Keys to Optimizing Management

“Be wary of consultants… but also know how to appreciate them at their true value!”
This is how François Humblot begins the preface to the book Voyage au Pays des Dirigeants (Journey to the Land of Leaders). This essay by Benoît Falque and Gérard Vaël invites us to revisit the role of managers through a fresh perspective on the consultant-leader relationship and offers new avenues for reflection and practical work to optimize management.
François Humblot:
“Be wary of consultants… but also know how to appreciate them at their true value!”
With my threefold experience as a leader of a recruitment firm, a human resources consultant for over forty years, and an elected member of professional organizations (*), I am well-placed to caution you. Being a former manager or executive is not enough to automatically become a consultant or coach. On the contrary, being truly useful and relevant to leaders and managers cannot be improvised. The roles of leader, advisor, and coach are distinct, and the professions differ. Some naturally seek consultants, while others do less so. Yet everyone needs to be accompanied at the right moment, especially on sensitive or high-stakes issues. Even though a leader is, by nature, alone in making decisions, the contribution and support of a carefully chosen third party questions, enriches, and reinforces decision-making. Choosing to be accompanied is a sign of intelligence and insight, not weakness. Top athletes have coaches precisely because they are pursuing excellence. The same applies to high-potential professionals.
The consultant’s profession is learned primarily through mentorship and shared experience. It relies on a service-oriented mindset, relational quality, and aspiration for continuous improvement.
A consultant must be able to:
Understand the client’s request and detect the implicit needs beyond it; analyze them;
Provide a calm space for reflection, fostering perspective and clarity;
Offer expertise simply and without arrogance, ensuring co-construction of the mission with the client;
Introduce new avenues, challenge conventions, and go further;
Change perspectives, shift from analysis to synthesis and vice versa, take a step back, and focus on key issues;
Distinguish between important and urgent, and place the essential at the heart of the important;
Understand the client’s culture to inspire actionable plans;
Communicate clearly and without pedantry;
Propose cooperative and creative problem-solving methods;
Balance expertise with stakeholder participation for successful and sustainable implementation;
Know when to say no and explain why.
A consultant must not:
Make decisions in place of the client;
Act like a teacher, provide ideas the client cannot adopt, or overestimate their capacities;
Treat clients without respecting their uniqueness;
Believe that a good solution is self-sufficient;
Recycle the same methods that worked in the past but are unsuitable for new contexts;
Impose processes that stifle initiative;
Serve management methods focused solely on profitability, which weaken team cohesion.
The seniority of a consultant ensures mastery, expertise, and legitimacy—provided it is not coupled with arrogance or overconfidence.
Similarly, leadership is not innate. Running a company and managing a team is an evolving art. Technical knowledge may be necessary but is far from sufficient. Many executives are technical experts yet unprepared for leadership. Leading projects and people requires distinct skills. Intellectual honesty, humility, and self-reflection give leaders a significant edge. Observing facts, detecting weak signals, managing uncertainty, surrounding oneself with the right people, listening, and making decisions are all factors of success.
Finally, the coach differs from the consultant: they do not deliver methods or solutions. Instead, they provide a framework and support that enable the client to unlock their potential and construct their own approach, methods, and solutions. Both consulting and coaching are skills that must be learned; they are different but complementary.
Choosing a consultant is an intimate, mutual decision.
A strong bond must be built to achieve maximum effectiveness. Trust is essential—not only for optimizing the leader-consultant or leader-coach relationship but also for successful management. Humanistic leaders who leverage trust can mobilize their teams toward shared objectives. The key? Stay aware and clear-headed. This empowers initiative and fosters innovation, as centralized, hierarchical management shows its limits in an interdependent world. Delegation and autonomy are increasingly necessary.
To learn more and order the book:
https://www.benoitfalque-consultants.com/voyage-au-pays-des-dirigeants/