Stop Performing Leadership

The best thing I ever did for my team was accept it wasn't about me.

I had to stop performing leadership and start actually leading.

It sounds simple when you say it like that. But for too many leaders, this realisation comes far too late. Sometimes it never comes at all.

The SMART Objective Trap

Here's what I see happen time and again.

A manager sits down in January. Sets SMART objectives with their team. Ticks the box. Feels good about themselves. "Right, that's clarity sorted for the year."

They check in weekly. Maybe monthly if they're particularly stretched. Come December, they dust off those objectives, assess progress, slap a rating in the HR system. And go again.

But then they're confused. Why isn't the team performing? Why are people disengaged? Why does it feel like everyone's pulling in different directions?

Is it capability? Willingness? Drive?

Usually, it's none of those things.

It's because you've confused task management with leadership.

What Professional Cycling Teaches Us About Teams

There's a tension in professional cycling that I think offers something useful here.

It's a team sport with only one winner.

Think about that for a moment. Eight riders working together. But when they cross the line, only one person gets the glory. Only one name goes in the record books.

In the best teams, everyone knows who the leader is. Everyone knows their role on race day.

Some riders will shield the leader from the wind for 200 kilometres. They'll burn themselves out protecting someone else from the elements. Then, when the leader makes their move, these riders drop back. Their race is done. They play no further part whilst the leader chases glory.

Others have an even more unglamorous job. They drop back to the team car. They fetch water bottles. They collect food. They ferry supplies to the front. That's it. That's their entire contribution to the race. These people are called domestiques.

Most professional cyclists are domestiques. Most never win a race again after turning professional. Their entire career becomes about helping someone else succeed.

So how do they manage this without resentment?

• Clear purpose. Everyone understands what they're working towards. Not just "win the race" but why this race matters, what it means for the team, how this fits into the bigger picture.

• Complementary skills. The right people in the right roles. Nobody's pretending the climber should be fetching water bottles or that the sprinter should be setting tempo in the mountains.

• No confusion about who matters most on the day. The hierarchy is clear. The strategy is clear. There's no ambiguity about whose success everyone's working towards.

Compare that to the unsuccessful teams.

Bickering. Multiple agendas. Riders who think they should be the leader. The wrong mix of skills. No clear strategy. Confusion about who's supposed to be doing what.

Sound familiar?

What I Got Wrong

When I first managed people, I thought clear direction meant: tell them what to do, check in weekly, job done. I'd spent years being managed that way. I'd succeeded despite it. So naturally, I assumed that's what management was.

What I didn't see was what was happening beneath the surface.

My team was spending half their time on secret work. Projects they found interesting. Things that gave them a sense of achievement. Work that had absolutely nothing to do with what actually mattered for our objectives. No wonder we weren't delivering.

But here's the thing - I didn't have a capability problem. I didn't have lazy people. I didn't have a team lacking drive.

I had a leadership problem.

I'd failed to help them understand why their work mattered. I'd failed to connect their skills to our purpose. I'd failed to give them a reason to care about the right things.

I was performing leadership - the weekly check-ins, the objective setting, the performance reviews - without actually leading.

The Questions That Change Everything

So what does it actually mean to lead rather than just manage?

It starts with investing time in understanding three things about every person in your team.

• What motivates them? Not what you think should motivate them. Not what motivates you. What actually gets them out of bed in the morning? What gives them energy? What drains them?

• What do they value? What matters to them about how work gets done? About how they're treated? About what success looks like? Where are the non-negotiables that, if violated, will cause them to disengage?

• What skills do they actually have? Not what's on their CV or their job description. What are they genuinely good at? What comes easily to them that's hard for others? Where do they need support?

When you understand these three things, you can start building a team like those successful cycling teams.

You can put people in roles that play to their strengths. You can connect their personal motivations to the team's purpose. You can be clear about what success looks like and who needs to do what to achieve it.

You can create the conditions where people choose to prioritise the right work - not because you're checking up on them, but because they understand why it matters.

The Question You Need To Answer

What team are you leading right now?

Are you the "tell them what to do and check in weekly" type? Or are you investing the time to understand what motivates people, what they value, and what skills they bring?

Are you giving them purpose? Or just tasks?

Are you creating clarity about who does what and why? Or are you assuming everyone will just figure it out?

The successful cycling teams don't leave this to chance. They invest enormous time and energy in getting it right. They build complementary teams. They create absolute clarity about roles. They connect individual motivations to collective purpose.

And when they get it right, you see something remarkable. You see people willing to sacrifice their own glory for someone else's success. Not because they're forced to. Because they understand their role matters. Because they're clear on the goal. Because they know their contribution is valued.

That's what leadership looks like.

Where Do You Need Help?

If you're trying to create this kind of clarity whilst everyone looks to you for answers, you don't have to figure it out alone.

I work with leaders and their teams on exactly this challenge - moving from task management to genuine leadership. Creating clarity about purpose. Building the capability to lead through complexity rather than just manage through processes.

It's not about frameworks or models. It's about understanding people and creating the conditions for them to do their best work.

If that's where you are right now, let's talk.