What impact does the ego have in the private sphere and in our business life, in particular? Many people wonder how and if the ego should be defeated in the workplace to maintain a workable atmosphere and congeniality.
The ego is often considered to be a misplaced belief in our own importance and our talent capabilities. It is this voice that makes us believe that we are better than we are, that prevents us from being in direct contact with the world around us. The ego tells us what we want to hear, when we want to hear it.
In the corporate world, it turns out that the ego is much more of a masculine characteristic than a feminine one.
We often give a promotion to a person who 'brings it back' much more, who shouts louder, who actually has a bigger ego. Studies show that 8 times out of 10, people who have the most ego accept a promotion more easily.
We often favour people who lack humility. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect or overconfidence effect. We give too much importance to the alpha side of the personality, or to self-advertising, which consists in putting oneself forward.
Female workers are often wrongly perceived as being less assertive because the ego is less dominant and as result, the humility and inclusivity often shown by women in the workplace is misconceived as weakness and leads to them being taken less seriously professionally.
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However, more companies are embracing this idea that it is not a sign of weakness to allow personal humility to take precedence over arrogance. Ego can be shown without arrogance, it's all about the dosage. What is dangerous is excess. Many psychologists believe that humility is not sufficiently taught in companies and that it is better to speak well than to speak loudly.
In the world of work, the valuation of the ego is often equated with leadership, which is totally false. Fortunately, things are changing, but it is still striking that accessibility to positions of responsibility concerns the people who shout the most.
However, we always have a little ego when we choose to be a leader, but it is the excess that is the problem: "The ego can kill the leader that we are".
