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.

Systems in Place

I empower high-achieving women entrepreneurs, including coaches, creatives, and service-based business owners, to scale their businesses sustainably and reclaim their freedom.

I specialize in transforming overwhelm and chaos into clarity, calm, and efficiency by using smart systems, tech, and personal optimization — helping you take back your time, mental clarity, and the ability to grow your business with ease.

What My Clients Achieve:
🔥 Time Freedom: More hours back in your week to focus on growth, creativity, and your personal life.
💰 Financial Freedom: Increased revenue and profit margins through scalable, sustainable systems.
😌 Mental Freedom: Greater peace of mind and reduced stress from an efficient, well-organized business.

I believe success should never cost you your freedom. Let’s build a business that supports your life — not the other way around.

Ready to Scale with Ease?

📩 Reach out today to discover how I can help you streamline, scale, and reclaim your freedom.

Founder | Freedom Architect | Systems Strategist | Online Business Manager

Acrotrend - Customer Insights and Analytics

Operations Specialist

Remote-how, Inc.

Expert Success Manager

Growth Manager

Remote-how is the first global platform empowering the growth of a remote work community. We started to facilitate going remote for companies and professionals in June 2018, when we organized the Remote Future Summit. Remote-how Academy is the first a global education, and certification program about remote work where you will find structured know-how from top experts (Doist, GitLab, Buffer, Stanford University and many others).

PwC Polska

Assurance Associate in Financial Services Audit Department, involved in projects for financial sector, mainly insurance companies and investment funds. 

Responsibilities:
• participation in IFRS and Polish financial reporting regulations-based audits and reviews of stand-alone and consolidated financial statements and group reporting packages
• performing analytical analyses of financial statements' positions
• providing significant help and support to senior professionals to audit a corporation's internal controls and preparation procedures of financial statements;
• inquiries with clients on different levels including department managers and establishing relationships with company's staff, business partners and clients

Assurance Associate

Member of Assurance Financial Services Team, involved in projects for financial sector, mainly insurance companies and investment funds.

Assurance Intern

Responsibilities:
• booking invoices in PeopleSoft system
• assisting in fee share process control 
• supporting payments between JLL entities
• issuing cost recharge invoices for JLL units in various countries 
• preparing reconciliations of intercompany accounts
• preparing monthly intercompany balance statements and confirming the balances between JLL entities
• organizing generic intercompany mailboxes.

Intercompany Support

Streamline Your Business for More Time, Money & Freedom | Systems, Automation & Strategy | Certified OBM® | Processes Optimized For Success & Scaling Without Stress and Overwhelm

High-achieving women entrepreneurs' most precious resources are time, energy, and finances.

Yet so many struggle to balance them effectively, feeling stretched thin between their ambition and personal life.

𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂?
🔻 You feel constantly busy, overwhelmed by a never-ending list of tasks.
🔻 Your schedule feels out of control, leaving little space for growth or personal time.
🔻 Despite your success, your business feels chaotic, and you're craving both structure and freedom.

I see you - and I'm here to tell you that running a successful business doesn't have to feel this way.

I help high-achieving women entrepreneurs like you enjoy their lives while scaling their businesses sustainably with smart systems, tech, and personal optimization so they can finally experience true freedom - in time, finances, and mental clarity.

The Three Freedoms I Help You Achieve:
✅ Time Freedom: Reclaim control of your schedule with systems that reduce busywork and create space for what matters most - your family, personal fulfillment, and creativity.
✅ Financial Freedom: Scale your business sustainably with optimized systems and smart strategies, so you can increase revenue without working more hours.
✅ Mental Freedom: Eliminate overwhelm and decision fatigue by simplifying your business and life, giving you clarity, peace, and the confidence to lead.

What This Means for You:
✅ More hours back in your week - so you can finally enjoy the life you've built.
✅ A business that runs smoothly - even when you're not working.
✅ Consistent revenue growth without constant hustle.

Because success shouldn't cost you your freedom.

My Clients' Wins Include:
🔥 Working fewer hours while earning more with optimized systems.
💰 Hitting consistent income goals without adding to their workload.
😌 Feeling lighter, clearer, and more present - both in their business and personal life.

Ready to Design a Business That Works for You?

📩 DM me with the word "FREEDOM" and let's create a business and life you actually enjoy.

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The Battle

Jeff Ross

Aleksandra Badea

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The Battle

Jeff Ross

Aleksandra Badea

Followers

Posts

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);}Jeff Ross's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJeff Ross's LinkedIn Performance