Would you prefer feast or famine?
Work rarely arrives in an ordered way, in business or in professional cycling. After months of a dribbly pipeline, everything has landed at once. Here’s what a race calendar that makes no sense taught me about choosing your races, and why the moment you’re feasting is when you most need to choose.
Sit on my wheel
I asked friends, clients and ex-colleagues one question: what would you come to me for? What came back wasn’t about my work at all. It was about how I work, and how I make people feel. It made me wonder who tells you the truth, and when you last asked them what they’d say about you.
Stick or twist?
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.
Three Brands, One Thread
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.
Ten AI Things to Do This Week
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.
Five Traps That Catch Leaders Out with AI
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.
Five Ways to Lead Better with AI
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.
My Stable & Sustainable Partner
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.
The Promotion Trap
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.
The Apprentice Who Became the Champion
Geraint Thomas rode three weeks of the Tour de France with a broken hip. For someone else's victory.
His story isn't just about cycling - it's about what the invisible years of leadership actually build in you, and whether we're giving our best people enough time in the engine room before we hand them the keys.
What happens if there is a fire?
There's one in every room. The one who arrives late, checks their phone, and asks the question designed to derail the whole session. But buried inside that question is one of the most useful lessons I know about leadership.
When Crosswinds Hit
Even the best teams fall apart when unexpected hits.
Drawing from a personal redundancy experience and the cycling concept of echelons, this post explores how leaders can navigate organisational crosswinds by building the right formation rather than trying to muscle through change alone.
The Breakaway
A mid-week ride, an unexpected challenge, and a lesson about what happens when you stop choosing the comfortable group. Part of the Lessons from the Peloton series.
What Mont Ventoux Taught Me About Leadership…
I got a tattoo this week. Four and a half hours in the chair, and yes, it hurt. But the pain wasn't the point. The story was.
It's Mont Ventoux - the climb that nearly broke me, and the moment I understood something crucial about leadership that 25 years in corporate life never taught me.
When you're halfway up a mountain in 35-degree heat, legs screaming, lungs burning, there's no corporate theatre. Just you, the road, and a choice: keep going or quit.
If you're a senior leader right now - carrying the weight whilst everyone looks to you for clarity, navigating change you didn't ask for, expected to have answers you're still figuring out - you know exactly what that feels like.
Here's what I learned on that mountain about reading the conditions, leading from different positions, and why the strongest leaders don't climb alone. Sometimes the best leadership insights don't come from business school. They come from knowing what it takes to get to the summit.
Helping Adults Become Better Adults
"I help adults become better adults." A phrase borrowed from Andrew Shorter at JLR that captures exactly what leadership development is really about.
Not fixing broken people - just helping us all become better at handling complexity, understanding ourselves, and leading others.
People Come First
After 32 years of friendship and a weekend seeing Deacon Blue in Glasgow, I'm reminded that connection isn't indulgent - it's essential. Especially when you're the one everyone else looks to for answers.
What Happens When You Actually Invest in Leadership Development?
Last week I found myself on a small Malaysian island, working with aspiring managers genuinely excited about stepping into leadership. What struck me most? This client wasn't waiting or crossing their fingers. They were investing early and deliberately. It got me thinking about a senior leader I spoke with recently who felt increasingly isolated - promoted for technical expertise but struggling with the human challenges no one prepared them for. Sound familiar? In a world where 42% of CEOs cite uncertainty as their top threat, the question isn't whether disruption is coming. It's whether your leadership capability is ready.
The Infrastructure of Contentment
I'm in a good place right now. I know that won't last - life has a way of taking over. But here's what I do know: I've built something.
Over the last year, I've made decisions that leave me genuinely privileged to be where I am. The question is: if you're carrying the weight right now, who's in your camp?
What does Jamie need?
A coaching conversation reveals why servant leaders struggle to identify their own needs - and what it takes to lead with both heart and clarity.
Why Leadership? Why Now?
The business case for leadership development has never been clearer. With 200,000 UK jobs lost in 2024 and unprecedented disruption across industries, the organisations thriving aren't just those with the best strategies - they're the ones with leadership capabilities that serve people through uncertainty. Research shows 25% performance improvement and 3× revenue growth for companies investing in leadership development. If you're leading through complexity whilst everyone looks to you for answers, discover what this moment actually demands.