We all need walking sticks — including leaders

It took me twenty years as CHRO to accept my first walking stick. Two weeks ago, in the Aravis mountains: late summer sun, and me exhausted before even starting — wondering where I would find the energy for three hours of steep ascent.

The sticks that carry what your legs no longer can

The sticks carried what my legs could no longer carry alone. Less energy lost with each step. An unexpected lightness all the way to the top.

A memory came back — exactly five years earlier, to the day. I was not well. I could feel I had reached the end of twenty years as CHRO and executive committee member, terrified at the idea of leaving everything to start again from nothing.

The sticks that kept me standing

Different sticks held me upright at that moment: sticks to keep me from collapsing on the days when doubt took over entirely, sticks to help me say out loud what I had never been able to formulate. That is what allowed me to launch Manentiel in January 2022.

I sometimes think I would have avoided many sleepless nights and stressful periods if I had accepted sticks earlier. Those same experiences — gained on rocky paths, steep climbs, and dead ends — are what I can now share when I become, for a given period, the walking stick of a leader.

A stick does not walk for you

A stick does not walk for you. Some support, others help you cross a threshold you thought impassable, others simply keep you from falling on the way down. You change sticks depending on the terrain. You put them away when you no longer need them. Sometimes you fall even with them.

And that is fine.

I play this role daily — this week again for a CEO whose reflexes, which had driven his success for twenty years, had stopped working. He found his footing again, grounded in his own talents. I know that one day he will no longer need my sticks. That is exactly as it should be.

And you — what are you giving up because you have not yet accepted the right pair of sticks?

To find your pair of sticks, discover the Manentiel sparring partner programme at manentiel.com.