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.

keyIT sa

- Developing and implementing comprehensive marketing strategies to enhance the visibility and adoption of our IT consultancy services.
- Crafting and executing a robust go-to-market (GTM) strategy for our new offerings in Generative AI, with a focus on Microsoft Azure AI solutions.
- Leading the charge in building a strong brand identity, ensuring our brand resonates with our target audience in the IT sector.
- Managing our online and offline presence, ensuring consistent and engaging branding across all platforms.
- Organizing and conducting educational workshops on Generative AI technologies, fostering understanding and practical applications among clients.
- Continuously analyzing market trends and customer needs to refine marketing and branding strategies, ensuring alignment with the dynamic nature of AI and tech industries.

Product Marketing Manager

Batgroup SA

- Oversee and lead the implementation of Marketing Automation strategies, ensuring seamless integration with broader digital initiatives.
- Manage and optimize Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Data Platform (CDP) systems to enhance customer insights and drive personalized marketing efforts.
- Direct and coordinate Email Marketing Campaigns, ensuring alignment with customer journey strategies and optimizing for engagement and conversions.
- Lead Media Planning and Buying across key digital platforms, including Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Performance Max, and SEA, ensuring efficient budget allocation and maximum ROI.
- Develop and manage cross-functional teams to measure, report, and optimize the performance of all digital marketing campaigns, ensuring alignment with business goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Drive Customer Segmentation and Personalization strategies, utilizing data to enhance targeting and campaign effectiveness.
- Spearhead A/B Testing initiatives across various channels to continually refine and optimize marketing tactics.
- Serve as a cross-functional leader, collaborating with sales, product, and data teams to deliver cohesive digital marketing projects that align with broader company objectives.

Digital Marketing Manager

Money Masters

Head of Marketing

- Lead the planning and execution of all digital marketing strategies, including SEO/SEM, marketing database, email, social media, and paid channels like PPC, Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, Snapchat Ads, ensuring alignment with the product’s growth objectives.
- Oversee the design, building, and ongoing management of our social media presence, coordinating efforts across creative, content, and analytics teams.
- Manage cross-functional teams to measure and report the performance of all digital marketing campaigns, tracking progress against ROI and KPIs and making data-driven adjustments.
- Identify emerging trends and insights, collaborating with product, sales, and analytics teams to optimize marketing spend and overall performance.
- Lead the planning, execution, and analysis of A/B testing and conversion optimization experiments, working closely with product development to refine user experience.
- Develop and implement strategies to instrument conversion points and optimize user funnels, ensuring a smooth transition from MVP to final product launch.
- Act as the digital marketing lead in cross-functional teams, ensuring that marketing efforts are seamlessly integrated into the broader product development and launch strategy.

El & Pree

- Advised solo entrepreneurs on online community building, helping them foster engagement and build strong, loyal audiences.
- Developed tailored go-to-market strategies to launch products and services effectively.
- Crafted and executed content marketing strategies to enhance brand visibility and drive traffic.
- Provided expertise in Facebook Ads and other paid media channels, optimizing ad spend for maximum ROI.
- Managed and nurtured strategic partnerships to expand clients' reach and growth opportunities.
- Assisted in the creation and promotion of social media profiles, while overseeing the development and marketing of digital courses and webinars, achieving an ROI of 300%.
- Successfully grew email subscription lists by 187% within one month through targeted digital campaigns and media buying strategies.

Digital Marketing Expert

RE CAPITAL - Real Estate Advice and Investment a.s.

- Monitoring revenue streams and identifying opportunities to increase profitability,
- Evaluating and improving sales, marketing, and branding strategies,
- Identifying and developing new lines of business based on consumer behavior,
- Performing competitor analysis toward obtaining an increased market share,
- Developing client relationships and strengthening industry partnerships,
- Identifying new clients by researching and creating networking opportunities,
- Negotiating and closing business deals that promote sustained revenue,
- Liaising with Sales, Marketing, and Management to align strategies aimed at increasing revenue.

Business Development Manager

Ufanet

- Directing financial planning and strategy.
- Analyzing and reporting on financial performance.
- Overseeing audit and tax functions.
- Developing and implementing accounting policies.
- Preparing forecasts and comprehensive budgets.
- Training accounting staff.
- Reviewing departmental budgets.
- Assessing, managing, and minimizing risk.
- Analyzing complex financial data.
- Managing internal controls.

Senior Accountant

TEKHNOKHIMPROM Ltd

- Overseeing accounting staff
- Preparing and managing ledgers, credit, and collections
- Taking the lead in both internal and external audits
- Filing state and federal taxes
- Organizing and documenting financial reports
- Preparing monthly and yearly budgets
- Examining financial statements to ensure accuracy
- Implementing new procedures based on changes in regulatory laws
- Attending all necessary conferences or continuing education seminars

- preparing accounts and tax returns; 
- administering payrolls and controlling income and expenditure;
- auditing financial information; -compiling and presenting reports, budgets, business plans, commentaries, and financial statements

Accountant

- Carrying on insurances, duties, and taxes
- Monitoring of the shipments to ensure compliance with regulations
- Ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of imports and exports
- Translating technical information from English to Russian and vice versa

Export Manager

With a passion for bridging technology and customer needs, I have consistently delivered results in product marketing across Security, Digital Workplace, and Data & AI. My career is defined by a successful history of launching and scaling tech services, driving significant user adoption, and increasing revenue.

My key strengths include:

- Product Marketing: Developing and executing comprehensive product marketing strategies that effectively position, message, and launch tech products and services.
- Digital Marketing: Utilizing a wide range of digital channels to create impactful campaigns that increase brand visibility, generate leads, and drive conversions.
- Customer Relationship Management: Designing and implementing customer-centric programs that enhance engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty, leading to reduced churn and increased customer lifetime value.

I am a collaborative leader with a deep understanding of customer behavior and market trends. I am adept at translating complex technical concepts into clear, compelling messages that resonate with target audiences.

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Jeff Ross

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The Battle

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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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