This study, drawing on collaborative autoethnography, explores the ongoing negotiation of managerial identity struggles through subtle everyday work practices in a university context. The empirical material is based on autoethnographic diary notes of two authors of this study. Through our collaborative analysis, we identify three key aspects through which we negotiate leadership expectations in the university setting: (1) balancing between heroic and collective leadership expectations in various ‘bodily’ spaces, (2) negotiating personal insecurities and leadership expectations that arise internally, and (3) balancing between administrative routines and more ‘inspirational’ ideals of leadership. This study contributes to the discussion of managerial identity struggles by illustrating how these struggles are deeply embodied, particularly in efforts to promote a collective, practice-based view of leadership. Methodologically, this study engages with the recent discourse on ‘writing differently’ in organisational studies, demonstrating how collaborative autoethnographic reflections offer a more reflexive understanding of the research phenomenon.