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7 Ego Actions That Stifle or Harm Others

As people interact in the workplace, egos sometimes clash. Other times the ego actions are one-way and the damaging results are hidden. In either case, low emotional intelligence has left a vacuum and ego actions filled it. The results can be disastrous for leadership, teamwork, and customer service.

Ego Actions That Stifle Leadership, Teamwork, Service. Image by: Bexx Brown

Image by BexxBrown via Flickr Creative Commons License.

Ego Actions Checklist: Are Any of These 7 Damaging Your Workplace?

1. Hoarding knowledge. When leaders or team members don’t share their knowledge, ego has become more important than anything. Tip: Leaders, assess what if anything in the culture or in your leadership may be feeding or tolerating this behavior.
2. Exerting experience over input. In leadership, teamwork, and customer service, claiming your experience supersedes input from others is ego gone wild.
3. Exerting goals over interaction. When people want to interact while achieving a goal and you refuse, your ego is screaming “I matter, you don’t.”
4. Asserting dominance instead of collaborating. Example: A patient saw a surgeon about a lump they discovered on their own. The surgeon recommended an ultrasound. The radiologist who did the ultrasound told the patient it was inconclusive. When the patient requested to consult with the surgeon again, the radiologist blurted out: “The surgeon does what *I recommend.” The patient left that practice and found one where “ego wouldn’t get in the way of my survival.”
5. Telling an upset customer, “I’m trying to help you.” Insight: Delivering superior customer service is about the customers emotional needs, not the reps. The “I am trying to help you” statement is a plea to customers to be nicer. Yet when reps become frustrated like this, their egos can sabotage success. Keep it simple. Make customers feel better, solve their problem, and their upset will disappear.
6. Wrapping up in a label. Whether you are labeling yourself or others, ego actions are at play. Labels declare. They feel safe. They protect vulnerability from shining through. Examples: “I’m a techie, not a psychologist.” “You’re overly emotional.” “You always …”
7. Needing to have the last word. Nothing screams needy ego more than always needing to have the last word. This need is one of the ego actions that drives people away. They feel it’s futile to interact with someone who has an insatiable ego.

Jump start great interaction with this list. Have your teams add to the list. Identify where the ego actions are stifling leadership, action, and customer service. From there everyone can discuss how to replace ego actions with more productive behaviors.

Related Posts:
Career Success: Are You Rocking w/ These 13 People Skills?
How to Survive Ego Driven Toxic Leaders
5 Steps to Develop Emotional Intelligence

©2016 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Tags: Customer Service, ego, emotional intelligence, interaction, interpersonal skills, leaders, Leadership, people skills, respect, Soft Skills, teammates, Teamwork