A seminal 90s DJ, an Irish fisherman and a tattoo.

Andrew Weatherall's mantra became the motto for my own leap from corporate life to running my own business.

If you're stuck, scared of what comes next and wondering whether to jump, here's what I've learned about failing, sailing and getting on with it.

Brandon McNulty spent six years helping Tadej Pogačar win. On Sunday, he became world champion. For a big chunk of my career I was a support rider too, the VP whose job was to make the boss shine. It was a role I was good at, and that was the trap. So whose race are you riding right now?

A Deacon Blue T-shirt, hundreds of thousands of data points, and the same hidden constraint showing up in leadership team after leadership team. Part two looks at why 41% of teams struggle with candour, and what it actually takes to unlock the ones that don't.

I was heading into a day of client meetings in London, so the Blur T-shirt went under a shacket. Then a Carter USM song at a red light took me back to 1993 and reminded me how much of myself I used to hide to fit the room. Part one of a two-part story about the hidden constraints that shape how we show up.

Postponing my first Breakaway Andalusia retreat felt like a failure. Then a Vuelta a España gamble reminded me that knowing when to stop is its own kind of decisiveness - and just as hard to get right.

A selfie outside a watch brand's front door led to an unexpected connection between three very different companies — and a question every leader should be asking about why people choose to follow them.

A rain-soaked 200km ride to Brighton with three much faster riders taught me something senior leadership teams often miss: the best teams, on the bike and in the boardroom, succeed by naming the awkward stuff up front rather than letting it fester into low candour and signal distortion.

When a new boss arrives and starts changing everything, it rarely feels personal, but it lands that way. This post looks at what happens when the ground shifts beneath a senior leader, the boundary a coach has to hold when a client's story mirrors his own, and what new leaders get wrong about proving themselves too soon.

There's a version of this story that goes straight to the insight. This isn't that version. Mark Taggart on the night that started a four-year shift — and what Breakaway Andalusia is really for.

Most organisations call groups of people teams when really they're just structured arrangements of individuals. If your team is struggling, the answer might not be in the room.

Leadership coach Mark Taggart explores what actually makes a team work, and why you can't force it.

Five articles into a series about AI and leadership, and this week it's about cycling.

The research on movement, nature and creative thinking points in one direction - and it has significant implications for how senior leaders perform at their best.

Three articles in, it's time to get practical.

Ten concrete things any leader can start this week to close the Leadership AI Gap - no transformation programme required.

There's a moment on every group ride when the pack divides. The same thing happens in careers. If you're chasing a pace that's leaving you worn out rather than energised, it might be time to ask whether the group you've been following is heading somewhere you actually want to go.

Enthusiasm for AI is running ahead of critical thinking in most organisations.

This is the third article in the The Leadership AI Gap series - five traps every leader needs to know about before they fall into one.

Watching Gorky's 1904 Summerfolk at the National Theatre, Mark Taggart found himself recognising something uncomfortably familiar — the gap between a successful life and a fulfilling one. If you're carrying that weight right now, this one's for you.

AI isn't just an efficiency tool.

In the second article in the Closing the Leadership AI Gap series, Mark explores five specific roles AI can play in making you a better leader — with some honest personal examples along the way.

A slightly deflating gig and a very strange lyric led to an unexpectedly relevant moment. If you're a senior leader with that nagging sense that something feels off - this one's for you.

Most people see the ride. They don't see the two hours before it. Bedford-based leadership coach Mark Taggart pulls back the curtain on Breakaway — outdoor coaching delivered on bikes — and what genuine preparation looks like for senior leaders.

AI can theoretically support 91% of what leaders do. Most aren't using it.

This is the first in a series exploring the gap between what's possible and what's actually happening — and what senior leaders can do about it.

Promoting your best person doesn't automatically make them your best manager. The skills are different, the aptitude distinctive, and the motivations often completely altered.

Here's what most organisations get wrong, and what the good ones do differently.