Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It’s a sad reality when you notice how many people walk around in the business world as sheep dressed in wolves’ clothing. It might be hard to see at first, but with time, the seams begin to unravel and the people who once appeared to have it all reveal who they truly are — and it’s not what they want people to see.
Separating yourself from the entrepreneurs who make it and those who don’t come down to how well you can back up your words with action. But it’s also about seeing yourself as being no better than the next person. The bottom line is this: there is simply no room for ego in business.
I’ve seen firsthand what ego does to executives, their organizations and their people — and it’s not pretty. While it may be a confronting truth to accept, your success will be short-lived if you carry yourself with anything less than authenticity and grace.
Nobody is buying the act
There is nothing worse than investing in a business’s products or services only to find out that what you’ve received is not what you were promised.
Whether you’re a CEO, manager or team leader, one of the worst things you can do to a client or customer is to oversell yourself and your offerings only to underdeliver. Setting unachievable targets, timeframes and costs will not go unnoticed. In most business dealings, the people paying your bills generally know a lot more than you may think they do, so if you’re playing them for a fool, they will recognize it at one point or another.
When ego and making an impression are more important than doing the job justice, the facade egotists put up quickly disintegrates. Not only can this ruin relationships with clients in terms of trust, but it can also have a devastating ripple effect on your business.
Related: How to Close the Trust Gap Between You and Your Team — 5 Strategies for Leaders
Ego doesn’t support a culture of teamwork
Feeling valued, heard and on a level playing field with your colleagues makes all the difference in a healthy workplace environment. Having a superiority complex tends to do a good job of rubbing people up the wrong way, but it can also have detrimental consequences beyond this. Ego within a group can limit creativity, sabotage problem-solving opportunities and put a real damper on the whole mood in general.
Teams work most effectively when they can share a common goal and vision, which can be compromised when someone displays overbearing behavior that shuts others down. By putting ego aside, you can make space for a supportive culture of teamwork, where no one person has a bigger platform than another.
What is the biggest reward of letting the ego go? Being able to share in the feeling of collective success.
Related: How to Support Employees and Improve Retention With a Strong Company Culture
You can’t run a business all by yourself
Some entrepreneurs often claim to be “self-made” and share stories of how they built their businesses from the ground up, all on their own. In my experience and the experience of other business owners I’ve encountered in my career, nobody has achieved real success 100% on their own accord. Everyone loves a tale of triumph, but it’s not always as it’s made out to be. Sure, the majority of the work has to be done by the person starting the business, but it is certainly not without at least some help.
You need support to establish a business, from accountants to business coaches, website developers and designers, the list goes on. As the business grows, you may need to hire staff to assist you in daily operations and an array of other tasks that might be outside of your skill set. Accepting that you don’t know everything and that asking for help doesn’t make you any less good at what you do is key to developing and then continuing to run a well-oiled machine.
Related: 6 Ways to Encourage Successful Teamwork in Your Business
Reputation is everything
Here’s where I bring in something cliche like “real business leaders aren’t born — they’re made.” It may be painfully uncomfortable to read, but it does have some truth to it. How good of an entrepreneur you are is not dependent on how well you dress, how many millions of dollars you make or even how many people you know in high places. Keeping up appearances for superficial gratification is far from sustainable.
It’s not easy to humble yourself, especially in a competitive market with a lot of pressure to stand out. However, making your mark as a business leader doesn’t mean pretending to be something you are not or pushing others down along the way. How you gain and maintain a positive reputation relies on your genuineness, your credibility and, most of all, your ability to put your image aside to achieve something bigger than yourself.
