Ego Boost Your Business Or Kill It | When To Use It

Welcome to the Paul Vette podcast. I'm not going to talk about how things should be done, but mainly about who you need to be. I challenge you to become the owner of your true identity. Time for your breakthrough and pleasure in your business. Does your ego boost the business or kill the business? You can use it in multiple ways and it's up to you to determine when do you need your ego and when should you leave your ego behind. I recently had a great conversation with Nora Rosendaal. She is COO of Hintsa Performance. Hintsa Performance is a company that, among other things, provides performance coaches for Formula 1 drivers. Super interesting conversation partner of course and we talked about leadership and ego. And I told her that I had made a mistake when I was leading a team of 25 people. Because my leadership style worked perfectly. Very well for 24 of the 25 people. That also came through in the data. We arranged for measurements of the extent to which my team trusted me, the extent to which people were happy to come to work, but also measurements toward the client. So how satisfied were the clients? And we were going to run a pilot to boost those numbers. And within 6 weeks we had gotten those numbers up significantly. So that's a sign that it was working. Until one of my employees came to me and said Paul, thanks to you and these aren't literally her exact words, her exact words, I honestly don't remember them anymore. But it came down to her saying Paul, I don't feel seen, not heard and unsafe within your leadership style. There's a mismatch. I looked at it and I thought shit, she's right. That's correct. Anyway, if she feels that way then that's her feeling. I can deny it but it exists. And apparently, I believe in this if I take full 100 percent ownership, it stems from how I led the entire team. Then I could think from my ego yeah but 24 of my 25, that's on you. I could have perfectly well thought that. I could have also come with numbers. Yeah but look, the numbers show our whole team is going up. There's more trust in me. There's more trust in each other. The clients indicate they're more satisfied. So it's on you I could have done. Because I knew of course right, that's my ego. And now I'm telling it more easily than in that moment. I was a bit younger and I hadn't been in the role of manager within that company for very long. I was a manager when I was 20 years old already. So it's not like that was new. But having these kinds of conversations does require something from you. So in that moment I found it quite difficult, but I pushed my ego aside and then we were able to solve it together. We were able to ensure that she could come to work much more pleasantly and that she could also grow. And that was despite my ego. You could say thanks to my ego, because it's always there, but I'll come back to that another time. Your ego has no place in the piece of leadership and in the piece of growth. Growth for your team and your business in the sense of working with the team and growth for yourself. Because personal development, personal growth. The moment you include your ego in the piece of growth. So in the piece of reflection actually. In the piece of honestly looking at hey Paul, you still have something to learn here. Yeah, my ego doesn't like that at all of course. Because my ego just wants to say what do you mean, I'm the best. My ego would very much like to say that. But then you don't grow because then you get stuck. Because then you're saying yeah no I'm already there. I don't need to learn anything. You don't need to explain anything new to me. No man, no that makes no sense. Just shut up. That's what my ego could say. Totally logical. Also feels good to do you know. You should try speaking from your ego sometime. Super fun to practice once, also with friends or something or with other entrepreneurs. So your ego just has no place there, because it hinders your growth when you're reflecting. And it also hinders the growth of the team. Because if you really bring your ego into managing your team, into guiding your team to let them grow. That goes completely wrong. Because then you'll only say yeah but I'm the best or my business runs like this. And yeah if you don't fit into that then you just don't fit into that. Get lost. That attitude and that mindset can still be valid. That can be valid, but not if it comes from your ego. So really be aware that you don't do that. Your ego on the other hand, that's why it just makes that nuance extremely handy in the piece of growth. Because your ego does say with a top goal, with a jump in revenue, with a growth of the business in impact and revenue. With attracting partners your ego does say we're going to fix that. I'll arrange that. With a bit of a Brabant accent. Yeah, I'll arrange that. If you're from Amsterdam you shouldn't try that, doesn't have to. But your ego has a very big position in that. Because that's how I spoke to her, all those Formula 1 drivers they of course have an ego to even be able to get into Formula 1. They have that winner's mentality. They have that mentality to say I'm the best. It's also very difficult for a Formula 1 driver to admit that another driver would be the better driver. That ego is too big and that gets them extremely far. You as an entrepreneur can use that. Because if you have too small goals, then it's time to listen to your ego a bit more often. But in that area. In that area of determining your ambition, your goals. Of hey, where do I want to go? And just admitting to yourself from that feeling yeah, I want to be the best, the biggest, the most impactful. You name it. And completely from your ego. Just nice without holding yourself back, without being a bit modest and certainly without doing it as it should be done. No, just nice from your ego. Hey, I want this. I want to reach 1 million people. Because I want to help all people worldwide to go up a little bit. Not even just the people who are alive now, also the 3 generations after that. No, I want to bring people to Mars and start a colony there. Could be a nice ambition from your ego too. I can do that. And then it can also be that next to your ego that's going to think I can do that, we're going for it, that's my ambition. It can be that there's also a nice intention from your heart along with it. Then it's of course perfect. But I just want to ask you to listen to your ego a bit more when you're thinking about your goals. And then when you're going to tell your team you can also tell it that way of course. Yeah I had a conversation with my ego and my heart found it really amazing how my ego was articulating this to expose the ambition of our company where we're all going. And where we're going is this. And then you see your whole team that doesn't have that ego, how are we going to do that? And you see a few who have fire in them and who say: Yes, that's their ego. Who thinks yeah. And then just address the ego of everyone in your team. Come on, let's do that all together. And make sure they get inspired. And then afterwards you'll look again. Okay if we then push all egos aside for a moment and just reflect honestly. We want to reach 1 million people. How many clients do we have now? 3. Then that's just the reality at the moment. Then a lot needs to happen. And yeah then you need to thank your ego for the ambition and then get to work in a different way and apply honest reflection. Okay how do we get from 3 to 1 million? Can we do that in a day, in a month, in a year? That of course depends on all the resources that are available and who those 3 big clients are or who those 3 clients are. Because if they're enormous and they can make a lot of impact and reach a lot of people, then it can just happen like that. So don't let yourself be fooled by from 3 to 1 million is impossible. Yeah, that depends on who those 3 are. It's a bit my ego that also thinks that way. But I want to impress this upon you. When you work with people, including yourself, then ego often 9 out of 10 times has no place in the conversation. Unless you consciously bring your ego into it. That's actually the rule you need to maintain. The moment you get to work with ambitions and goals, then definitely bring your ego into it. And make sure that when you're going to execute that your ego is aside for a moment and that you then look honestly in the mirror and look at okay how can we set this up in the right way and the most robust way. And then you have a nice balance between using your ego. Then your ego also won't intervene. So it won't interfere at moments when it actually should just be quiet because you bring it in regularly. Then it also stays a bit in the background otherwise. You'll notice that, that's really worth gold. So bring it in when it's very powerful and just put it nicely in the playground in a corner when you know yeah there's no place for my ego here. And then you'll notice that things work much more purely from yourself and you also use yourself in the right way as a leader. Extremely powerful. Your growth is further ignited. Ready to take full ownership? Then check the link in the show notes. --- This transcript has been translated from Dutch.