If you want to thrive as a leader, elevate your mission over whatever ego you may have. If that happens, you will look for talent anywhere they are, and also engage them in the right way. When Google says it does not care if you have a university degree or not, it is saying, I have no ego that requires me to display certificates in my HR department: I just want people that can get the job done!
Jesus would have hired lawyers, tax collectors, astrologers, etc as disciples. But He understood the importance of the mission, and went to largely fishermen, alloyed in the trade of persistence, perseverance and patience – critical attributes required for new missions. In the ancient Roman Empire, if you tell people on the street that you would hire fishermen for a big project, many would mock you. Some may recommend that you add some lawyers, doctors, and tax collectors if you want people to pay attention.
How many times has your ego pushed you to hire the wrong person? You want to introduce him as “He was the best student in his class”, “He made a first class”, “He studied in London”, “He is the son of Mr B”, etc. But deep inside you, he has no capacity to contribute to the mission.
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Yes, ego has won over mission! And whenever that happens, visions die. Win over your #ego if you want that #mission to thrive.
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Comment 1: It is possible for leaders to use their egos to drive organizations forward while also fostering a positive and collaborative mission, but it requires a careful balance.
On the one hand, having confidence and a strong sense of purpose can be essential for leadership and for inspiring and motivating others. A leader who is able to articulate a clear vision and convey a sense of purpose can help to rally their team and drive progress towards the organization’s goals.
At the same time, it is important for leaders to be aware of the potential negative effects of ego, and to try to keep their ego in check. This means being open to feedback and input from others, being willing to admit mistakes and learn from them, and being humble enough to recognize the contributions of others.
By striking this balance, leaders can use their ego to drive the organization forward while also fostering a positive and collaborative culture. This can help to build trust and cooperation among team members, which is essential for achieving success in any mission.
Comment 2: One of the key responsibilities of CEOs is to ensure that the organization has the right people in the right roles, and that includes the ability to hire and fire employees as needed. This requires a strong sense of leadership and decision-making skills, as well as the ability to keep ego in check.
Having the ability to hire and fire employees is a significant aspect of a CEO’s role, and it is important that they approach this responsibility with care and consideration. This means evaluating candidates based on their skills and fit with the organization, rather than external factors such as credentials or personal connections. It also means being willing to make difficult decisions when necessary, even if it means letting go of employees who are not performing well.
Ultimately, the ability to hire and fire effectively is a crucial part of a CEO’s role, and it requires a strong sense of leadership and a commitment to the mission of the organization. By keeping their ego in check and focusing on the needs of the organization, CEOs can make the best decisions for the team and drive the organization forward. Thanks Prof.
My Response:Good point. In this piece, I have bounded that “ego” within team building. Certainly, there is a positive ego where a CEO wants to accumulate more market share by doing things better. If I write this for a growth-focused class, the insights will modulate. My point here is ego on building teams: get the best guy irrespective of his or her background. All empires have done that: Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, etc used slaves to lead. A modern version of ego-less team building is US where anybody can be anything
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This piece should rank as one of the most important truths the decision-makers must know, because it remains evergreen.
From corporate establishments to public offices, we regularly see how certificates, schools attended and other paraphernalia take precedence over the actual ability and capacity to get things done. The result? Bunch of people who are high on theory but low on substance.
The university regulatory body wants you to hire professors and PhD holders, even when a talented first degree holder can do a better job on the subject matter. The mismatch is everywhere, most times it’s just eminent domainers protecting their own territory, else extinction beckons…
Knowledge is not measured by certificates and quality of schools attended, yet we continually fall into this trap of form over substance, with subpar delivery dotting the landscape.
Until you learn to value competence over titles, you cannot claim to be doing better than those who came before you. It is those who get things done that end up becoming the architects and pioneers of the case studies you go to top universities and pay top dollars to learn.
For the knowledgeable cohorts, it takes a dose of intellectual humility to accept this difficult truth.
Is this really about ego or rewarding competence and punishing mediocrity. I look for two key things in members I allow to join my team:
Willingness and eagerness to learn
Zero sense of entitlement: this does not mean you can’t take pride in being exceptional
Maybe it is because I am doing mostly knowledge/technology transfer in majority of the engagements. I have come to realize that it is actually my own ego that needs to be kept in check. If a prime has big ego but can do the work, I simply tell others to focus on their own tasks and ignore the prime’s ego. I remind them that people are gifted differently. This is hi-tech, not charity or politician’s workplace. We don’t judge a fish by how it runs. We judge a fish by how it swims. When Google says they don’t care if you have a university degrees, it does not mean they hire the wrong people in the wrong jobs. They are hiring the best and majority of those bests have advanced university degrees.
I lived half of my life in Nigeria and the rest in Canada. I understand how what we are told about humility does not apply in North America. As long as you are not insulting anybody, your individual sovereignty (and by extension, exceptionalism) is always respected. One employee not liking perfumes can make the organization issue a no-perfume policy in the work place because they just want the employee to feel comfortable enough to provide that particular value he/she is hired for.
If they say work dress code is black suit and tie and one employee, who is highly sought after, decides to be coming to work on t-shirts, they will change that policy to accommodate the needs of that employee.
I can understand how this kind of culture is common in R&D, Product and Application development settings, I have not worked in other settings to know what is applicable there. I know I have worked on a product for 2 years coming to work 8am and leaving 11pm every night. If I did that and succeeded in delivering the product, which has run for over 10years and helped generate $millions in revenue, I believe it was my “ego” that drove me to do that. When I see primes now working under me but can go hours on the job and actually activating capabilities that drive the business, if they misbehave once in a while, I assume that it is all part of the mix. The baseline here is that I understand their sentiments and motivations.
I have engineers who made first class in mechatronics engineering. I have technicians who have not gone to university. Just like I am being treated in Canada (where every colleague knows I have two masters degrees in Engineering), I tell my primes in Nigeria that the engineers who have engineering degrees are carrying a lot of responsibility. Therefore they should be given difficult tasks to handle. In fact, I let them know the difference between engineering problems and technical problems. This is important because it is actually unprofessional for the technicians to be playing around with tasks that the engineers are meant to deal with. This is just hierarchy of competence I am pushing. Those who have engineering qualifications have to earn their status by tackling major engineering problems. if this is translated as ego, it means we are not pursuing hierarchy of competence.
In doing the above, I see I earned the trust of all primes because everyone knows their place. Also, every Tesla or SpaceX engineer is technically crazy and has big ego. They are led by an engineer who has the biggest ego. If their egos combined gave the world Tesla cars and reusable rockets, I think we should learn to tap into their energy and ignore that ego. We do this by putting our own ego in check.
Great conversations here. Thanks Francis and Isidore for the perspectives.