The manual steering column was a helm control option aboard some starships, that resembled an antique joystick. It was capable of providing fine control when precision was a less important factor than fast reaction times.
NX-class starships employed manual steering columns for performing exacting maneuvers. (ENT: "Minefield", "The Expanse")
The Sovereign-class Enterprise-E had a manual steering column that allowed the conn to manually control helm functions if the need arose. (Star Trek: Insurrection)