Opinion piece by Yasmina Madafi, co-founder of La Nouvelle Agence
There has never been so much talk about leaders. And so little about those who work alongside them.
You only need to spend a few minutes on LinkedIn to realise just how central the figure of the leader has become to the corporate narrative. There, we discover their convictions, successes, doubts, failures, commitments, reading material and sometimes even their morning routines. They have become the face of their company, its voice, its embodiment and, increasingly, its primary channel of communication.
The phenomenon even has its own vocabulary: personal branding, thought leadership, executive visibility. Behind these terms lies an idea that has become almost unquestionable: for a company to have a presence in the public sphere, its leader must be visible.
Yet we are well placed to know that things are a little more complex.
At La Nouvelle Agence, we spend part of our days persuading leaders to speak out. We support them in crafting their message, their positioning and their media presence. We know just how much a genuine voice can build trust, shed light on a strategy and give meaning to a project.
And yet, we sometimes find ourselves thinking that certain leaders would benefit from letting others have their say more often.
Not because they have nothing interesting to say, but because they are not the only ones with a story to tell.
When the company becomes the story of a single person
Our era loves heroic figures. It loves visionary founders, daring entrepreneurs and charismatic leaders who, one day, are said to have had a brilliant idea before building their success single-handedly. These narratives are appealing because they are simple. They offer a central character, a journey and a story that is easy to remember.
They are also, quite often, rather far removed from reality.
For a business is never built alone, even when it bears the name or face of its founder. Behind every strategic decision, innovation or commercial success lie dozens of contributions – sometimes tiny, rarely spectacular, but absolutely crucial. An idea voiced in passing during a meeting, an objection that prevents a mistake, a shared intuition, patient work that turns an ambition into reality. And it is precisely these contributions that the contemporary corporate narrative tends to render invisible.
By constantly putting executives in the spotlight, we sometimes end up confusing the person who tells the success story with those who make it possible.
The problem is obviously not that executives are visible. The problem arises when this visibility becomes so central that it symbolically overshadows the work of everyone else. And when representation eventually turns into appropriation.
Personal branding, or the temptation of the ego
It would be all too easy to blame personal branding for all evils. Personal visibility can be a formidable tool for development, knowledge-sharing and influence. A committed, sincere and useful voice can benefit an entire organisation, open doors and help others understand what sets it apart.
But we must also recognise that the line between communication in the service of a project and communication in the service of oneself is sometimes quite fine.
At what point do we stop speaking on behalf of our company and start speaking about ourselves? When does the pursuit of visibility become an end in itself, disconnected from what we really wish to convey? And why do some leaders today seem to measure their influence more by the number of people who follow them than by the quality of the ideas they bring to the fore?
These are questions our profession should perhaps be asking itself more often.
For we, too, contribute to this ‘attention economy’. We know how to craft narratives, identify spokespersons and showcase personalities. But our responsibility is not merely to give visibility to those who wish to be seen. It also involves asking ourselves what truly deserves to be told – and by whom.
A leader can be an excellent spokesperson without becoming the central figure in every story.
Perhaps it is time to change the narrative
We are not arguing for the disappearance of leaders from the public sphere, nor for a form of compulsory modesty that would involve apologising for one’s success. Strong personalities have their place in organisations. They can inspire, lead, reassure and open up new perspectives. And certain individual words have considerable transformative power.
But we could learn to tell the story of success a little differently.
To talk more about teams, complementary skills, constructive disagreements, knowledge-sharing and all those contributions that fall outside heroic narratives. To recognise those who get things done rather than systematically celebrating those who simply embody a vision. To acknowledge that a strong organisation is also distinguished by its ability not to depend on a single individual.
This is also a challenge for communications professionals. We must continue to support leaders’ messaging, but without forgetting that our role is first and foremost to bring ideas to the fore, to create meaning and to build trust. Not simply to generate brand awareness.
Visibility is not an end in itself. It has value only when it serves a purpose that goes beyond itself.
Ultimately, the question is not whether leaders should speak out. Of course they can, and sometimes they must. The question is rather how much space they are prepared to give to others in the story they are telling.
For there is a fundamental difference between being the face of a company and considering oneself to be its centre.
A great leader may not be the one whose name everyone knows. It is the one who ensures that others do not need to know his name in order to exist.
