Let's be careful about making generalizations in the workplace. Don't
conclude that co-workers, employees, or even managers who have been beaten-down
during their careers will become anxious if EGO rears its head. In fact, they
might do some of their best work.
As a student of human psychology, I would offer that people tend to become
insecure, jealous and vengeful (when wronged) to begin with. But it seems that
when we look at great achievers throughout history, their motivation or drive
was a setback - or just being told they couldn't do something. This pushed the
achievers to allow their EGO to express itself.
Henry Ford's Engineers
I'm sure you all know a story or two about some engineers who were told that
building a certain something was "impossible." Yet these inventors made it
happen. For example, Henry Ford's automotive engineers designed some amazing
6-cylinder and 8-cylinder engines.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't EGO the very essence of those who transform
ideas from imagination to reality? Consider the following.
·
Even though we hear the doubters, EGO is what allows us to ignore them.
·
EGO is what tells us we can when everyone else says we can't.
·
EGO is what causes us to create visions of grandeur and develop god
complexes.
·
EGO is what allowed the U.S.
consumer and the U.S.
economy to achieve tremendous levels of material success, and is now causing it
to fall apart at the seams. (It's the wakeup call to reality that's so hard to
digest.)
·
EGO is what creates greatness, and too much of it
is what destroys greatness.
The Tipping Point
EGO is a
good thing - a very good thing. But that's true only until EGO reaches a
tipping point. Then it becomes a bad thing - a very bad thing.
So what
if you had the choice of having an EGO and all the volatility it entails, or
not having an EGO and just going through the motions? Well, I'd choose the
former. It makes life worth living! EGO provides energy and excitement, as well
as success and failure.
To control EGO, we learn to turn it on when it helps and put it in a box
when it does not. We also realize that we all get another chance to learn from
our mistakes, and to try it all again.
Dr. Doug
Editor's Note: You can visit Dr. Doug
online at www.DrDoug.com
or by email: DrDoug@DrDoug.com.
|
Comments rated to be "almost" Good Answers: