A team is formed to achieve a goal – or series of goals – for which all the team members have to combine and pool their abilities to complete their individual tasks while achieving the overarching goal(s). Unfortunately many times a team with high performance individuals fails to achieve the given targets. There can be many reasons for failure of the team. One of them may be the ego of the individual team members.

Ego generally refers to an individual’s sense of self-importance and has been defined in different ways by psychiatrists.  Ego plays a major role in shaping one’s life and ego clashes are well known. Even small children have egos. So how does ego affect our performance as a team?

Let’s take a quick quiz:

Team Goals

What are the goals of the team? Who is playing which role?  Which role is being given what importance and what will be the amount of credit given?  These questions must be distinctly defined in advance otherwise the result will be conflict at some point of time. Every team member has to be clearly told about the expectations from him/her and the importance for successful completion. These are personality goals that have to be defined and achieved.

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 they can expect or even needs to be pampered. In such a case the team member has to be given that feedback and asked to keep his/her ego expectations low in supporting team goals.

Ego can contribute to great success but can also create great havoc. Control the ego of the team members and you will get fabulous results. Quiz your team about these aspects and everyone on the team will win.