I was shocked to read this headline ‘Why I introduce myself as a social worker not a manager’ in the professional press. Was this individual saying that they preferred to represent themselves as a social worker and thus a good guy rather than a manager and therefore a bad guy? 

As it happens that’s not what the article’s author was saying but the headline did capture the reluctance I have frequently come across of some frontline managers to own the decisions of their own organisation. I can hear them saying, ‘It’s not my fault. I’m as frustrated as you are. Don’t blame me, blame senior management’.