Leadership 101: EGO, SCHMEGO

[ROFCB Commander 664]

Today is Day Fifteen of the twenty-day "Leadership 101" series I'll be posting. This series expresses my thoughts on some topics important to the successful leadership of a local unit, and asks other unit leaders to post their thoughts, ideas, and experiences on the same subject in hopes that together we can help those who are starting from scratch with unit-building.

 

Today, we're going to talk about ego and what place (if any) it has in your unit and your commanders.

 

A fellow I have come to admire for his leadership and his accomplishments in life has this to say about ego:

 

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I've never once in my life known a person who was successful who didn't have a big ego. Ego's not a bad thing. Show me someone without an ego, and I'll show you a loser - having a healthy ego, or high opinion of yourself, is a real positive in life!

 

I'll tell you who said that at the end of this piece, but for now let's just assume that he's right (and I believe that he is--to a point).

 

Ego is badly mischaracterized, improperly defined, etc. I'm not going to go into what ego actually is (as part of the id/ego/superego psychological marker set). I'm just going to use the word the way most people do, which is "one's belief and confidence in oneself, to the point that sometimes they can be come obnoxious and close themselves off to the superiority of others' positions, contributions, or achievements".

 

Does that sound like your understanding of it? That's the definition we're going to go with for the purposes of this article.

 

In that regard, ego can be a double-edged sword; a healthy respect, even admiration, for your own abilities and "what you bring to the table" can serve you and everyone around you well, especially if you lead those people. Notoriously high-ego military people include George S. Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and Napoleon Bonaparte. Obviously these fellows all achieved immense levels of success--and ultimately paid a price for letting their egos get the better of them. The key takeaway for each of these is that they were indeed immensely talented, possessing high self-confidence (vital for success in any endeavor), and certain of the rightness of their actions.

 

It is that very certainty that leads to huge successes and spectacular falls. Sadly, one very often accompanies the other, In fact, it could argued that you can't have one without the other. This is why a healthy ego is absolutely vital for success...

 

...but once it crosses into unhealthy territory, it can lead to dismal failure.

 

"Healthy" and "unhealthy" are the key considerations, and that is a most difficult line to find without crossing over it.

 

People tend to cross into "unhealthy" levels of ego when they allow another term to enter their personality profile; the term is hubris. From Wikipedia:

 

Hubris (/ˈhjuːbrɪs/, from ancient Greek ὕβρις) describes a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence,^[1] often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance.^[2] "Arrogance" comes from the Latin "adrogare" and it means the feeling a right to demand certain attitudes and behaviors from other people, "pretension" which is also associated with it is not synonymous to hubris.^[3] According to studies, hubris, arrogance and pretension are related to the need for victory (even if it doesn't always mean winning) instead of reconciliation, as would be made by "friendly" groups.^[4] Hubris is usually perceived as a characteristic of an individual rather than a group, although the group the offender belongs to may suffer collateral consequences from the wrongful act. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities. The adjectival form of the noun hubris is "hubristic".

 

It is important, and should be a cornerstone quality of good leadership, that as a leader you monitor very closely your level of hubris.

 

How do you do this? Like the Dunning-Kruger effect--

 

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In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence.

 

--it is very difficult to see your own weaknesses, particularly when hubris is the weakness you are trying to identify. This is why it is important that you build a mechanism into your leadership formula that includes surrounding yourself with others who will be honest with you rather than just "yes men". We all know the danger of having everyone around us agree that we are wearing splendid new clothes when in fact we're stark naked. How many people have fallen simply because they had no counsel from others who would tell them when they were acting foolishly? Worse still, how many have fallen because they dismissed or punished those who dared disagree with them?

 

Ultimately all decision-making will rest with you as commander, but you have got to make it a priority to surround yourself with wise people you trust, and actively seek out their knowledge and advice. It's also likely in your best interest--and the best interest of your unit--if you consciously make it a point to honor their counsel at least now and then. Hubris is having the advice of wise and learned people, and regularly ignoring it.

 

Hubris is also failing to recognize when you're in over your head; when you are outmatched by your opponent; or--and this is the most difficult one to accept sometimes--when you aren't the right person for the job but someone else around you is. It is the rare leader who recognizes the superiority of a subordinate, and elects to step away from leadership to allow the subordinate to assume it. This, though, is the hallmark of someone who truly is the best leader he can be.

 

Stepping away from leadership doesn't always have to mean giving up the commander position, though. It may be that you are a superior community organizer, but not very good as a military trainer. Or, you're a top-notch trainer, but not the best strategist. This, again, is where recognizing your weaknesses (and your strengths) allows you the opportunity to seek out and promote your "betters" into positions of trusted leadership and counsel. By surrounding yourself with these people, you can cover your weaknesses somewhat, make fewer mistakes, or delegate the areas where you are least competent into someone else's care. George Marshall was a first-rate commander in his own right, but he had the great gift of recognizing when others were superior in certain positions, and made sure they occupied those spots. This gift gave us Dwight Eisenhower, among others. And Eisenhower (together with Patton) gave us Omar Bradley. You'll notice that on this list--Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley--there are some enormous egos...but almost a dearth of hubris. Marshall, Eisenhower, and Bradley in particular are revered for their lack of hubris in the most critical of times, and even Patton (who had his moments of extreme ego and arrogance) was well known for his ability to put those issues aside when it mattered most.

 

Can you imagine the outcome of World War II if we hadn't had each of those generals in the positions of command that they held? Or imagine if any one of them had kept the others down and pushed forward only with their own plans and agendas? You can quickly see where hubris could have created a disastrous situation, and where the lack of it allowed for each man's strength to complement the others. This effective "sharing" or "delegating" of duties directly led to the outcome of the war.

 

Ego has a place in the psychological toolbox of the unit commander, but hubris does not. Ego is excessive confidence; hubris is excessive arrogance. Knowing the difference between the two, and carefully managing them both, could spell the difference between success or failure for your unit, just as it did for the great generals of World War II.

 

And who knows...if you manage the two properly, cultivating a healthy ego but dampening the unhealthy tendency toward hubris that a strong ego can often engender, you could wind up being President someday. It worked for Donald Trump, whose quote is shown at the top of this article.

 

Tomorrow--"Turn, turn, turn."

 

Edited July 29 by ROFCB Commander

[LetFreedomRing 5,754]

 

[Cb85 136]

I was told a definition of humility I thought was superb. 

Humility is acutely knowing what your the best at and what your weak at and being willing to step up and lead when there is need for your gifting and being willing to step back and let others lead when the current need is out side of your skill set.