The Role of Ego at Work

Spoiler alert: there isn't one.

It's easy to get lost in praise. We like and gravitate toward what feels good. So positive feedback and commentary about your work and recognition for the small wins along the way may propel you, but if ego interferes, it may actually prevent you from longer term growth and success.

Confidence is good. Pair confidence with self-awareness? Even better. So then, how could ego possibly be bad?

We need to be more thoughtful about defining "ego" and distinguishing it from confidence. Confidence is fluid, and doesn't depend on "right" vs. "wrong" -- it's a matter of belief and passion. I tend to believe that someone can more quickly recover from a knock to their confidence than they can to a bruising of their ego. Confident people make room for feedback, and are more willing to implement change. Confidence also supports failure. Failure is part of growth and learning. I'd argue that to fail actually takes a tremendous amount of confidence. Graceful failure can rebound into ultimate success.

Ego, on the other hand, operates on a lack of self-esteem and a lack of self-awareness. It's a masquerade of confidence. Someone who operates on ego is focused on form over substance. In business, and especially in leadership, this is a recipe for disaster. Ego breeds isolation. Egos offer insulation from reality while isolating people and eliminating the potential for two critical business tenets: feedback and collaboration. Ego may empower those on a leadership track to believe they're in control of their narrative, but it's a glaring false positive.

I like to joke about ego because it's easy -- it's a low-hanging fruit punchline because it's almost always obvious when ego is clouding someone's judgment. Confidence is another creature altogether. It is fluid because it requires introspection, which is most successful when fueled by feedback from peers. A world without that -- without the willingness to hear and grow, to change and learn -- is a lonely one.

The bulk of my career was spent agency-side. I dedicated the better part of a decade serving at the pleasure of clients with a plethora of personalities and managing tens of direct reports from different specialties. Agency life demands a certain entrepreneurial spirit -- chasing pitch opportunities and choreographing campaigns, because time is money, honey -- and rarely do you ever see an entrepreneurial endeavor succeed with a team of one. Sure, there may be a single brainchild behind the concept, but to go from concept to reality takes manpower in many forms. And ego isn't one of them. Ego is a toxic distraction.

Identifying and reframing experiences to minimize opportunities for ego to interfere is critical. This doesn't mean every organization or team should be "flat" and without hierarchy. I think it's perfectly OK to have reporting structures and layers of authority. I don't think titles are responsible for breeding egos, but I think there needs to be better accountability by employers and hiring leadership to align on the remit of each role and title, so the chase becomes about the potential to contribute as part of a team versus the potential to grow in isolation on your resume.