
❌ It is not a generational issue.
✅ It is a pipeline design issue.

Growth without leadership infrastructure creates silent pressure in the middle.
And silent pressure always leaks somewhere.

If you want scale without burnout, development cannot be assumed.
It has to be designed.

In the UAE and GCC, managers are expected to be decisive, inclusive, and steady, all at once.

When we don’t develop them for that reality,
pressure doesn’t disappear.

It concentrates.

Promoted for doing the job.
Stuck because you are still doing it.

The peer to manager transition is not a mindset problem.
It is a capacity design problem.

If nothing changes in how time, decisions, and responsibility are allocated, leadership never starts.

What I have seen work repeatedly is simple and structured:

✅ 30 percent doing the old tasks to stabilise
✅ 30 percent pairing and teaching to hand over
✅ 40 percent coaching, prioritising, removing blockers

For the first 60 days.

One rule makes or breaks it.
The handover must be scheduled.

If it stays informal, it does not happen.
Urgency will always win.

A promotion does not create leadership.
The moment you stop being the bottleneck does.

Question worth answering this week:
Which task will you stop doing by Friday, and who will learn it instead?

Training the peer-to-manager transition muscle

If a manager is still doing most of the work, you have not promoted a leader.
You have relabelled a high performer.

Leadership starts when decisions move down, accountability stays up, and capability is built deliberately.

Without that shift, organisations stay dependent on individuals instead of systems.

This is why middle management feels stretched in so many businesses.
The role changes, but the expectations do not.

❌ Titles do not create leverage.
✅ Design does.

✅ When leadership transitions are supported early, pressure reduces later.
❌ When they are ignored, problems surface quietly and expensively.

The question is not whether someone earned the promotion.
The question is whether the system changed enough to let them lead.

Coming up on one year since we moved back to the UAE.

So much has changed since we lived here nearly two decades ago, and a lot of that change has been really good.

I’ve seen owners of large companies walk the floor, greet employees by name, ask about their families, and mean it.

And then I’ve seen something else, in the same companies:
Middle managers who abuse power over the people under their care.

Not always loudly.
Sometimes it’s subtle:

❌ public shaming disguised as ‘standards’
❌ threats disguised as ‘performance’
❌ pressure passed down because ‘that’s how we do things here’

Here’s the part leaders don’t want to hear:

Culture doesn’t scale through the founder’s intent.
It scales through the manager’s habits.

And the numbers in MENA should make every owner pause:

Only 14% of employees are engaged, while 24% are actively disengaged.

46% are watching for or actively seeking a new job.

31% experienced anger ‘a lot of the day’ yesterday.

Only 25% are ‘thriving’ in life evaluation.

You can invest millions in brand, strategy, and service standards…

…but if a middle manager creates fear, distrust, and turnover, your business pays for it twice:

in retention + recruiting costs
in inconsistent service + customer experience

Gallup has a brutal line leaders should sit with:

Managers drive most of the variance in team engagement.

So the fix isn’t ‘hire faster’ when people resign.
The fix is slow down and build the capability that prevents the resignations in the first place:

✅ Train new managers before they ‘learn leadership’ by copying the worst examples.
✅ Coach existing managers on how to lead under pressure (without leaking it onto their teams).
✅ Make people metrics visible at leadership level (turnover, internal mobility, manager 360s, team climate).
Reward leaders who build trust, not just those who hit numbers.

Because in this region, trust is everything.

And owners should be able to trust their management teams to execute the vision, for the business and for the people.

Question for leaders in the Gulf:
Where is your culture breaking, in strategy, or in the middle layer where it gets executed?

In fast-growing organisations across the UAE and GCC, leadership gaps rarely show up at the top.
They show up in the middle.

High-performing specialists are promoted quickly to keep pace with growth.
Suddenly they’re expected to:

➡️ lead multicultural teams
➡️ balance global standards with local realities
➡️ deliver consistency under constant operational pressure

Without a leadership pipeline, this becomes improvisation.

That is not a talent issue.
It’s a development design issue.

Organisations that scale sustainably here invest early in:

✅ leadership transitions, not just promotions
✅ manager development as ongoing infrastructure
✅ clarity, coaching, and judgement, not just skills

Middle management doesn’t fail loudly in this region.

It absorbs pressure quietly, until it can’t.

Many first time managers say the same thing, quietly.
“I do not want to get this wrong.”

So they hold on longer than they should.
They delay delegation.
They avoid conversations they know are coming.

Not because they lack confidence.
Because they lack support.

Leading former peers, older colleagues, or more experienced team members carries real emotional weight.

When organisations treat new managers as finished products, people protect themselves.
When they treat them as learners, behaviour changes.

❌ Confidence does not come from the title.
✅ It comes from practising leadership with permission to learn.

If you want managers who act calmly under pressure, give them room to build judgement before you test it.

taplio

The Battle

Daniel Stouffer

Jeff Ross

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Performance ScoreDaniel Stouffer's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJeff Ross's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Daniel Stouffer

Jeff Ross

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Daniel Stouffer's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJeff Ross's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDaniel Stouffer's LinkedIn Performance