A team is formed to achieve a goal, and for that all the team members have to combine and pool their abilities to achieve different tasks and achieve that single goal. Many times it is seen that a team with high performance individuals fails to achieve the given targets. There may be many reasons for failure of the team. One of them may be the ego of the individual team members.
Ego generally means the sense of self-importance. Ego gets defined in different ways by psychiatrists and plays many roles in shaping our life. Ego clashes are well known. Even small children have egos. How does ego affect our performance as a team? Let us quiz on that.
Quiz your goals – what are the goals of the team, who is playing which role, who is being given what importance and who will be given how much amount of credit, these questions must be clearly answered otherwise the result will be conflict at some point of time. Every team member has be clearly told about expectations from him/her and made to feel important. These are personality goals that have to be defined and achieved.
Quiz the ego levels – The team leader should talk to individual team members and find out the ego level of each member. Once the team member understands the sensitivities of all the members, he/she can treat the member accordingly. It does not mean that if a team member has high ego then that that has to be pampered. In that case the member has to be given that input and asked to keep his /her ego expectations low and matching with the team goals.
Ego can contribute to great success and also play havoc. Control the ego of the team members and you will get fabulous results. Quiz your team about all these aspects and you will win.