10 Ways Ego Hinders Your Success
editor@leaderonomics.com
A big ego always thinks that the problem is someone else.
Ten ways ego hinders your success:
1. Over-values itself and under-values the team
2. Feels nagging frustration with others but satisfaction with itself
3. Believes others need development but seeks affirmation for itself
4. Sees the weaknesses of others as gross offenses but personal weaknesses are incidental inconveniences
5. Needs MORE gratitude, MORE appreciation, MORE recognition, or MORE praise. You know you’re egotistical when you always feel under-appreciated.
6. Views luck as the reason others succeed and hard work as the cause of personal success
7. Enjoys offering unrequested improvements to the ideas and work of others. Ego always knows better.
8. Refuses to adapt but expects others to adjust. Ego doesn’t play well with others unless it can make all the rules.
9. Demands immediate gratification and expects others to wait. Ego is impatient.
10. Acts with impatience toward others.
Ego does its own thing, but in a world where everyone does their own thing, symphony is cacophony.
The Cure
1. Know there is no permanent cure for arrogance. Thinking otherwise is arrogant.
2. Get a humility partner. The development of humility ALWAYS requires others. The more you pull away, the greater the threat of ego-inspired blindness.
3. Explore disconfirming input while silencing the need for self-justification or blame. Humility says, “Tell me more.” Sentences that begin with, “That’s because,” generally end with self-justification.
4. Be open with failures and frailties. Show up to tell a failure story. Yes, look for opportunities to tell people how you failed and what you learned.
5. Brag about the people on your team to others. Better yet, let people hear you bragging to others about them.
To live for something bigger than yourself is NOT to simply live for self.
Dan Rockwell is a coach and speaker and is freakishly interested in leadership. He is the author of a world-renowned leadership blog, Leadership Freak. To get in touch with Dan, write to us at editor@leaderonomics.com.
Reposted with permission.
Leadership
This article is published by the editors of Leaderonomics.com with the consent of the guest author.
