Showing leadership, while transferring and sharing knowledge with others

“Being a leader does not mean forcing your employees to follow a predetermined path. My role rather consists in providing all the tools and raw materials needed so my collaborators and I can define the path to follow together. This way, everyone can feel fully involved.”

It is important to mention that Edouard’s career at OneChocolate – where he filled every position before becoming its Managing Director – has truly shaped his vision of teamwork. Always close to his colleagues in the field, he goes back and forth between prospecting for new clients, management, human resources, and customer relations. He knows how to surround himself with skilled collaborators and tries to make the most of everyone’s talents. His evolution within the agency enables him to assess the needs of his team and to give efficient guidelines in order to serve customers as well as possible.

This protean aspect of his job has led Edouard to overcome a few pitfalls, ranging from the difficulties to prioritise equally urgent tasks to the regret – shared by so many others – that time is not elastic… except when we don’t need it to be! His professional ambition is to make OneChocolate evolve and try to make the best contribution possible to an ever changing PR industry. As he aptly describes himself: “I am an ingenuous person who aims to do great things.”

This self-confessed Candide, passionate about computers, literature, board games, and painting, is mainly inspired by the painter Jackson Pollock, the fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett, the yachtswoman Tracy Edwards, and the genius who invented sliced bread. He began studying communications through computer science and network building before turning to press relations in the Tech industry. Having spent a significant part of his youth between Reunion Island, South Africa, and all around France, Edouard has developed many qualities that help him in his daily activities, among which a natural curiosity for others and elsewhere, a command of the English language, as well as a willingness to understand the differences between cultures.

His interest in others fuels his desire to share, and he does his best to strengthen the bonds between his collaborators, adopting an approach where benevolence plays a cardinal role. Being a nature lover fond of open spaces who deeply cares about the preservation of the environment, his bicycle has therefore become his best “partner-in-crime” when it comes to commuting or travelling. Moreover, as a member of 1% for the Planet, Edouard decided to donate 1% of OneChocolate’s turnover to environmental NGOs. His ideal persona would be one of a “popularizer”, a person capable to make complex concepts accessible to a wider audience without distorting them.

Quotes

  • How do I see today’s business world?

Because our world has become so complex, it is important for a company to make sure it has the right support and the right tools to reach the right people at the right time.

  • One of the most magical moments of my life?

I was on a racing yacht, off the Cap Corse. The night was dark and moonless. While my teammates were resting, and I was at the helm, alone, focused on the boat’s progress to win this long-distance regatta. Out of the blue, I heard a strange noise. Was it a reef? Or an unregistered Unidentified Floating Object? I was worried, so I immediately prepared to change the boat’s trajectory to avoid a possible collision. Yet, as a sound like a geyser broke the silence, I felt reassured: a whale had decided to swim along our boat for a while. Even though the darkness was too deep to make out anything but a huge darker mass on the sea, sailing with this whale by my side for more than an hour turned this solitary watch into a memorable and breathtaking moment.

 

 

A portrait by Benjamin Mallais