Skilfully negotiate - without leading man getting work (6)
I believe the answer is:
oeuvre
'work' is the definition.
(an oeuvre is someone's collected works)
I don't understand the rest of the clue.
(Other definitions for oeuvre that I've seen before include "A lifetime's body of work" , "Complete output of a writer or artist" , "(Artist's) body of work" , "Collected works" , "All the works of a particular composer" .)