When it comes to ego, there are two types of personalities among project leaders: which one is yours?
The “good” project leader: the one who puts his ego at the service of the project.
The “bad” project leader: the one who puts the project at the service of his ego.
If we all want to be “the good project manager”, we sometimes tend to believe that our truth is more important than that of others.
In this episode, Christophe Jouret, partner at Anais Digital explains how to put your personal ego at the service of the collective in a project.
You will learn:
- To what extent can the ego help or hinder you?
- How to use your ego to make your project evolve?
- What is the place of the leader’s ego vs. that of the collaborators?
Highlights
(00:41) “The ego that allows you to have a fairly clear opinion, fairly clear-cut, fairly easy to share is the one that helps you to come up with something concrete and specific in the projects”;
(01:09) “When the ego remains attached to its initial idea, it serves the project because it prevents it from evolving”;
(01:29) “From the moment when the ego of the people makes that one is not any more at the service of the project and well one can be certain that it will not succeed in reaching the adoption”.
(02:07) “Knowing how to get rid of your ego to let what is there emerge with the people around the table is the right way to manage ego on digital projects.
The ego: how to turn your best enemy into your ally?
1.The ego, your asset for your projects
The ego is necessary: it allows you to assert yourself, to share clear and sharp opinions to dare to undertake and succeed. Be careful: it can be a source of self-confidence, but it must never become pride.
2.The ego, a brake to watch
Your ego can fool you: you think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re led by your self-esteem. Worse, it prevents you from evolving and can only lead you to failure.
Learn to free yourself from it: how? Start by recognizing that you don’t know everything and that before speaking, you must (above all) listen.
3. The ego, your engine for team spirit
It is a certainty: the performance of your team is influenced by the ego of leaders and collaborators. Polluted by bad decisions or power plays, a strong sense of injustice appears and (inevitably) hinders your organization.
Each team member must have a role and stick to it. They must be able to listen before they speak.
Full transcript:
Hello, Christophe Jouret, partner of Anais Digital and digital entrepreneur for twenty years, I am here to share my experience and some anecdotes on how to succeed in digital projects and avoid pitfalls.
Today, I want to talk about ego. To what extent can the ego be a factor that helps the project and to what extent? Is it a factor that can be detrimental to the project?
This is the subject I propose to address today in a few minutes.
Well, in terms of the positive things that ego can bring. It’s about the starting point or the fact of having a rather clear opinion, rather clear-cut, rather easy to share. This ego is the ego that helps in the entry of the projects, that helps to enter with something concrete and specific. After that, there is the ego that serves. It is the ego that continues to attach itself to this initial part, to what it put on the table at the beginning of the project. This conviction that the project must go this way or that way?
And when this ego remains attached to its initial idea, it serves the project because it prevents agility. It prevents the project from evolving. It is the ego on the content. It’s also the ego between people, whether it’s within a team, in a large corporate structure or a larger organization, or whether it’s at the startup level. When people’s egos mean that they are no longer at the service of the project and that they fight for a particular idea to pass because it’s their idea, without taking into account the value and interest that it can represent for the project itself and especially for the users that the project serves. Well, we see that projects can go in directions where it is almost certain that they will not be adopted. So, ego can help. It helps especially, I would say at the beginning, especially to put what we call the brick to break on the table in a clear way. Afterwards, knowing how to free oneself from one’s ego to let what is there emerge with the people around the table, respecting the different sensitivities, the extroverts, the introverts, listening to the users and putting the ego at the service of the project and not the person.
This is the right way to manage ego on digital projects. At least that’s what we think at Anais Digital.
Do you have a question about a digital or entrepreneurial project? Write to us at nowaste@anais.digital
Voice : Christophe Jouret
Production : Antidote.
Credits : Anais Digital.
