Every day, business professionals make decisions and take action based on inaccurate thinking. Inaccurate thinking isn’t always preventable. Sometimes data or processes are flawed, information is inexact, or unexpected variables arise. That said there is one preventable factor that often drives inaccurate thinking – the influence of the ego.
How does the ego result in inaccurate thinking?
The ego demands status, recognition, prestige and power. When these demands are threatened, fear and anxiety emerge. These dynamics cause unconscious bias in your own perspective. The more your ego controls your thinking, the more susceptible you are to believing your own “set of facts” or version of the truth. Inaccurate thinking occurs when you unconsciously allow ego driven energy to motivate and influence you.
Examining past mistakes can help you understand more about who you are and what influences your behavior. Looking back, is there a pattern to your inaccurate thinking? Can you pinpoint where and when you dismissed the obvious or lied to yourself? Hindsight is “20/20” but what if you could look at the essence of these situations objectively? You can, but only if you eliminate the bias of the ego. This trick of the psyche is often at the core of life’s missteps.
As coaches, we often see the negative effects of inaccurate thinking.
Time is your greatest enemy and nothing wastes time like heading down the wrong path because your ego was driving inaccurate decision-making.
Picture a business leader who insists on being the smartest person in the room. Their interpersonal style is to exert control and to demonstrate to everyone how much they know. With smug assurance they state their opinion and look around expectantly for heads to nod. Shrewd, hardworking and ambitious, they’ve progressed past their peers and are promoted to a senior level position. But (unfortunately for them) virtually everyone at that senior level has high intellect, is hardworking and is emotionally intelligent enough. What then?
At a certain level, the pendulum swings toward leaders who exhibit psychological maturity.
This is the leader who harmonizes personalities, is able to hold deep conversations, listens well, connects the dots and authentically sells the vision.
What happens to the dominating executive who unconsciously asserts their ego?
Odds are they eventually lose the support, trust, and emotional buy-in from people. At some point they’ll be neutralized or passed over for someone with greater psychological maturity and leadership skills. What’s really going on is the ego believed that being the “smartest person in the room” was enough and that people would forever be deferential and loyal. This inaccurate thinking was ego driven and completely preventable. Unless they’re coached and undertake the challenging journey of self-examination, they’ll likely never fully understand why their career was sidetracked. They’ll more likely blame someone or something other than their own behavior.
Another example of inaccurate thinking that can derail your career is putting faith in the wrong person.
Hitching your wagon to somebody you believe is a winner is a great strategy. But a bad move here can have profound consequences. Ignoring clues of narcissism or dominance may come back to haunt you when your boss is passed over for someone with more emotional maturity. What about the highly competent and cerebral leader who eats lunch at his desk every day? Thinking accurately, you would realize that being on this person’s team has risk because they haven’t developed a robust internal network that will protect them and you in a downsizing event.
If you’ve hitched your wagon to the wrong star, you understand the cost of being forced to jump ship and restart your career on a new platform. Reflecting back without the bias of the ego, all the warning signs were probably there. You just ignored them. Your thinking was inaccurate because your ego need for status, power or security influenced your decision-making.
So what’s the secret to overcoming your own ego? How do you negate the ego’s incessant energy?
When faced with a big decision, challenge yourself to answer these two questions.
What fear underlies your motivation – fear of failure, fear of losing prestige or security, etc.? Reflect on and acknowledge when fear might have driven your decision-making.
When you visualize an event happening what emotion(s) do you feel? Be honest. Do you feel a sense of personal victory or superiority? Do you want to make others jealous of your success? How much are these emotions impacting your judgment? Taking on a stretch assignment is often a winning career strategy, but reaching for status, money or prestige just to feed your ego can often have negative consequences.
The more your ego controls your emotions, the less accurate your decisions will be.
You eliminate the ego when you honestly address your psyche’s fears and understand your true and real motivation. Through honest self-assessment, you can pinpoint your fear and motivation by acknowledging it and use accurate language to describe it.
The goal is to understand your innermost drivers, not to judge yourself, but to deepen your self-knowledge.
Working toward subordinating your ego will enable you to step back, identify those red flags you might have previously overlooked and avoid costly errors in decision-making due to inaccurate thinking.