7 Ways to Prevent Your Ego From Destroying Your Career

Narcissism is a common trait in all human beings. However, it is essential to prevent it from getting out of control, as your ego may significantly damage your career. One can exude confidence in the workplace without bragging. Egoistical coworkers are often resented. Egoistic behavior can be a sign of desperation or insecurity. You also need to control your ego as a businessperson, as the consumers are less likely to engage with an arrogant service provider. Do not allow an overactive ego to ruin your career.

1.  Embrace Humility and Bid Adieu to Ego

As a human being, you may be wired to process the information that is confirmatory and may be prone to filter out the information that contradicts your point of view. Your ego may turn you into an emotionally defensive thinker and a self-serving individual who is interested in protecting the ego. If you want to embrace success, then you must embrace humility.

The first step to having humility is to accept and analyze your mistakes and failures. You also need to listen to your colleagues and team members even if their point of view does not match yours. These practices will bring the best ideas out of your team members, colleagues, or business partners, and you will eventually benefit from them.

2.  Get Objective Feedback about Your Ego & Overall Nature

Not everyone has the courage to seek objective feedback about the ego. However, you will receive a 360-degree view of your character if you ask for objective feedback about your decisions, choices, and behavior from the people who know you or who are close to you. This type of review may be focused on your emotional intelligence, open-mindedness, humility, empathy, ability to listen to others, and other aspects of your character.

It is important to accept the opinions of others regarding your ego and other qualities without any judgment and not to let any negative comment have an impact on your relationship with others. Reflect on how others perceive you once you become aware of it.

3.  Learn and Accept the Altered Model of Smartness

The definition of smartness has changed since the invention of Google, Siri, and other online data banks. These days, you can instantly access a large volume of data online. Thus, smartness is no longer determined by how much knowledge a person possesses. These days, a smart person will admit what he/she does not know or how to learn it. He/she will know to ask the right questions and will critically examine the answers. In today’s world, you will only succeed if you can humbly admit and accept what you do not know.

4.  Put Yourself in Others’ Place

It is essential to put yourself in others’ shoes before passing any comment or judgment regarding their behavior. It enables you to become compassionate and empathetic instead of becoming self-absorbed. You have to think about how others have helped you and have to appreciate them for their assistance. This practice enables you to become more empathetic.

You may even reflect upon how some people have added joy to your life. Active listening is another way to understand others. You have to focus on what another person is saying before formulating a response. It enables you to become empathetic to other problems instead of being led by your ego.

5.  Calm Your Mind

It is impossible to become humble overnight. You may need to work on it throughout your life. It may require persistence and hard work. However, it will be a fruitful journey if you continue to give an effort. It is possible to build meaningful relationships and to have a better career if you stay humble despite the achievements and learn to accept criticism without any negativity.

If you want to have a balanced perspective, then you have to live in the present instead of worrying about your future or lamenting about your past. It is possible to remain calm and composed if you learn to enjoy the present experience. It is equally important not to revel in your past achievements, as this will feed to your ego. It is also possible to avoid any misinterpretation and misunderstandings that are driven by your ego if you live in the present.

6.  Brush off the Fear of Failure

You cannot learn new things or take new steps if you are afraid of failure, mistakes, or looking foolish. You may have experiences that bruise your ego. However, if you want to move forward in life, take those moments in stride and learn from them. Humility comes when you learn to accept both failures and successes. It is essential to let go of the fear of failure or mistakes if you want to learn something new in life. You don’t know what could happen if you try, but know that if you don’t try, you have already failed.

7.  Daily Grading

Make a checklist of reminders about the need for humbleness, open-mindedness, and empathy. You should review this list before each meeting and grade your performance after each meeting in order to monitor your progress. For example, you may want to become a good listener. In this scenario, your list could include the following tasks:

• Do not judge, think about your response, or interrupt others when they talk.
• Do not give your views in the first response.
• Ask questions to understand the other person.
• Ask yourself if you can paraphrase what another person has said.
• Try to understand the point of view of another person.

Try creating a similar list that is made of different tasks based on your unique requirements and grade yourself on each task to track your progress in achieving a goal.

Calm Your EGO

It is impossible to become humble overnight. You may need to work on it throughout your life. It may require persistence and hard work. However, it will be a fruitful journey if you continue to give an effort. It is possible to build meaningful relationships and to have a better career if you stay humble despite the achievements and learn to accept criticism without any negativity.