In 2026, the French entrepreneur no longer fights only against competition or the vagaries of the market. He fights against a diffuse feeling: “Great Fatigue”. It’s a weariness that can’t be cured by a week’s vacation, but by a total overhaul of the way we conceive of power, responsibility and vulnerability.
The weight of the invisible
If we look at the figures from the Amarok Observatory, specializing in the physical and mental health of self-employed workers, the observation is striking: more than a third of managers report experiencing a state of chronic stress. However, in economic circles, the word “burn-out” often remains a taboo, a weakness unworthy of the person who carries the vision of the company.
Why is this fatigue so different from yesterday? Because uncertainty has become our default environment. Pandemic, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical crises, volatile energy costs… the manager is no longer just the one who decides. He has become a “shock absorber” for his teams. This mental load, invisible and permanent, ends up wearing down the strongest foundations.
The mirage of the invincible leader
French managerial culture, heir to a long tradition of pyramidal hierarchy, has long valued the “rock” leader. The one who never doubts, the one who always has an answer, the one who moves forward with his head held high when everything falls apart.
But this model is running out of steam. “Teams are no longer looking for superheroes, they are looking for clarity and authenticity”. After coming close to exhaustion last year, he radically changed his approach. “I stopped pretending I had control over every variable in the equation. The day I told my colleagues: ‘I don’t know exactly how we’re going to get through this quarter, but we’re going to do it together,’ the climate changed. They felt involved, not just performers. »
Herein lies the pivot: the shift from controlling to vulnerable leadership.
Vulnerability: a new strategic weapon
Far from being a sign of weakness, the ability to accept uncertainties has become the most powerful talent retention lever of 2026. In a job market where the quest for meaning takes precedence over salary, employees do not want to serve a performance machine. They want to join human adventures led by human beings.
Rethinking leadership means accepting three realities:
- The right to doubt: A business leader who expresses his questions opens the door to collective intelligence. If the leader has all the answers, no one is looking for solutions.
- The deconstruction of the permanent emergency: Uncertainty often leads to frenzied reactivity. However, true leadership sometimes consists of knowing how to say: “We are waiting to have a clear vision before acting”. It’s a luxury, but above all it’s a necessity to preserve the mental health of the organization.
- Manager’s hygiene: You cannot run a resilient business while being in a state of disruption yourself. Disconnection, sport, peer support networks, where we leave masks, are no longer ancillary activities, but pillars of the company’s strategy.
Towards a culture of shared resilience
Of course, “Great Fatigue” will not be resolved by a few posture adjustments. The French economic system must also evolve. We must rethink our management frameworks, automate administrative tasks without added value to free up time for reflection, and above all, get away from the dogma of growth at all costs which exhausts resources as much as people.
The future belongs to leaders who will be able to transform their company into a place where performance does not come at the expense of people. It takes courage. The courage to slow down when everything calls for speeding up, the courage to ask for help when everything requires you to appear strong, and the courage to, well, just be yourself.
In times of storm, we don’t ask the captain to be a robot insensitive to waves. He is asked to be present, lucid and aware that his crew is his most precious asset. “Great Fatigue” may just be a warning sign. A cry from reality which reminds us that the company is not an accounting abstraction: it is a community of destinies. And to bring it to life, it is time to put humans back at the center of the cockpit.
