Good for the ego

Having an ‘ego’ is often seen as something negative, especially in business. I think we’ve all been guilty at some time of saying something along the lines of: ‘Don’t work for them, the director has such an ego!’

Alter ego

However, those in psychological circles will know that the ego is actually something to be celebrated. Sigmund Freud heralded the ego as being ‘the rational part of the psyche’. It uses reason to control our overly impulsive (Id) and overly tentative (Superego) behaviours. Think of it as the mediator between the devil and angel on your shoulders.

Egocentric

The ego is our conscious self, and it’s the way we think about ourselves and how we wish to project this to others. Many people that I’ve worked with at the executive level are often apologetic about the fact that their loss or change of job title has ‘hurt their ego’. The fact that they are apologetic makes it seem that this shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a bad thing.

Many of these clients have humble roots, so why shouldn’t they strive for a high level role because of their ambition and intellect, and why shouldn’t they be upset if that is removed? If the ego is our ‘self’, it’s no surprise that many who invest so much into their careers feel lost when their job title or business is stripped away, and so much of my role is helping someone regain their confidence – be it their feelings of self-worth or confidence that they can move on again with their career.

Ego boost

Hand in hand with having an ego is someone also being seen as selfish. As the director of my own business, and facilitator to many others in business, I’ve attended several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) lectures, and one key surprising take-away was that being selfish can actually be a good thing.

The dictionary defines someone who is ‘selfish’ as person who is only concerned with themselves. While ruthlessness shouldn’t have any place in business, it sometimes pays to be a little selfish. None of us would be where we are now if we hadn’t put our all into that job interview, that role, or setting up a business. And if we look after ourselves and fulfil our own self-care needs, we can give our best to others.

So maybe it’s time we changed our way of thinking and start putting our ‘self’ first and seeing the ego as a good thing.