Choosing Qualities of an Executive
Know How. Checked.
Know Who. Checked.
We all like to have Steve Jobs because he has always been exceptionally gifted, but he drove people away from his company. Once he was kicked out of Apple, life began to humble him. It was awful tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it.
The key in hiring an executive is a person with a well-manage ego: a humble person.
In a web surveyed about 1,200 people and asked questions about how voters would rank the humility, curiosity and veracity of each candidate. The democrat, Barack Obama, was the clear winner with a score of 80.3 out of 100. Edwards, Giuliani, Romney and McCain all came in at about the same score—all about six points behind Obama.
The worst? Hillary Clinton was clearly last at 68.4.
Successful people usually start with big ambition/big ideas, and a “normal” or healthy ego.
According to Steven Smith even if ego were only costing six percent of revenue, the annual cost of ego would be nearly $1.1 billion for the average Fortune 500 company.
We must not confuse an over-inflated ego with signs of defending ideas as personal. Being too competitive that actually makes you less competitive, seeking acceptance or ideas can be overshadowed by your own intelligence and talent.
Genuine confidence and a healthy ego keeps us from thinking the right size of ourselve. For most people, the opposite of excessive ego is humility, when in fact having too little ego is just as dangerous and unproductive as having too much. In fact, the exact opposite of excessive ego is no confidence at all.
When we strike the right balance between ego and humility, we’re genuinely confident.
Humility is the only real way to become great. Humility is the point of equilibrium between too much ego and not enough.
We can want acceptance without letting it affect our self-worth or authenticity.
When our desire for recognition and respect is balanced, we draw a clear distinction between who we are and what we do.
Based on a great interview from Guy Kawasaki with Steven Smith, the author of Egonomics. Based on the post I would like to take a humanistic point of view and list the features of a person that compliments a developer.
on 08 Sep 2007 at 4:32 am # My Mind
Hey Mario,
The picture says all.
Mindy
on 08 Sep 2007 at 4:34 am # Santiago Parra
Mario, Long time not listen from you. This is a great way to re-connect.
Santiago
on 08 Sep 2007 at 4:36 am # Alan Mcroy
I think the ego must cost more than that to America. Corporate America sucks!