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Leadership Momentum
- freermw
- Mar 19
- 9 min read
Momentum. It’s the driving force behind every great success story. But let’s face it, building it is no easy feat. It requires relentless effort, grit, and unwavering belief, even during those moments when it feels like you’re stuck or, worse, moving backwards. And yet, there’s magic in the journey - those breakthrough moments when the tide turns, progress flows, and the fruits of your efforts become real.
Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of diving into a wide range of incredible projects, each one a result of the momentum I’ve been building in my business. This momentum didn’t happen overnight. It’s been three years of focused vision, continuous learning, and plenty of trial and error. And while the journey is far from over, the alignment I’ve found between my work, my vision, and the impact I aspire to make has been transformative.
In this 16th edition of Breakthrough Leadership, I’m thrilled to share 11 powerful insights on “Building Momentum” in Business and Leadership. These are lessons I've learned from real experiences - lessons I hope will inspire and empower you on your own leadership journey.
1. Momentum through Impact
Setting clear and measurable goals and regularly seeking feedback is critical to the success of any career or business. It ensures you are aligned, making good decisions, and taking actions which moves you in the right direction.
Feedback motivates you! It makes you want to continue doing what you're doing well and learn where you can to be even better. It inspires you want to do what you do with even more vigour, determination and creativity. It’s also important for your wellbeing to pause and acknowledge what you've done well.
For me receiving feedback on my training programmes validates that I’m going in the right direction and inspires me to continue on my journey.
I would encourage all leaders to create a feedback-rich culture, where acknowledging wins fuels motivation and reinforces momentum.
2. Momentum through Trust
This time last week I was running a Leadership and teambuilding workshop at the museum of land speed at Pendine Sands. It was certainly a memorable venue. Back in the 1920s several land speed records were made on the beach here by Malcolm Campbell.
The workshop aimed to support a group of leaders in the sports sector reset, reflect, and challenge their current thinking. Collaboration, communication and trust were at the centre of the activities.
Fostering trust within teams is a powerful way to unlock collaboration and teambuilding. If you are struggling to build trust here’s a couple of ideas:
Create a safe space where everyone feels like they have a voice and it’s listened to.
Build intimacy by tuning into other people in your team and understanding them better.
Enhance your credibility by demonstrating your skills, knowledge or expertise.
Show you are reliable by doing what you say you will do.
Trust is the bedrock of leadership momentum - so I encourage you to understand how much trust really exists in your team.
3. Momentum through Movements
Movements are a powerful way to amplify leadership momentum. By aligning individuals with shared values and goals amazing progress can be achieved.
Creating “movements” in local communities drives change and has got to be a good thing, particularly when talking about the sustainability of our planet and humankind.
Over the past 10 weeks I’ve been involved in delivering leadership training as part of Estu Global's Sustainable Business Manager Bootcamp programme in Hertfordshire. This programme is a great example of getting likeminded leaders together who want to learn and do something positive in society.
In this cohort we had Hertfordshire business leaders who are passionate about the environment and who want to learn and take collective action which has a positive impact.
I encourage all my readers to consider how they can leverage movements as platforms for knowledge exchange and impactful positive change.
4. Momentum through Action Learning
Post-learning or training engagement is crucial to embed learnings. Coming together to share experiences and jointly solve problems deepens learning and sustains momentum.
Over the past month I have run a number of “reconnect” and “action learning” sessions with different groups of leaders. These sessions have focused on embedding learnings in the workplace and building real momentum for the businesses involved.
It’s all well and good learning the theory, models and techniques – but you do need to practice using them effectively. Some of this can be done in training sessions with case studies, role-plays and specific tasks. However to create real impact back in the workplace requires more effort and often the support of colleagues and managers to make it happen.
Your network of colleagues is your support network and gives you energy and momentum. By sharing experiences, problem solving together and purposefully choosing the best course of action teams can super-charge performance. They accelerate and embed learnings and create real momentum for a business.
What always amazes me is how infrequently groups of commercial leaders in organisations get together. It often takes someone to organise and mobilise them. And when they do get together they suddenly realise the power they create as a group. They problem solve. They share. They bounce ideas around. They identify options and choices. They make better decisions. They take positive action.
I’d encourage all leaders and managers to create more moments to get together, peer coach, reconnect and action learn together in your organisation.
5. Momentum from High performance
A high performance culture can elevate team collaboration, decision-making and overall results. The compounding effect of small, consistent wins over time, will create high performance and commercial momentum.
How do you know when you are building a high performing team?
🎯 Everyone is committed to their personal growth & other's success.
🎯 Everyone has each other's backs and trusts one another.
😃 The team find the right moments to celebrate and have some fun.
Over the last month I have helped commercial leaders focus on how to build high performance in their teams by focusing on:
Fostering Collaboration: Developing trust, building connections, challenging one another constructively, committing to joint goals, taking responsibility and celebrating successes. And how to avoid becoming dysfunctional.
Performance Management: Planning, evaluating, improving & acknowledging the performance of individuals in your team. Balancing their needs with those of the organisation.
Decision Making: Using structured thinking processes to improve one’s ability to make reasoned decisions; and recognise decision biases.
Communication: creating engaging communication that is goal orientated, audience centric, structured, persuasive, influential and energising.
I encourage you to explore ways to build high performance in your team to boost your organisation's momentum.
"Mark did a wonderful job creating high value content that was engaging and easy to understand. Very useful, interesting, refreshing and well structured. Great connections, sharing of ideas, and application of techniques"
6. Momentum through Influence
Equipping young talent with influence and negotiation skills empowers them to lead with confidence. Leadership momentum often stems from the ability to inspire and persuade others.
Back in February I was involved in running workshops over a number of days to support young talent build momentum with their careers. We focused on understanding the fundamentals of influencing and negotiating skills in particular:
Stakeholders: taking control of who you need to engage with to progress your career.
Trust: being reliable, credible, intimate and orientating around others, not yourself.
Psychological Safety: creating an environment where everyone speaks up and feels heard.
Presentation Skills & Personal Impact: considering rapport, body language, voice and tone.
Storytelling: engaging audiences and making your message memorable.
Influence: Understanding the psychology of persuasion.
Negotiation: Practicing core negotiating skills including Batnas and Zopas.
I encourage you to develop the influencing skills of all the young talent in your organisation as it’s a critical business skill in most careers and industries.
7. Momentum from avoiding cognitive biases
Cognitive biases can distort a leader's perception of information. The consequences can significantly hinder decision-making, team dynamics and prevent momentum building in a team.
An unhealthy work environment with favouritism towards certain individuals or opinions means you will miss opportunities and make poor decisions.
If you are not sure what cognitive bias is here are a few examples which I’ve worked on with commercial leaders recently:
(1) Confirmation Bias: seeking out information that confirms existing beliefs and ignores alternative viewpoints.
(2) Recency Bias: placing too much importance on more recent events and ignoring longer term trends.
(3) Social Proof: going along with the views of those around you, particularly when there is uncertainty.
(4) Unconscious Bias: making decisions or judgements based on deep rooted beliefs, and not being aware that you are doing it.
Don’t underestimate the value of fostering self-awareness to counteract these biases and ensure leadership decisions align with organisational goals.
8. Momentum through Leadership
Great leaders build momentum by driving change and focusing on "doing the right things."
What is the difference between leadership and management? This question comes up on lots of management programmes I’m involved with. It's not straight forward because they do overlap and it can vary, but this definition sums it up nicely:
Management is "doing things right" & Leadership is "doing the right things".
If you want your business or organisation to succeed you definitely need to ensure you are doing the right things and going in the right direction.
This requires leadership and management.
You need leaders to raise their heads above the parapet and look at the bigger picture. These leaders need to be ‘agents of change’, balancing vision and execution, whilst inspiring their teams to focus in the right places.
Your managers need to focus on executing purpose-driven actions in the right way. They need the skills, expertise and knowledge to do their roles well. They need to be trusted and empowered. They need to be encouraged to push beyond the ‘status quo’ to grow.
If you get this balance right between leadership and management in your organisation you will almost certainly create momentum for everyone involved.
I encourage you to better understand how leadership and management show up in your business and if you’ve got the mix right to create momentum for your business.
9. Learning Momentum
Learning communities have a powerful ripple effect on innovation, growth and wellbeing.
Working with fellow leaders and sharing ideas energises individuals to push their boundaries and tackle new challenges.
Back in January I joined up with fellow associates from First Ascent Group to share new ideas, experiences and explore best practice in our industry. By doing this we are all ensuring our training & development continues to be "leading edge"?
It was really engaging day and the group showed great agility and teamwork changing location at the last minute due to flooding.
I encourage you all to prioritise continuous learning to keep leadership momentum alive in your organisation.
10. Winning deals to create commercial momentum
Organisational momentum is often dependent on the success of your sales teams to develop sustainable client relationships and win deals consistently.
It’s always wonderful to work with sales teams in person to develop their skills. Over the past months I run both virtual and face to face sessions with experienced sales leaders from across a range of global organisations.
Here are a few pointers to support value-driven sales and build long-term client engagement:
🎯 Create Trust because this ensures a deal gets done.
🎯 Influence stakeholders and drive actions which move deals forward.
🎯 Bring Insights which challenges the status quo to create real client value in deals.
🎯 Focus on the buying cycle not your sales cycle to tune into your customers and win more deals.
I encourage you to keep "sharpening the saws” of your sales teams, who are critical to the commercial momentum and success of your organisation.
11. Momentum through Energy and Impact
Every organisation has a unique team and group of leaders. Often these teams and leaders are on different career paths and need to develop different skills, capabilities and levels of confidence.
Bespoke leadership programmes are a great way to transform the development of your leaders and give them more confidence to optimise their impact for your business, and maximise their energy so they show up at their best more often. This often allows organisations to enhance their organisation’s leadership capabilities and build organisational momentum.
One of the programmes I’ve most enjoyed delivering over the past few years is my own bespoke “Breakthrough Leadership” Leadership Programme.
This is a bespoke programme typically aimed at SMEs which have ambitions to grow rapidly and where their leaders are under pressure to deliver and need specialist support. This phased programme starts by raising a leaders self-awareness (“Leading Self”), then explores what it takes to build high performance teams (“Leading Teams”) and finally focuses on transformational skills required to take an organisation to the next level (“Leading Organisations”).
Most of the time this involves building their leadership capabilities, which gives them the confidence to lead their teams more effectively. This improved confidence creates momentum for the organisation often improving performance.
I encourage leaders to prioritise self-care, team engagement, and strategic foresight as these will give you the keys to maintaining leadership momentum.
🙏 Thank you for reading this edition of Breakthrough Leadership.
As we’ve explored throughout this edition, momentum in leadership isn’t just about achieving progress — it’s about cultivating a mindset, building trust, driving action, and creating ripples of positive impact.
Whether it’s through influence, learning, collaboration, or overcoming challenges, the journey to building momentum is both deeply personal and profoundly collective.
💯 I'd love to hear what experiences have shaped your own leadership momentum? Which of these insights resonate most with you? Please share your perspectives, stories, and strategies.
💯 If you want to discuss any of these topics please get into touch:
email: mark@headsupandfreer.com
mobile: +44 7843 510858
website: www.headsupandfreer.com
Book a Leadership Call: www.calendly.com/headsupandfreer
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