There’s something you need to hear if you’re to be entrusted with leading others. It’s something that you’ve probably not read before, but something you deserve to know. Keep this in the forefront of your mind as you meet the challenges, and reap the rewards, of living leadership. Use this touchstone truth to keep your ego in check, your aims directed at those you’re leading, and your heart humble.
The message in this following article is simply this: regardless of how substantial the results you secure, how high the rank you achieve, how much wealth you attain, how many lives you impact, or how much deference or applause you receive, in the grand scheme of life, you ain’t nothing.
Remember these humble punch words and you’ll do very well. Why? Because you’ll be in charge of your ego, instead of the other way around.
Living Leadership in Perspective
As you progress in your leadership career and grow in influence, rank, and stature, never lose sight of the fact that you’re just a tiny speck in an infinite universe, like every other human being who ever lived…and died. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, how many people you lead, or how many grand achievements you amass, you will meet the same fate as everyone else. No one, regardless of status, escapes the descending ceiling which closes upon each of us, mercilessly, with each passing day. The old Italian proverb sums it up well, “At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”
Faced with its own mortality, what’s an ego to do? Well, what it’s always done: protect you from harm and danger. Self-preservation is the ego’s most basic function, even if it means defending you from inescapable realities like your fallibility and imperfections. In this way, your ego is both your greatest ally and your worst enemy. It protects you through duplicity.
Without self-discipline, humility, and outside “checks,” your ego can come to inflate your sense of self to the point where all that matters is gratifying your own needs, prioritizing your own desires, and perpetuating your own leadership existence. The ego can puff up your self-importance until, eventually, you come to view those around you as lesser, irrelevant, and expendable. The bigger the ego gets, the more objectified and insignificant others will become, unless they have big egos too, in which case you’ll view them as competitive threats who, driven by their own ego-infused insecurities, could puncture the thin membrane of your leadership facade.
You Decide Whether Ego Wins
You may find it surprising, but what ego does with you and your leadership is up to you. Hubris wreaks havoc when your self-will runs amok. Hubris appears when you let your leadership power go to your head and you become enamored with your own specialness. Ego arises from immodesty, immaturity, and, above all, ego mismanagement. Yet, all it takes to make ego irrelevant is to stay humbly grounded in the ordinariness of your humanity.
Keeping hubris subdued requires always remembering the severe damage your leadership will do if your ego grows too big. Every person, regardless of upbringing education, or economic status, has the potential to do harm when they’re charged with leading others if their ego gets the best of them. For this reason, and to keep hubris perpetually at bay, never lose sight of your nonspecial and very commonplace life as you progress in your leadership. How often does a leader need to remember this essential hubris-neutralizing truth? Every. Single. Day.
It is interesting that the words “human” and “humility” have similar origins. Both stem from the Latin word humus, which means “earth” or “grounded.” Other related Latin words include humanus, humilitas, and the adjective humilis. The “hum” part of humans and humility are connected. Both, essentially, mean earthly or earthy (of the earth). To be human and to have humility, essentially, means being down to Earth.
How can you ensure that your leadership remains grounded and focused on serving others, rather than becoming inflated by ego and the desire for personal recognition?
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This post is based on an excerpt from The Leadership Killer.
