What Drives Progress? People or Technology?

My complete inability to keep up with the faster folk at my club recently got me thinking about greatness.

Not my own, obviously. That ship sailed somewhere around the third hill at the weekend whilst I was gasping for air and questioning every life choice that led to 9am on a bike in January.

No, I was thinking about the real GOATs.

Eddie Merckx 🐐. Tadej Pogačar 🐐. The debate about cycling's Greatest Of All Time is raging right now amongst those of us with a penchant for Lycra and strong opinions about cadence.

And somewhere between trying not to get dropped and pretending I wasn't absolutely cooked, I had one of those thoughts that wouldn't leave me alone.

The Maths Doesn't Lie (But It Does Surprise)

I did the maths when I got home. Well, Ferris did. Thanks GPT pal.

Once you account for 50 years of advancement in bikes, aerodynamics, nutrition, and training methods, Pogačar is only about 2% faster than Merckx was in the 1970s.

2%.

The headline numbers say 18% improvement. But strip away the technology, and you're left with two riders who are essentially the same calibre of athlete.

Merckx was riding steel frames in woollen jerseys, navigating by feel and intuition. Pogačar has carbon fibre, power meters, wind tunnel testing, and sports science that would make NASA jealous.

The system got 17% faster. The human? 2%.

But We Still Choose Our Favourite

Yet we all have our favourite, don't we?

Mine's Pogačar. The attacking style, the versatility, the apparent joy he takes in making incredibly hard things look easy. When I think about cycling excellence, I think about him.

My dad's generation? Merckx, every time. The Cannibal. The man who attacked when he was already winning. The absolute dominance that felt almost unfair to watch.

Neither of us is wrong. Because it's never really been about the numbers, has it?

It's about connection. The stories we tell ourselves. The moments that moved us. Who we relate to and why.

The data says they're essentially the same. But that's not the point.

The Leadership Parallel Nobody's Talking About

Which brings me to something I've been noticing in leadership conversations lately.

We're obsessing over AI. The technology. The tools. The productivity gains. The fear of being left behind. The pressure to have a view on it, to integrate it, to prove we're keeping up.

Meanwhile, the leaders who are actually driving progress - the ones their teams would follow anywhere - they're doing the same thing great leaders have always done.

They're present.

They listen.

They create the conditions where others can be brilliant.

What Technology Can't Do

AI can do tasks amazingly well. I mean, it did the hard maths that underpins this entire post. It can process information, spot patterns, generate content, automate workflows.

But it can't lead.

It can't build trust when the path isn't clear.

It can't read the room when someone's struggling but won't say it.

It can't adapt in the moment when the plan you had isn't the plan you need.

It can't make people feel seen, valued, capable.

The humans in your organisation - that's where the difference gets made.

That 2%. The bit that technology will never touch. The bit that makes someone say "I'd follow them anywhere" rather than "They're competent."

Your Job Isn't to Compete With Technology

You're carrying a lot right now, aren't you?

Leading through uncertainty. Being the steady presence everyone else needs whilst privately wondering if you're making the right calls. Delivering results under pressure. Managing up, down, and sideways. All whilst this drumbeat of "AI, AI, AI" suggests you should also be mastering entirely new capabilities.

Here's what I keep coming back to in the coaching work I do.

Your job isn't to compete with the technology.

Your job is to do what the technology fundamentally can't: connect, inspire, adapt in the moment.

To notice the thing that isn't being said. To create space for thinking, not just executing. To believe in someone before they believe in themselves. To hold the complexity whilst others are finding their footing.

That's leadership. Not the productivity metrics. Not the efficiency gains. The moments between the metrics.

Be Wholly, Unmistakably Yourself

Tadej Pogačar didn't become great by trying to be Eddie Merckx with better kit.

He became great by being wholly, unmistakably himself. His style. His choices. His approach to racing. His willingness to attack when everyone else is sitting in.

The same is true for you.

What makes you unique as a leader isn't how well you use AI.

It's what you bring that AI never can.

The way you make people feel when they're in the room with you. The questions you ask that nobody else thinks to ask. The courage you show when everything's ambiguous. The humanity you bring to a role that often asks you to be anything but human.

Where Greatness Actually Comes From

Don't get me started on Beryl Burton or Jeannie Longo, who arguably achieved more on the standard of bikes you'd expect to see in Stranger Things. Their greatness had nothing to do with technology and everything to do with determination, strategy, and pure bloody-mindedness.

Progress comes from the system advancing. Technology improving. Processes optimising.

But greatness? That comes from people.

From the 2% that no amount of carbon fibre or AI processing power can replicate.

From connection. From trust. From the stories we tell and the moments we create. From being present when everyone else is performing. From doing the human bit brilliantly when the system is doing the technical bit adequately.

A Question to Sit With

If someone asked your team what makes you different as a leader, what would they say?

Would it be about the tools you use? The processes you run? The systems you've implemented?

Or would it be about how you made them feel? About the moments you showed up when it mattered? About the way you helped them see what they were capable of when they couldn't see it themselves?

That's your 2%.

Not the 18% that comes from the system getting better.

The 2% that can only ever come from you.

Technology will keep advancing. The systems will keep getting faster. The productivity gains will keep coming.

But the human bit - your ability to connect, to lead, to see people clearly and help them see themselves - that's timeless.

And that's what people will remember long after the tools have changed again.

If you're carrying the weight of leading through complexity and wondering how to do it in a way that feels both effective and authentic, let's talk. Sometimes the most valuable thing is space to think with someone who gets the pressure you're under and the potential you're sitting on.