Ego - Where Does it Fit In?

Just check out my book list and you’ll see that I’ve spent lots of time reading all types of books on management and leadership.  The main focus of many of these books is that people are a business’s greatest asset.  The real focus of many books on management involves understanding people; what motivates them and why they behave the way they do.  So that brings me to the subject of today’s blog entry; Ego.

The fact of the matter is that our ego is a motivating factor in our lives; it’s about the view we have of ourselves, and how we believe we are perceived by others.  Our ego runs deep inside of us and it drives our relationships. 

Have you ever met someone that has an inflated ego?  Dealing with someone like that leaves us with the thought that they are selfish and uncaring about the people around them.  Then you meet others that, for whatever reasons, have a view of themselves as inferior.  That extreme self-deprecating behavior is annoying too.

So let’s try to discover what a healthy ego really is, especially in relation to leadership.

I always tell people that when they come to work, they should leave their ego at the door.  We all know, of course, that our ego is part of us; it’s an inseparable part of who we are.  The problems in organizations occur when people’s what’s in it for me (WIIFM) feelings take precedence over the purpose of the organization.  Every organization has some purpose, some mission, and some reason for doing what they do.  Defining the reason that an organization is in existence is what we call a culture. 

Building a culture that people can buy into is the challenge of every organizational leader.  When the focus of that culture is shallow, like make profits for the stockholders, employees and other stakeholders don’t feel as if their contribution is worthwhile, and those feelings of WIIFM take over.  On the other hand, when the culture is defined in terms of people first, where customers/consumers are the focus, great things can happen.  The funny thing about organizations that define themselves first by people and then by money are that they make money anyway!  Richard St. John says it best in his book Eight to be Great; “Serve others something of value, because that is the way people truly get rich”.

So, a healthy ego involves caring about yourself AND others.  And when an organizational culture is built on a mentality of service, most people step up to the challenge, and overinflated egos become less of a problem. 

It’s the challenge of all organizational leaders to build an overarching culture that compels people toward a true mentality of service.  When you create that environment, the processes and mechanics involved in the operation have meaning, and people now can associate processes with results. 

It is a formula that works!