EP 280 (Freedom by Design Pt. 14): Develop Leaders — Not Just Individuals

Michael Walsh - Paper Napkin Wisdom - Develop Leaders.

If you’ve been following our ongoing Freedom by Design series with business growth strategist Michael Walsh, you’ve noticed a theme: the farther you grow, the more your results depend on people—not just your personal effort. In Episode 280, Part 14, Michael brings a crisp napkin that says it all: “Develop Leaders.” The sketch shows two paths to results. One runs Leader → Manager → People → Results (big circle). The other jumps straight to Individual → Results (small circle). Same destination, wildly different scale. 

Why? Because, as Michael says, “Leadership is about rallying people to a brighter future.” And when you scale, that “people” layer is where compounding lives. 

Management vs. Leadership (and why both matter) 

Early in the conversation, Michael tips his cap to Marcus Buckingham’s framing: “management’s about taking talent, turning it into performance.” Leadership, by contrast, is about direction, meaning, and conviction. Or in Michael’s words: “Leadership is about rallying people to a brighter future.” Both are essential—but they’re different jobs. Michael is blunt about it: “So is leadership a different job than management. Yes.” 

Managers translate strategy into coordinated action. Leaders create clarity, energy, and belief around a better future—and then support managers to deliver that future consistently. And none of that happens in isolation: “You do that with and through your people,” Michael reminds us. 

Why “Develop Leaders” multiplies results 

The napkin makes a simple, uncomfortable point: when we keep solving problems as individuals, we cap our results at our personal capacity. When we develop leaders who develop managers who grow people, we expand capacity at every level. It’s the difference between a star player and a championship organization. 

In prior chapters, we talked about rethinking the business core. As I said on the show, we have to “rethink the core of the business away from being a well-oiled machine and toward being an intelligent ecosystem”—one that intentionally grows people, capability, and judgment. That’s the engine behind durable results. 

What great leaders actually do 

Michael keeps it grounded. Great leaders: 

• Set and protect a clear future state (why we’re going there and what “good” looks like). 

• Coach their managers—so managers can coach their people. 

• Create operating rhythms where managers have real conversations with team members weekly, not “when things calm down.” 

• Model learning over blame so managers feel safe developing people, not just squeezing them. 

When leaders do this consistently, managers stop firefighting and start building. The “People → Results” loop gets faster and smarter every quarter. 

5 Key Takeaways (with Take Action steps) 

1. Separate the jobs: Leadership ≠ Management Leaders point to the horizon; managers turn capability into performance. Don’t blur them. Take Action: List your top three leadership responsibilities and your top three management responsibilities. If your calendar doesn’t reflect that split, fix one meeting block this week. 

2. Coach managers to coach people Your biggest leverage is the quality of manager–team conversations. Take Action: Require weekly 1:1s. Give managers a simple agenda: priorities, obstacles, development. Review one 1:1 agenda with each manager this month. 

3. Build a people-powered operating rhythm Cadence beats intensity. Skip the “big speech” and institutionalize small, frequent touchpoints. Take Action: Establish a quarterly cycle: set outcomes → weekly check-ins → monthly calibration → quarterly retros. Put dates in the company calendar today. 

4. Measure results beyond numbers Winning isn’t only financial; it’s Technical, Financial, Human, and Sustainable (the recurring theme of this series). Take Action: For your next project, define success in all four dimensions. Celebrate a human-capability win at the same volume as a revenue win. 

5. Promote for coaching, not just production We often promote our best individual contributors, then wonder why the team stalls. Take Action: Before your next promotion, run a short “manager readiness” screen: Can they set context? Run 1:1s? Give clean feedback? If not, create a 60-day development plan before the title change. 

Favorite Quotes from the Episode 

• Michael Walsh: “Leadership is about rallying people to a brighter future.” 

• Michael Walsh (via Buckingham): “Management’s about taking talent, turning it into performance.” 

• Michael Walsh: “You do that with and through your people.” 

Final Thought & Call to Action 

If your results feel capped, stop looking for a new hack—and start developing leaders. Your next level isn’t another personal sprint; it’s the collective capacity of your managers and the people they grow. 

What’s your takeaway? Grab a napkin, write it down, snap a pic, and tag #PaperNapkinWisdom. Let’s build an ecosystem of leaders who create leaders. 

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Learn more about Michael: https://www.walshbusinessgrowth.com/