This paper discusses the manager perspectives in artistic interventions trying to understand what kinds of manager that hire an artist (!) for a year. The Swedish managers, who are the empirical ground in the current study, express different experiences from their artistic intervention, showing several expressions for doing “leadership” (compared to doing “management”). They: create company culture; stimulate different activities; trigger creativity; concern for relations and express liking. This symbolic management is interpreted as expressions that strengthen the managers’ identities as leaders, parallel with holding their managers’ positions. However the decision-making, the planning and implementing of the artistic intervention are connected to doing “management”, so leadership and management are really intermingled by these managers. Another striking characteristic is that these managers are well established with almost 20 years in a management position in average.