Finance can do extraordinary things. It has the power to fuel innovation, structure progress and allocate resources where they are most needed. But it can also destroy. It can fuel disparity, and feed vanity and pride.
Why is that? It certainly doesn’t lie in the means themselves, but in the consciousness of those who use them. Having spent over 20 years in finance, I have come to this clear, uncompromising truth: We will not build the economy of tomorrow with the inner unhealed wounds of yesterday.
Today’s challenges are not just technical. They are existential. They call for a different kind of leadership – one that is not only strategic, but integrated. We speak of governance, risk, performance, impact. But rarely do we speak of what truly governs the ones who govern. Rarely do we dare to ask : who is really sitting at the decision table – the aligned self or the wounded self?
In Jungian psychology, every human being carries both masculine and feminine energies – known as the animus and the anima. These are not gendered identities, but deep inner archetypes. The animus acts, structures, defends. The anima receives, senses, connects. When they are in balance, we lead with clarity and creativity. When they are split, we oscillate between control and confusion.
In business and particularly in finance, the masculine has often been overdeveloped: action, logic, domination, efficiency. Meanwhile, the feminine – intuition, care, presence – has been repressed or dismissed as “soft”. The result? We build systems that are fast, but not wise. We scale companies that perform, but do not feel. We create leaders who deliver, but do not connect.
I recently launched a new podcast series : “From Within”, not as a coaching offer, but as a call to leaders, founders, investors and changemakers who know, deep down, that something essential is missing.
It’s not about doing more. It’s about becoming whole again. About reconnecting the invisible circuits of meaning, sensitivity and coherence that silently shape every decision.
This is not mysticism. This is realism.
The next wave of leadership won’t come from outside models. It will rise from those who dare to go within – and lead from that place. We can no longer afford to see introspection as a luxury. In a world where change is the new normal, self-awareness is a form of economic resilience.
Finance has the power to transform our economies. But it will only do so sustainably if we accept this simple, demanding truth :
There is no profound transformation without inner reconciliation.
Not just between people. But within each of us.
This article was published in the 6th edition of Forbes Luxembourg magazine.
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