3Goals2Egos1Outcome S1E3

Helen D. Smead, CEO, talks about recalibrating egos in the workplace. She uses a football analogy to describe the importance of collaboration and protecting the team's interests. She emphasizes the need for awareness, collaboration, and integrity to achieve a team win. She shares examples of ego-driven behavior and suggests ways to recalibrate egos, such as actively listening, seeking input from others, and taking responsibility for mistakes. She also highlights the importance of talent acquisition and encourages growth through fostering creativity and innovation. Welcome to the Career Suite, where we focus on driving your future forward. I'm Helen D. Smead, CEO, wife, mother, and philanthropist. So join me for career conversations inside the suite. You'll be glad you did. Ready to drive your future forward? Then you're in the right place. Let's step inside the Career Suite, where career conversations begin with you. Thank you for joining me inside the suite today. If you're a seasoned subscriber via Apple, Google, or Spotify, or a first-time visitor, I appreciate your interest in driving your future forward. Today inside the suite, I'm going to ask you to tackle three goals, two egos, and one outcome. You guessed it. That was a teaser for a football analogy. In football, the traditional offense has two tackles on the offensive line, the left and the right tackle. The tackles are typically the largest players on the field. The offensive line's job is to protect the quarterback. If you're not a football enthusiast, hang in there. Please stay with me. With either left or right tackle, you share the same goal, to protect the quarterback and their blind spots. The quarterback is usually considered the offense's leader, and they need to see the field, read the defense, and make split-second, game-changing decisions. The quarterback must see and anticipate opportunities. If you're wondering who decides which play to run, well, it could be the offensive coordinator or the quarterback. But the game's outcome is the one thing they all agree on. They all want a W. They all want to win. The tackles, the quarterback, the coordinator, their cheerleaders, the fans, and the owners. Which brings me to today's question inside the suite. What is your process to recalibrate your ego so the team gets a win? Managing your personal ego alongside the company's ego requires three things, awareness, collaboration, and integrity. The team win can be defined as your contribution that impacts the overall growth and sustainability of the organization, your business, or your relationship. Think about two egos in a relationship. Not always easy. What if the two egos in a relationship also run a business? That can get tricky. And do you remember the moment you were interviewing a strong candidate with great potential, and then you began to wonder what if their ego clashes with someone in the C-suite? All three scenarios are possible. Nearly everyone in the suite today is likely to have a healthy ego. So let's talk about how to recalibrate a healthy ego when it suddenly begins to perform like a gladiator. The I in you can get in the way. It can get in the way of building relationships, moving projects forward, and serving in the organization's best interest. And that is why we're starting with awareness. So what might awareness look and sound like? Well, if you're getting louder, more passionate, and even aggressive about a subject just to get your point across. And I'm not talking about work situations where people are being unjustly treated, but to get your point across because you have to win, because no one else in the room or in the meeting could possibly be right. How do you recalibrate that? By giving other people a chance to speak, actively listening to their ideas, attempting to see their ideas in your mind's eye by taking notes, and considering those ideas before making a final decision. It moves from being about your ego to being about everyone. Collaboration. When I describe collaboration, I often suggest it's the first cousin to talent acquisition. Seeking out talent and selecting people based on their abilities, not their titles or their zip codes, and encouraging creativity to redesign pieces of a puzzle. It creates something much more productive. How do you recalibrate your ego when collaboration is missing? Ask an informal leader for their opinion and listen. Document their ideas and see how far they can run with the project. Step in for support and guidance and refrain from taking it over or interrupting them during a presentation. When a member of leadership declares, I have a question before you get started, that's an ego performing like a gladiator. Integrity. Simply put, you take a hit for the team, acknowledge your mistakes, own your weaknesses, and consider that the old way isn't always the best or the only way. It's more than doing the right thing when no one is looking, because if you think you're always right, then you're not concerned with who's looking. Okay, story time, and I changed the names to protect the innocent and the guilty. A couple years ago, I was in New Haven, Connecticut. There was a team meeting with eight or ten people in the room, and Sam, the leader, begins to ask a question and then answers it. Okay, no big deal. A few minutes later, Sam, she's asking another question. She doesn't take a breath or pause, and she keeps talking. The meeting is almost over, and Sam then wants to know, are there any other questions, and immediately begins to schedule the next meeting. At this point, I realized part of what the leadership team needed to work on was ego. I never heard anyone ask the first question, so I wasn't sure how Sam arrived at, are there any other questions, and yet no one else within the leadership team thought there was an issue. As the situation continued to unfold, it told me that leadership counted their questions as the questions. Scanning your team for nonverbal cues and responding with, it looks like you might have a question. Tell me what you're thinking. I'd like to hear it. That invites someone to share their thoughts. What's important here is how Sam didn't encourage people to digest the information, allow them time to formulate a question, and then ask it. She didn't support engagement. Essentially, Sam mixed, poured, and drank the Kool-Aid, all while giving it a five-star rating for taste, flavor, and presentation. That's what an ego might look or sound like when it's performing like a gladiator. As you step outside the career suite today, I'd like you to tackle three goals, two egos, and one outcome. Three goals, awareness, collaboration, integrity. Two egos, your ego and the organization's ego, combined with ways to recalibrate ego. And one outcome, the win, the win for the organization, the business, and your relationship. Your outcomes will be healthier, more robust. You'll polish your brand, all while fostering creativity and innovation. Now that's growth. I'm Helen G. Sneed. Join me again in the career suite where I promise to save you a seat. And subscribe. It's free on several platforms. And join me in episode number four as we dive into talent acquisition. You'll be glad you did. ♪♪♪