Ego can kill Agility

Do you know someone who you think has a 'big ego'? Or have you ever had to work with someone who you think has a 'big ego'?

I have. In fact when I stop and think about it there's a number of people that come to mind, including myself!

I don't know much about psychology, but I do know that it's difficult to work with people who have 'big egos'. I know this because at one point I was one of those people. No one ever told me directly, but when I reflect I can imagine that I was difficult to work with; the signs were all there.

When I think about it now, a lot of the behaviour I displayed was similar to having a fixed mindset. So is having a 'big ego' the same as having a fixed mindset? Let's see.

What is a 'big ego'?

Ego is defined as a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance. It's the story that we tell ourselves about who we are.

When we have a 'big ego' we have an over inflated sense of self-esteem or self-importance. We see our opinion as the one that matters most and we are driven by what we believe, and other factors are of little importance us.

'Big ego' Vs Fixed Mindset

Do 'big companies' create 'big egos'?

The saying goes that "we're products of our environment", so on that basis seeing as I spent most of time working in large enterprises, does that mean that these environments are prone to creating people with 'big egos'?

From what I have seen, while big companies are not entirely to blame for creating egotistical people, they certainly contribute and in a lot of cases this is the primary reason transformations fail. Due to culture.

'Big egos' kill agility

For me business-wide agility is fundamentally achieved by having a collective growth mindset, which just means the majority of people have a growth mindset. So if your company is mostly made up of 'big egos' with fixed mindsets, don't expect business agility any time soon.

Remember to check your ego when cultivating your growth mindset