My Learnings from 2024
“ To be superficial you have to be profound.“
Gianni Versace
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.”
On the lighter side, one of my biggest achievements this year was beating, for the first time, my table tennis coach who has been training me since 2020. Usually, I lose 11-3 almost every time. My ambition for 2025? To beat him at least three times!
2024 was, of course, a complex year. The benefits of the huge success of the Paris Olympics were quickly overshadowed by geopolitical tensions, political chaos, and general fatigue facing the increasing difficulty of carrying out our professional projects and succeeding in our businesses.
Sleep and breathing
Maintaining high-quality sleep is becoming a key skill again. I now use a smart watch to measure my sleep quality and adjust my feelings based on the data it provides.
Moreover, the book Breath by James Nestor is a treasure trove of information and encourages me even more to breathe consciously. Now, I chew more (thanks to special chewing gums) and sleep with tape over my mouth to encourage nasal breathing.
In 2025, I’m switching to a smart ring!
The augmented man with AI
Thanks to AI, I am becoming an augmented man, coach, and supervisor. I use it to improve my sleep, health, supplements, dream analysis, and coaching.
I had fun asking it to create a strategic board with Elon Musk, Clint Eastwood, Bill Campbell (The trillion-dollar coach), and Taylor Swift—each, in their own way, an inspiring role model. Their advice boils down to three key points:
Authenticity
Building an engaged community
Continuing to reinvent myself
This year, I will focus on points 1 and 2. If you have ideas on how to do this, I’m all ears! As for point 3, it is already an integral part of my daily life.
Progress rather than innovation
Étienne Klein reminds us that what we need is not so much innovation as a positive vision of the future, which we can call progress.
Unfortunately, ecology seems to interest only activists... Not liking lost causes, I am becoming more and more of a techno-ecologist, hoping that technology will help us better manage these challenges. I don’t plan to go to Mars, but rather to strengthen my resilience to climate issues, pesticides, and others—and to use technology to stay healthy.
Crisis management
Back to the basics of crisis management: refocus on essentials, protect yourself from bad news, and learn to manage optimism over the long term. I will publish a dedicated post on this in the coming weeks.
Strategic organizational coaching
In 2024, I carried out many missions in organizational coaching, executive committee coaching, and strategic coaching. The world pushes us so much toward more and faster (thanks Harmut Rosa) that taking time to reflect on long-term strategy is key to staying aligned. I therefore chose a strategic coach myself who helped me gain perspective and refocus my missions where I truly want to go. The result: I attracted exactly the missions that interest me, where my ambition and that of my clients is to create a subculture in which the values enacted in management and leadership align with the values of the represented brand.
Art and patronage
Making time for art and patronage—or at least some activity around sensitivity and aesthetics—is key to staying positive. With my youngest daughter, aged 7, we created a beautiful custom UFO (O.V.I.) thanks to the exceptional talent of Aleksandar Petrovic.
Looking back, these learnings from 2024 have allowed me to continue transforming myself both personally and professionally. They have also given me a clearer vision for the future—a progress that is both tangible and inspiring.
Thank you all for reading and for your very enriching feedback (feedback is a gift). Special thanks to the Be&Lead team for their commitment, as well as to all our clients who have trusted us for nearly 25 years in some cases.
I wish you a 2025 full of learning, transformation, and of course health, love, sharing, and joy!
With passion, your strategic coach,
Gilles
#transformation #executivecoaching #organization #leadership