High Performance Leaders Manage Their Egos

Does your ego ever get in the way?

Leaders do need healthy egos. We must demonstrate belief, confidence, and assurance. All of that requires healthy self-esteem that allows us to stand up to resistance and push thru difficulty. It's possible, though, for that self-esteem to turn into self-aggrandizement if we're not careful.

How can we manage our egos? The best way I know is by developing the kinds of strong, open, honest relationships with people that allow others to provide feedback. Have a friend who is willing to tell you when your ego is bloated or your assumptions are presumptuous. Develop the resilience and resolve to realize that, gasp! you are not always right. Especially when we begin operating fast and relentlessly the safety valve of honest people keeps us out of trouble.

Also, everyone we deal with has an ego. Our team members, our customers, our bosses. Egos are everywhere and whether they are confident or hesitant we deal with them in the middle of working on our projects and goals.

Leaders deal with too many egos to allow their own ego to get in the way.

Today, my advice to myself is: do yourself a favor -- find ways to manage your own ego and then everyone else's egos become much more manageable.

What do you think?

-- doug smith

Comments

Connect With Respect

It's the start of a better, deeper, more productive conversation. It's the small effort to make a big impression in establishing relationship. Connect with respect. You don't have to love the person you're interacting with (although, wouldn't that help?) but if you make the effort to demonstrate respect whatever you have to share will land with more credibility. It is a leadership strength. Connect with respect. Smile. Make eye contact. Listen. Honor customs, traditions, even organizational hierarchy. The choice of course is up to you. It's a very personal choice to connect with respect. If you make that choice, I think you will like the results. -- doug smith PS: I didn't expect to use a picture featuring a horse for this posting but when I saw it there was a deep feeling a respect showing. Action Step: Find a picture that represents respect for you and for a week, keep it close enough to look at it for a bit every day.

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Every problem leads to an outcome. Some you want and some you definitely do not want. You're going to prefer the outcomes of the problems you solve. Don't you think so? -- doug smith

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What looks like the root cause of a problem may have roots of its own. Keep digging. The rush to solve may leave things unresolved. -- doug smith

Instant Coach

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Maybe your goals are assigned to you from someone else. If you have a job, that's probably true about many of your goals. But in the end, isn't it really up to you? What you do, when you do it, how you do it, no matter how formalized the process you are still involved and deciding. You define your goals and you define when those goals are done. Finish what you started, or kiss that goal goodbye. -- doug smith

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