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A leader’s true power is not revealed in their decisions… but in the tensions they dare to face.

A leader’s strength does not lie solely in vision or charisma. It comes above all from the people around them: their executive committee, their teams, their family, their friends. These are the people who give meaning to decisions, challenge ideas, and provide support when complexity rises.

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I met Pascal more than thirty years ago, when I was studying at Supélec. On the very first day of school, two strangers who quickly discovered they shared the same ambition: to succeed and to be happy. We were different, but we shared a common reality: little family support, an immense desire to move forward, and the conviction that we could become better, together.

This friendship changed our lives.

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Your business is not limited to generating profits. As a leader, your role is also to contribute to making the world a better place.

When Elon Musk announces he wants to send humans to Mars, many smile or dismiss it. Yet, beyond opinions about this ambition, that vision enables him to attract the best engineers in the world to tackle a challenge considered impossible today.

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Whether you’re leading a small business or a start-up, as the founder or CEO, the key person… is you.

Giuliano da Empoli at MEDEF: as he pointed out, it’s a first. An author and political advisor drawing a full house of business leaders that’s unheard of.

International geopolitics is now more than ever emerging as a key area of interest for executives.

We often hear that great leaders are rational, strategic, and make fact-based decisions. But in reality, our brain can become our worst enemy: just look at politicians and their biases about power, money, or sex…

Let’s be clear: who among us can truly say they’re making the most of artificial intelligence? I’m not hiding it, I use it, but I know I’m still far from fully leveraging its potential. And that’s the challenge.

“ What got you here will not get you there! “

You’ve probably already heard this phrase from the book by renowned coach Marshall Goldsmith, which I like to translate as: "Update our success strategies."

Personal photo – with Étienne Klein at the Centrale Supélec alumni book fair.

If I had to take away just one lesson from 2024, it would be this quote from Gianni Versace: “Find the right balance between lightness and depth.”

According to Yuval Noah Harari, what makes humans unique is their ability to tell themselves stories, and to believe in them. Neuroscience research increasingly supports this idea. It is therefore essential to become aware of the stories we tell ourselves so that we can choose those that help us be happy and achieve our goals.

How can we embrace uncertainty? In truth, we have no choice! The world is VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) or BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, and Incomprehensible). To better adapt, we need to prepare ourselves to live with long-term uncertainty.

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AI is brilliant as long as we use it wisely and critically to boost our performance in many tasks. The notion of intelligence has many facets, each better suited to specific situations, as Daniel Goleman showed in 1995 when he popularized the concept of emotional intelligence.

Is your leadership more results-oriented or process-driven? Most likely, it’s the balance between the two that will help your organization grow.

In her article “The builder’s mindset: a way out of the ‘drill sergeant’ / ‘Zen master’ dichotomy,” Dr. Gena Gorlin presents a management approach based on finding balance between the “achiever” (what she calls the drill sergeant) and the process-focused leader (what she calls the Zen master).

Do you take the time to listen to your own needs and those of your loved ones?
As a child, I made the decision that I would never let myself feel frustrated again and that I would always stay attuned to my needs, after observing someone close to me who consistently ignored theirs.
So I learned to do it, and with great success.

Long live healthy narcissism: we are constantly transforming, and it’s essential to calibrate that transformation using objective measurement tools.

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Taking time to reflect strategically on your relationship and career is a game-changer!

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Are female leaders less competitive than men?
In fact, there is no clear consensus on this issue, as attitudes and behaviors can vary greatly depending on company culture, social norms, or individual characteristics.

In a world where coopetition reigns, our competitors can also be our partners: just look at Apple and Samsung. Coopetition, a term that blends the ideas of cooperation and competition, is the art of collaborating with your competitors in a spirit of mutual benefit.

Breathing better impacts our brain and transforms our life! Improving our breathing plays a crucial role in our ability to learn, remember, and manage emotions. Yogis have known this for millennia, and neuroscience is increasingly proving it.

Photo of my new offices, Paris 3rd arrondissement

If I take away one learning from 2023, it is this phrase by Camus: " To name well is key. "