We believed the leaders locked up in their offices, protected from the realities on the ground by a reassuring hierarchy. However, a recent trend, nourished by the challenges of transformation, makes the lines move: the bosses take up the blouse. They come out of strategic abstraction to reconnect with the concrete, by going to the front line operations, teams, customers. And this return to the field is not anecdotal: many post-2024 studies emphasize how this immersion is a silent but powerful lever for transformation.
Continuous transformation or healing invisible wounds?
“Transformation has become second nature according to PwC” And the leaders know that they will not be able to write a plan in an office and hope that the teams carry it blindly. These transformations work better when they are anchored in the reality experienced by employees from the start. In other words, to support a change, it is better to experiment in real conditions, not to pilot it from a PowerPoint.
Large changes (AI, ESG, Digitalization, etc.) bring the bosses to admit that really effective decisions are based on field observations, and not only on data or projections.
Confidence, skills and cohesion: invisible profits
A KPMG study – CEO Outlook 2024 – reveals that despite resilient confidence in the future, leaders are aware that their ability to conduct transformation is often insufficient. 75 % of them do not feel ready to carry out a complex transformation involving AI, ESG or geopolitical disturbances.
In this context, taking over the blouse in the field becomes a way of relearn leadership through direct experience. By going to listen, observe and get in touch with the teams, they rebuild, beyond technical skills, a relationship of trust and mutual understanding.
Land and transformation: a strategic connection
Being on the ground is not just going to see more closely what does not work. It is also to seize weak signals, anticipate resistance, and detect the opportunities that no one has formalized. PwC also insists that too formal transformations (abstract plans, by silos) are often exhausted. On the contrary, a successful transformation is “Out of the box”anchored in experience, as close as possible to real needs.
The leaders thus seek to recalibrate their vision: to celebrate the “Quick Wins”, to reveal the deaf frustrations, to understand the behavior, to identify the real speeds of implementation. This return makes it possible to correct the trajectories in real time rather than confirming not very viable axes.
Emotional intelligence and strategic resilience
Faced with challenges such as the introduction of AI, the balance between agility, digital security and value creation is delicate. Managers are aware of the risk of rushed decisions, under FOMO (Fear of Missing Out, editor’s note) syndrome but seek to rely on decisions supported by the field.
In the field, they test the tools, measure reactions, choose more sustainable orientations. In fact, this posture makes it possible to strengthen strategic resilience and to confront the choices with their beam of concrete consequences on security, on the workload or on corporate culture.
Mobilize teams differently
The KPMG Outlook 2024 CEO also shows that 83 % of managers provide a complete return to the office within three years, against only 64 % in 2023. This physical return to the office, coupled with informal return to the field, weaves a local posture. The leader ceases to be distant to become an actor of everyday life.
This human contact acts as a cement: it revitalizes cohesion, reassures the teams, stimulates mobilization. When a leader takes the time to listen, to discover the daily constraints, he sends a strong message: I am here to understand, not only to order.
Bringing strategy and reality closer: Immersion learning
The major challenges of today (digital transformation, environmental impact, integration of AI, ESG governance in particular) are not only settled in reflection cells. They are embodied on the ground. And the bosses who understand it best are those who agree to confront the operational.
They reposition themselves as pivots between vision and reality. They observe how the procedures apply, how teams react to the IA tool, how the ESG impact is perceived among employees. This immersion reveals what works, what is stuck, what is transmitted or not (essential information to conduct a lasting transformation).
A culture of the learning leader
Thus, the return to the field redefines leadership: it is no longer just governing, but learning permanently. In a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous), the humility of a leader who listens, understands, corrects, becomes a strategic force.
We leave the posture of “knowing” for that of guide, observer, facilitator. And in this space, the company is transformed not by imposed decisions, but by a collective movement which starts from the concrete and rises towards the strategic.
