Aim: Exploring person-centred leadership in residential care based on first-line managers descriptions. Background: Previous studies have shown that leadership is crucial for promoting and leading person-centred care. Despite that person-centred care is the leading care model, existing knowledge on person-centred leadership in residential care facilities for older people is scarce.  Methods: Data was collected from October 2021 to March 2022. The design was exploratory using digitally focus groups and individual interviews. A total of 21 first-line managers in residential care facilities (RCF) for older persons in five municipalities in Sweden participated in the study. Conventional content analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings: Person-centred leadership consists of two parts that together form a whole; being person-centred as a leader by having the relationship with the personnel in focus and, simultaneously; leading person-centred care by focusing on the older person. Going the extra mile for the personnel and the older person, meant that the first-line managers were person-centred themselves. They emphasised that this orientation must be grounded in their own beliefs in order to communicate this to the personnel and to the older person. Going the extra mile also involved having the courage to “go outside the box” when necessary. Conclusions: This study contributes with empirical knowledge about person-centred leadership in RCF, i.e., being and doing person-centredness as a leader. Being person-centred as a leader involves acknowledging the personhood of personnel in words and actions which has the potential to promote person-centred practices. Person-centred leadership entails promoting personnel to meet the older people’s changing needs, having operational, financial and personnel responsibilities, while simultaneously trying to meet the needs of personnel.