In competitive cycling, there’s a key moment.

A rider attacks off the front. It looks bold, decisive, impressive. For a while, the gap opens. Then something subtle happens. The peloton doesn’t speed up – it fractures.

What looked like momentum becomes fatigue and failure.

It’s known as the rubber band effect.

The same thing happens in leadership.

Strong leaders have a bias for action. They see the gap, and move into it with clarity and personal energy. It’s what drives them.

On the surface, it looks like momentum.

But underneath, something more subtle can be happening: the leader is accelerating – while the system is quietly falling behind.

When you move forward, you stretch the system with you. This is healthy. It creates focus, urgency, and growth. But stretch it too far, too fast, and one of two things happens:
The rubber band snaps – or it loses its elasticity altogether.

I’ve seen this up close in recent leadership teams. From the centre of the system, people describe:

Privately, people admit they are “just trying to keep up.”

From the leader’s seat, things often look very different. Decisions are being made quickly. Standards feel high. The pace feels decisive. There is visible movement.

From the TOP, it looks like momentum. From the MIDDLE and the BACK, it feels unsafe.

This is a hard truth for many strong leaders to accept – and it’s not a failure of intent or competence. It’s a failure of distance awareness.

Leaders often confuse leader-driven motion with true organisational momentum.

Running far ahead feels like leadership. It feels bold. It feels courageous.

But when the gap between leader and system grows too wide, the cost becomes severe. People stop asking questions. They stop challenging assumptions. Early warning signs surface later – or not at all.

Not because people don’t care. But because it no longer feels safe or worthwhile to
speak up.

The very outcomes the leader is pushing for begin to slip away.

This is the cruel irony of pace. The leader often feels like they are winning just as the system begins to stall.

If this irony resonates with you … I’ve captured 10 questions leaders can use to test whether pace is creating momentum – or distance.