Growing dissatisfaction within large corporations appears to be largely attributable to two factors: a narrowing of managers’ vision and a loss of meaning in individual missions.
Conversely, SMEs (up to 60–80 employees) benefit from a major asset: visibility. The human scale of these structures fosters mutual acquaintance, tangible actions, and natural accessibility of managers.
This transparency allows everyone to locate their role, their mission, and that of their colleagues within the wider organisation. When the company produces tangible goods, this valorisation is amplified: the finished product is visible, naturally encouraging teams to take a step back to grasp the value chain in its entirety.
While large groups cannot replicate this organic proximity, they can compensate through strategic and authentic communication:
• Transparency and authenticity: Speak clearly, without condescension or corporate jargon, linking concrete issues to the global context.
• Consistency: Align actions with words at all hierarchical levels.
• Empowerment: Banish micromanagement and the dilution of responsibilities.
This last point is often misinterpreted. Management too frequently confuses risk management with excessive control. To put it simply: you do not make a good dish by counting the peas in the tin!
A worthy manager must know how to step back and assume their team’s errors, even when it means taking the hit. This form of courage, rarely “glamorous” and too often absent from modern management curricula, is nonetheless essential. Without it, a permanent sense of fear and a culture of doing the “bare minimum” spreads by capillary action down to the employees, who then hide behind directives, processes, and workflows to protect themselves.
Taking a step back also means looking far ahead, anticipating the future rather than dwelling heavily on past mistakes. While learning from error is vital, making it an obsessive doctrine is counterproductive.
Daily, simple gestures are too often neglected: knowing how to thank one’s teams, showing enthusiasm while remaining fair and authentic. Nothing is more demotivating than a leader seeking to appear respectable while shirking responsibility or avoiding decision-making.
Numerous studies confirm this: taking a step back in the professional environment does not serve to mask reality, but to give it meaning. It motivates troops, visualises the end goal of a cause, and, quite simply, allows teams to breathe.
Regaining this perspective means reconnecting with the company’s vision and strategy. This breath of fresh air is often the lever needed to achieve excellence and defuse debates that are sometimes sterile, even childish.
Happy reading and every success in your endeavours. .