Practical frameworks, honest advice, and the tools I wish someone had handed me when I moved from fixing systems to leading people.
Leadership by Design exists to give professionals the practical tools, honest frameworks, and real guidance that organisations rarely provide — whatever industry or role you're leading in.
Every resource we publish is built from real experience in real organisations — not theory, not textbooks, not advice that sounds good in a boardroom but falls apart on a Monday morning.
The Reluctant Leader is our first series, built specifically for IT professionals navigating the shift from technical expert to people leader. More series are in development.
Available now at thereluctantleader.co.uk — pay what you think they're worth.
Five chapters covering the mindset shifts, 1-to-1 frameworks, difficult conversation tools, the peer-to-manager transition, and senior stakeholder communication — all drawn from real IT operations leadership.
Monday Reset, Team Health Check, Stop Doing Audit, Friday Close, and a Burnout Warning System — five practices with printable templates that together take less than 45 minutes a week.
I'm Mark Rooney — Head of IT Operations and the founder of Leadership by Design.
My career spans the Royal Navy, healthcare networks across NHS hospitals with Philips Healthcare, and over twelve years at one of the UK's largest port operators — working every level from hands-on network engineer to leading an entire IT Operations department across multiple ports.
Everything published here comes from that experience. The frameworks are real. The mistakes are real. And the conviction that technical professionals deserve better leadership tools than they're usually given — that's very real too.
Practical, honest, no management speak. The kind of thing you can actually use on Monday morning.
No spam. One email per week. Unsubscribe any time.