what does this mean to

you so the two facets or two layers ultimately and i learned this the hard way so again i didn't sort of wake up this eureka moment and it all happened like coaching and winning badly which i've been part of um and it's probably the worst dynamic to be in um winning badly if you can't control what you can control which is ultimately yourself in the first instance um and look after yourself it will burn you out it will eat you alive and it gives you a very short shelf life um and will drive you insane so what i mean by that is like control your controls now that's a line that's always said in sport right Again, no one really knows what that means, but to give you a bit of insight, like what I mean in a leadership position, whether it's coaching or directorship or management or even yourself, like it's like making sure you're doing everything you can to put yourself, your best foot forward.

So making sure that basically being the antithesis of what I was.

I was eating like it was going out of fashion.

So if Deliveroo or Just Eat had loyalty points, I'd be like in the top percentile for sure.

It was poor food as well.

I didn't sleep very well because I was checking emails and doing admin work until 2 a.m.

You know, as a coach, looking now from the outside in, what do you believe is the most important leadership skill for coaches out there to begin cultivating if they haven't already?

When the lockdown comes in, are you still thinking you're going to Tokyo in a month at this point, or do you think it's straight away?

Yeah, like it was, like it was really odd to, I mean, to kind of give you a bit of an insight, some people were saying like, "This is like the end of humanity," and were pulling out of meetings left, right, and center.

Other people were saying, "It's just a cold.

We'll get over it in a few weeks, trust me." But yeah, like everything just stopped and ground to a halt and, you know, trying to work Teams.

I'd never worked Teams or Zoom before, and trying to get me and my colleagues and fellow coaches to try and just connect on Teams and get the link.

That took like two or three hours I remember once, and we were video calling each other on WhatsApp to try and help each other try and get the Teams link.

So it was, it was definitely, uh...

Yeah.

Out of those three environments, what stands out to you the most?

The...

Good question.

I think the biggest contrast, let's, let's start with that, is the size.

So, every team I've been with hasn't been an equivalent.

So, British Cycling is the equivalent of a, um, established organization, like a blue-chip company that's really big and, and loads of layers and money, and the limiting factor isn't money or resource, it's sort of application of.

Um, the amateur team I went to in, in Derby, it was like the startup, so you had very, like, few resources, zero culture.

[chuckles]

So, and I've kind of modeled it off what he said.

Number one, he named it, which is, "The results have come back.

You have cancer."

Yeah.

There is no, like, misinterpretation or wiggle room for understanding.

Like, that, that message has landed.

So that's the foundational thing.

Second thing, he's kind of framed it.