Get Your Ego Out of the Way

An entrepreneur is someone who takes possession of a venture and assumes the risk.  Nowhere in that definition is the word ego but without a leader with at least a healthy ego and a lot of self confidence few new ventures will succeed.  That ego can get the company through the initial trials of starting the company but as the company begins to succeed that same ego can get in the way.

It is likely that the early success will lead to a feeling of infallibility and a feeling that all your ideas and long held beliefs are superior.

When I started the home building business I wrote the specification as if I were writing the specs for mu own house. I used cedar siding, aluminum clad windows with energy saving glass, heavy sculptured shingles and other items that were upgrades for other builders. My sales manager told me often that I was wasting my money because our customers did not understand the benefits and if they did understand they did not care. In my mind I knew I was right and ignored my employee. Finally the sales manager became frustrated by my ignoring him and he had the estimator price the homes on our newest project his way with vinyl siding and standard windows and roofing. He presented the proposed marketing material on our next subdivision with his specs and my specs as upgrades.  He also had market research showing what our competition was doing on homes in our price range. Homes his specs were selling just as quickly as our homes with the upgraded spec. In fact some of our customers perceived that wood siding was more maintenance than vinyl siding and therefore less desirable even though it was more expensive.

With my reluctant approval he began selling the homes in the eighteen unit project with his specs although he used the same sales pricing on the homes we had used with the higher specs. He offered my "standards" as upgrades at our cost.  The project sold as quickly as our previous project, at a higher margin and not a single home buyer selected any of the options that had been standards.

The point is if I got my ego out of the way a year earlier I would not have lost the opportunity for the increase margin on the previous project.

You have likely hand selected your employees and advisors. Listen to their ideas. You can still reject them after careful consideration but make sure your reason for rejecting the idea does not include the fact that it was not your idea. If you do not follow the employees ideas discuss your reason for not adapting the idea. It may be a teaching moment or perhaps your inability to articulate your reason for not following their advice will convince you should adapt their ideas.

Original content copyright 2010 Thomas Robinson