I knew parts of Sarah de Lagarde’s story before I walked into her session at the AESC Global Conference. But hearing her share it herself—calm, direct, and completely grounded—was something else entirely. The room went still in that way it only does when people understand they’re about to hear something important.
Sarah’s journey is one of shock and loss, but also of discipline, innovation, and purpose. And her message wasn’t abstract or motivational. It was practical:
Resilience is a muscle. You train it.
Alongside her talk, a visual sketch of her journey captured the milestones and mindset shifts that shaped her recovery. It illustrated not just what she lived through, but how she thought her way through it.
Before her accident, Sarah was the Global Head of Communications at Janus Henderson Investors—a high-pressure role that required calm under fire, global coordination, and strategic decision-making. She’s also an avid climber. In August 2022, she summited Mount Kilimanjaro.
Five weeks later, on a rainy September evening, she slipped on the platform at High Barnet station on the London Underground and was struck by two trains—an accident so rare and so devastating that doctors later described her survival as a miracle. She lost her right arm above the elbow and her right leg below the knee.
She shared this moment without dramatics. Just clarity.
And then she shared the first real decision she remembers making afterward:
“Every morning you choose: dark or light.”
That choice became the first rep in building her resilience muscle.
Sarah returned to work four months after the accident. She didn’t frame it as heroism. She framed it as support:
Colleagues who kept saying, “You can do this.”
A company that gave her space to return with dignity.
A structure of care that made her recovery possible.
In a room full of executive search professionals and leadership advisors, this point landed:
Strength is never a solo performance.
One of the most striking parts of Sarah’s story is how seamlessly she blends human resilience with technological adaptation.
She uses an advanced bionic arm powered by AI and electrodes that interpret muscle signals—reducing the delay between thought and movement. She joked that she is now “80% human, 20% robot,” but the reality is profound: her recovery is not just physical and emotional, but technological.
Her second climb up Kilimanjaro, completed in August 2024, made her the first woman to summit with both a prosthetic arm and leg. She trained intensively, not just physically but cognitively—learning how to integrate her prosthetics into her pace, her breath, and her balance.
She spoke about how this overlaps with leadership development: the discipline to recalibrate, the patience to adapt, and the ability to integrate new tools without losing yourself in the process.
Her Kilimanjaro climb wasn’t only personal. She partnered with STAND, a charity supporting amputees in conflict zones and developing countries. She visited a rehabilitation center in Moshi, Tanzania, meeting other amputees and highlighting the global gap in access to care.
Helping others became another rep in her resilience training.
As she said:
“When something breaks your life apart, sometimes the most stabilizing thing you can do is look outward.”
One of her most honest reflections was about what she calls “summit syndrome.” You reach a goal—sometimes one you didn’t even think you’d survive long enough to see—and then you’re left with the quiet question:
Now what?
For Sarah, the answer was the Arctic.
It’s her “third mountain.”
Her next rep.
And it reminded everyone in the room that growth doesn’t end at accomplishment. It begins again.
Her talk wasn’t just a story. It was a framework.
As compelling as Sarah’s story is, it also reflects a broader shift we’re seeing across executive leadership globally.
Across AESC member firms and within BlueSteps, there’s a clear pattern emerging:
The leaders who thrive today aren’t the ones with the hardest edge — they’re the ones with the strongest recovery capacity.
Boards and search committees are increasingly evaluating executives on:
Resilience isn’t being treated as character anymore.
It’s being treated as a capability — one that can be examined, strengthened, and supported.
Sarah’s experience makes this shift visible and human. She embodies what leadership will require in the next decade: not perfection, but adaptability; not stoicism, but intentional recovery; not independence, but interdependence.
If you want to apply Sarah’s insights to your own leadership, here are three questions worth asking:
These reflections turn inspiration into action.
BlueSteps members—senior executives, board candidates, C-suite leaders—navigate complexity every day. Sarah’s philosophy aligns perfectly with the work we do: building resilience, expanding capacity, and helping leaders redefine their next chapter.
Her story reinforces what we see across global leadership:
And resilience?
It’s trained, one choice at a time.
Resilience is trained through action. If you’re ready to strengthen your leadership path, navigate a transition, or explore new opportunities, BlueSteps offers the coaching, tools, and global network to help you take the next step.
Start building your next summit with BlueSteps.
Most executives think the recruiter-candidate relationship works like a job board: you submit, they review, you hear back. It almost never works that way at
A conversation with executive search consultant José Ruiz of Alder Koten on how board expectations have shifted, why most outreach fails, and what actually gets
