The Egoless Leader

Great leadership is about power, yet it is not about power over others. The power of a great leader is to create an environment where others are empowered to offer their best. This is not working through people where others become extensions of you, the leader. This is dedicating yourself to the growth and development of others. Great leadership is service to others. Service to others, if it is to be effective, must be egoless.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses the leaders of great companies. He states that the leaders of the most high performing companies are all humble people. They have no ambition for themselves. Each leader is an "unknown" outside his company. This contradicts the images we have of leaders as movers and shakers, heroes, and conquerers. The successes of these great leaders are not based on charisma, heroism, or personal ambition.

When Collins compared the leaders of great companies with their counterparts at less successful companies, he described leadership at other companies as: “...the presence of a gargantuan personal ego that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company. These leaders were ambitious for themselves, and they succeeded admirably on this score, but they failed utterly in the task of creating an enduring great company.” In contrast, Collin’s more successful and less egotistical leaders created superb results, but were always giving the credit to others. When problems occurred, they looked first at themselves rather than blaming others.

What is the ego? The ego is your self-image. A self-image is a point of view that defines you in relation to others and to the world. This self image takes on a life of its own convincing you that you are your image. Yet, it is just an image. When we identify with the image, we feel compelled to defend it. In this state our actions are motivated by fear, rather than care and concern for others. When we believe that we are our self image, changes, criticism, suggestions, and opposing ideas become threats to our perceived well-being.

The ego, then, is a homeostasis seeking mentality that will do whatever it takes to defend the status quo. The ego preserves and defends itself through its stories. In every situation where we experience conflict or stress, we have a story. The story defines who is at fault; it justifies certain behaviors; and it rationalizes your point of view. In any conflict the ego adds up its own virtues and justifications and measures them against the sum of the faults of others.

All leaders have an ego to manage. The question is: is egoless leadership more effective, or is it just a nice thing to have? A quick analysis may make the answer obvious.

In light of both Collins data and leaders I have worked with, egoless leaders offer the following:
• Give credit to others when things go well.
• Take full responsibility when things go wrong.
• Lack ambition for self, but are motivated for the whole organization to do well.
• Avoid the limelight.
• Are passionate about the work.
• Don’t make excuses. No matter what the obstacles, ask: “What can we do to succeed?” When the answer becomes clear, they act.
• Are reflective.
• Are intuitive and trust their intuition.
• Are aware of how their words and behaviors affect others.
• Enjoy leading. Enjoy seeing others succeed.

More egotistical leaders do the following:
• Take the credit when things go well.
• Blame others when things go wrong.
• Are ambitious for personal success.
• Seek the limelight.
• Are passionate about personal achievement.
• Make excuses (It’s the economy! It’s that group over there!)
• Don’t reflect much.
• Are driven by external factors--money, approval, status, etc.
• Focus more on how others’ behaviors affect them.
• Enjoy playing the role of leader.

If you had a choice, which leader would you rather work with? Which leader would you rather be? Which leader do you think has the greater respect and influence with others?

It seems that we have two voices speaking within us --- the ego and the Higher Self. When we move toward egolessness people see that we are driven by a desire to meet the highest good, rather than selfish needs. We become more trustworthy.

Many workplaces become battlegrounds where the clash of egos dominates everyone’s attention. An egoless leader creates a different environment --- one where clashing and defending become unnecessary. It is an environment where people focus on the work. In order to accomplish the work, we serve each other. In serving each other we forget to worry about our personal needs, yet our needs are met. As leaders, how do we measure our success? Is it by the status and dollars we have accrued, or is it by the number of people we have served well? Again, which kind of leader would you rather be?