The loneliness of the CEO – an article by Ivan Reusse for Le Monde Économique
24.04.2026
We often talk about strategy, growth, and innovation. We talk much less about what leaders actually experience. And yet, one observation keeps coming up, across very different contexts: leading an SME today has become an exercise in solitude. Not a visible kind of solitude, but a silent, diffuse, almost structural one.
The CEO is everywhere. Constantly solicited, expected on all fronts, exposed to intertwined human, financial, technological, and organizational challenges. They are the one who must decide when things are unclear, arbitrate when tensions rise, reassure when uncertainty sets in. And at the same time, they have fewer and fewer opportunities to truly think. They act, respond, absorb—but rarely take the time to step back.
An industrial CEO recently shared with me: “I have a strong team, but I feel like I’m the only one who sees the real issues. I can’t say everything to my employees—I have to reassure them. I can’t say everything to my board—I have to stay in control. The result: I think alone… and I often decide alone.” This situation is far from isolated. Many leaders are surrounded, but few are truly supported in their thinking. The network exists, but the space for meaningful challenge and exchange of ideas is gradually disappearing.
This solitude is not just uncomfortable—it is risky. The decisions to be made are increasingly complex, cross-functional, and uncertain. Yet they still very often rely on a single individual, under time pressure, with an inevitably partial view. The issue is not so much getting it wrong. The real risk lies in the accumulation of decisions made under pressure, without sufficient distance. Over time, clarity blurs, decision fatigue sets in, and a form of strategic isolation emerges.
Faced with this, some leaders are evolving. Not by working more, nor by multiplying meetings—but by changing the way they operate. They deliberately recreate space to think. They accept not carrying the reflection alone. They structure their ability to step back.