Some days leadership is about survival, not sprinting. Mark Cavendish knew this - even the greatest sprinter spent most Tour days just getting through.

The question is: are you in the right team, or do you need to reframe how you're riding?

"What do you want?"

No one had asked my client that before. He was stuck playing peacekeeper when he should have been leading.

Here's why that question unlocked everything – and what it means for senior leaders trying to navigate competing demands.

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.

There's a particular kind of loneliness that comes with being the person everyone turns to for answers. You've built a career on competence. And yet something has shifted. The confidence that once felt like a given now feels fragile.

If this resonates, I want you to know something: losing confidence is not weakness. It's a signal.

"Thank you. I just needed to be listened to."

A reminder that sometimes the most powerful thing a leader can do is put the toolkit down.

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. Here's what professional cycling teaches us about building teams with clear purpose, complementary skills, and genuine clarity about what matters.

"Stop the noise. I need space to think."

This came up in a client session last week. He arrived overwhelmed with ideas, concerns, problems, opportunities. When that happens, it's my job to create a Think Tank - the space where leaders can untangle what's really going on beneath the urgent.

"Yes this is me. Yes I can do all that." How a senior leader navigating career transition moved from self-doubt to authentic confidence by addressing the hidden commitments keeping her stuck

Why did Bowie and Prince resonate so much at age 12?

Because they showed me that reinvention isn't about abandoning who you are - it's about allowing yourself to evolve into who you're becoming.

The same principle applies to leadership transitions.

Over Christmas, I got a model bicycle as a table gift. I was genuinely excited until I opened it and found dozens of pieces with no instructions. What I needed wasn't coaching - it was clear instruction. But that's not always what's needed. Here's how to know the difference.

Saturday morning. Six miles into our long run with the club, one of the runners shared her frustration: "I can't get under 4:00 hours, whatever I do. I've tried everything. I'm stuck."

Two days earlier, I'd heard almost the exact same words from a Director navigating a career transition: "I keep being passed over for promotion. It's just not fair. I've tried everything. I'm stuck."

Whether I'm coaching runners or senior leaders, I hear these three lines again and again: I keep missing my goals. I've tried everything. I'm stuck.

Here's what I've learned: when someone says "I've tried everything," they usually mean "I've tried everything I can see from where I'm standing." Being stuck isn't about lack of effort - it's about lack of perspective. The answer isn't working harder. It's seeing differently.

It's a cold January morning, and I'm reflecting on my first full year focused on Taggart People.

Three simple questions from the world of cycling have me thinking about what 2025 taught me, what I'm after in 2026, and how I'll get there. What are you carrying forward into the new year?

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.

"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.

What happens when the career you thought you'd have doesn't match the one you're living?

A personal reflection on drifting, finding home, and why the gap between who we thought we'd be and who we are might just be information we can use.

Connecting with people is my thing. I often say it's my 'superpower'. But you can't force it.

After leaving my last role 11 months ago, I'm reflecting on how easy it is to lose touch with people who mattered.

I'm sat in the optician's chair, trying contact lenses for the first time at 51 years old, and I can't shake the feeling that something fundamental has shifted.

Not just my vision (though that's definitely different). It's deeper than that. My face comes with glasses. Has done since I was 17. They're part of who I am. Without them? I look like a stranger to myself.

But when you're cycling on busy roads and the Garmin's getting blurry, the coffee menu's unreadable, and that car or tree is just a touch too undefined - you adapt, or you risk something worse than discomfort.

"What use am I?"

That hit home. I hear you, and I am you.

My client had just said that out loud in a coaching session. We were exploring purpose – that most fundamental of topics that comes up time and time again in my leadership work. Specifically, we were unpicking the tensions between what we want to be doing and what we feel we must.

It was a powerful moment for him. Led us into an impactful discussion about what makes us happy, how we define ourselves, and the pressures we put on ourselves.

What landed differently for me was how close this conversation was to home.

Because I was there. Not that long ago. Sitting at my desk thinking the exact same thing. Have I hit my level of incompetence? I can't go on like this, but I don't know what the alternative is. People rely on me. I can't let them down.

If you're carrying that question right now, here's what I learned about finding purpose when you're stuck...

Yesterday, I returned to facilitate a team session at a company I'd left 2.5 years ago. They'd changed, I'd changed, but what struck me was how this team had created something rare - a space where people could be themselves completely and deliver brilliantly through their unique strengths. It got me reflecting on my own journey back from some of the lowest points in my career, and what I've learned about taking ownership when you're feeling stuck.

A lot gets written about purpose these days. It's one of those words we throw around without really thinking about what it means. But when I was asked "why I set up on my own" this year, it made me dig deeper than expected. Here's what I learned when I stopped giving the polished elevator pitch and started being honest about the journey - from running away from corporate games to finding a purpose that bridges personal authenticity with genuine service to others who feel stuck.