Have you ever wondered why some companies always stay small? Many times, I have seen private companies grow to around US$50 million in sales and pretty much stop there. I have a feeling one of the reasons is the CEO does not know how to work with managers under him. He likes to make all the decisions and will not delegate decision-making to his managers. This tends to stop growth at that US$50 million level. A few years ago, I prepared a presentation on this problem titled CEO PRIDE. I think it is still important today, so I uploaded it into SLIDESHARE. I talk about using the advantages of pride and avoiding the disadvantages. Have a look at it. If you have any comments on it, drop me a note.

1. A company’s greatest
asset ……
CEO Pride
1
Or biggest expense

2. Danger: The average person does not think that other
people are as confident in themselves, and therefore he
thinks he is superior to others.
This sense of superiority is connected to power and ego.
This can have positive or negative influence on business,
depending on their use.
There was an internet survey that asked
executives, (1) if they were confident in
themselves, and (2) if they thought other
executives had the same level of confidence.
1. 83% of the executive said they were
confident in themselves.
2. 27% of them thought others had the same
level of confidence.
Internet Survey of CEO’s
2

3. Ego is not all bad:
1. It sparks the drive to invent products.
2. It encourages achievement.
3. It gives people the nerve to try new things.
4. It helps us overcome set-backs.
5. It can be a company’s greatest asset.
As a manager achieves success, his confidence grows, and it
can reach a damaging level. At that point, the person must
review his way of thinking.
But, if we can not control ego’s strong forces there are weaknesses.
1. We will not make quality decisions.
2. We will not evaluate proposals effectively.
3. We will not gather enough or appropriate information.
4. We will not seek advice when need be.
5. We will lose trust in people and them in us.
6. We will lose the chance for open discussion.
7. We will lose trust in people and them in us.
Ego and profit
3

4. Confidence & Value
Confident Decisive, courageous
Action oriented
Sets and achieves
high goals
Clear direction, confronts
realities, eliminates guessing
Strength Value to organization
Good
communication
Intelligent
Sees beyond obvious,
makes creative decisions
4

5. From Strength to Weakness
Confident Infallible
Determined Inflexible
Decisive Hasty
Dedicated Workaholic
Strength Weakness
Committed Intolerant
Smart Know-it-all
Charismatic Manipulative
5
Empathic Pushover

6. If a person loses control of his ego, he and his company could lose trust,
respect and reputation. This will badly influence, employees, careers,
business affiliations, customers and market share. It can be very damaging
from many perspectives.
Value to risk
Confident Closed-minded,
domineering, intimidating
Action oriented
Impatient, resists changes
that might improve results
Creates fear, intimidates
others, starts gossip
Strength Risk to
organization
Communication
Intelligent
Dismisses or demeans
colleagues who disagree
Value to
organization
Decisive, courageous
Sets and achieves
high goals
Clear direction, confronts
realities, eliminates guessing
Sees beyond obvious, makes
creative decisions
6

7. Becoming balanced
Determined Flexible
Independent Inclusive
Ambitious Selfless
Competitive Collaborative
Strength Balance
Direct Diplomatic
Intense Easy going
Motivated Patient
7

8. Four warning signs
Makes
comparison
Seeks
acceptance
Defensive
excessively
Must be
center of
attention
How strongly
does he behave
this way?
How often does
he behave this
way?
8Source: Egonomics, David Marcum & Steven Smith

9. Making comparisons:
1. Some people think their ideas are always best and do not explore
further possibilities. This restricts their learning.
2. If you must compare, it is better to compare yourself right now with
yourself in the future, than comparing yourself with others.
3. If you make comparisons with others to learn, that can be very
worthwhile. But to compare just to win might not be.
4. When your attention is totally on the competition, you might miss
opportunities that your customers are signaling you.
5. When comparisons to win become too strong, (1) We could set goals
we should not be achieving. (2) We could set goals too high. (3) We
could set goals very easy to reach.
Warning sign #1
9
Making
comparison
Source: Egonomics, David Marcum & Steven Smith

10. The risk of making comparisons and setting goals:
1. Wrong Goals: If we are always looking to what others are doing,
we might miss what really needs to be done.
2. Unrealistic Goals: When we set our goals too high, we set
ourselves up for failure. That results in quickly giving up, worry
and frustration. We don’t even attempt what could be achieved.
3. Simple Goals: If our goals are too easy, we never will grow. Also,
we won’t know just how much we can achieve with more effort.
Warning sign #1
10
Making
comparison
Source: Egonomics, David Marcum & Steven Smith

11. Being defensive:
1. You should defend your ideas and opinions with good
reasoning and accept other ideas with good reasoning. You
need not defend yourself.
2. You know you are too defensive when you are the center of
attention to prove your case, not to solve the problem with
the best solution.
3. If you are giving ultimatums rather than encouraging
options, you are too defensive.
4. Even though it is difficult to hear a different opinion, the
truth is always better than statements exaggerated,
understated or incorrect.
Warning sign #2
Being
defensive
11Source: Egonomics, David Marcum & Steven Smith

12. Being center of
attention:
1. If you are always the center of attention, information, ideas
and attitudes of other people are lost. They may have the
key information needed.
2. If others’ have no chance to express their opinions or
suggestions, great ideas may be lost.
3. Collective intelligence outperforms the brightest individual
almost every time.
Warning sign #3
12
Being center
of attention
Source: Egonomics, David Marcum & Steven Smith

13. Our confidence grows over time and experience. The
more we know, the more confident we become. When
our confidence increases to the point where we think
there is little to learn, we become less open. That is the
point when we close the door to listening and learning.
13
Warning sign #3 – Being center of attention
Time
Learning,listening
&openness

14. Needing acceptance:
1. If people disagree with you, they are rejecting your
ideas/opinion only, not you as a person.
2. People should have the right and opportunity to attack your
ideas while at the same time praising you as a person.
3. Leadership is best reserved for those who do not need a
great deal of acceptance of others.
4. When we must have the acceptance of other people, we
tend to play it safe and hold back. This makes us weak
leaders.
5. When hurting someone’s feelings is too important, honesty
suffers.
Warning sign #3
14
Needing
acceptance
Source: Egonomics, David Marcum & Steven Smith

15. Three methods to use ego positively
Sweat spot
of all three
Advance your
emotional
maturity
Increase your
determination
Expand your
curiosity
15

16. Emotional mature is the first principle, because if
successfully applied it will open minds, increase
listening and learning.
This maturity is temporarily suspending our opinions
and encouraging discussion and debate in the best
interest of the business.
Advancing your maturity
Advance your
emotional
maturity
16

17. Maturity - Dedicated to achievement
Balanced
Maturity
Devoted to
progress
(common good
vs. self)
I’m smart, but
don’t know
everything
17
Experienced,
but learning
(always
confirming
status)

18. To be most productive, a person must be balanced.
When should he ask questions and get information? When should he decide and
execute his decision?
When should he listen? When should he talk?
He must have drive, but he must know when it is best to let others take
responsibility, make decisions and execute plans.
Most people do not have enough ego drive to get things going. Others have too
much. In either case, we have to identify early warning signs mentioned in earlier
slides when a person is either not being assertive enough and when he is over
assertive. The feelings of the people around you will show the answer.
What is maturity?
18
Levelof
Frequency&
intensity
Is over confident
Is arrogant
Is demanding
Is unwilling to listen
Levelof
Frequency&
intensity
Acts intelligent
Shows self-respect
Is genuine
Is confident
Earlywarning
signs
Lacks confidence
Has no self-respect
Has no motivation
Has no enthusiasm
Earlywarning
signs
Balance & Maturity
Too
much
Too
little

19. 19
Personality & Maturing
There is no connection with personality and balanced maturity. Some
people tend to be off balanced in some areas, other people in different
areas. Here are four examples:
Blue-intimacy
Values relationships,
Wants to be good to everyone
Could be too defensive.
Grey-peace
Values information,
Wants respect of knowledge
Could try to seek acceptance
too much.
Red-power
Values achievement,
Wants to be respected
Could try to be center of attention
too much.
Yellow-fun
Values enjoying life,
Wants to make good impression
Could make comparisons
too much.

20. Diversity and similarity
There must be a balance between having differing opinions and similar
views.
Too much diversity can create chaos. When differences are great, it is ideal
to have several short meetings, so each party can relax between meetings
and review the other person’s position in his mind. After that review, they
can continue.
Isolation from diversity can create narrow-minded opinions and views.
Diversity & maturity
20
Levelof
violent
discussion
So much diversity
and positioning that
real communication
can not occur
Levelof
agreeable
discussion
Honest aggressive exchange of
opinions with the goal of
generating many ideas and
reaching the best solution
All are agreeable,
but reluctant to
share hard,
truthful situation
Balance of diversity
Much
diversity
Little
diversity

21. Expanding your curiosity
Advance your
emotional
maturity
21
Once we create an open-minded atmosphere through being
more mature, curiosity will activate the exploration of ideas.
Expand your
curiosity

22. If we lead with questions rather than answers, curiosity can prevent us
from holding too tightly to our own ideas and beliefs, and we can fully
grasp others’ points.
If we are truly curious, our satisfaction of the current status has a very
short life span. We soon want to learn and advance further. We are never
finished.
Expanding your curiosity
Expand your
curiosity
22
Active curiosity – Going
out and finding things of
interest .
Passive curiosity – waiting
for something interesting
to come along.

23. Even with maturity and strong curiosity, it is sometimes difficult to break
out of our own habits and comfort zones. It takes determination to apply
leadership in vision, strategy, integrity and full execution.
Increasing your determination
Advance your
emotional
maturity
Expand your
curiosity
23
Increase your
determination

24. Determined:
1. Knowing you have good, bad, old and new habits, you must
be determined to honestly reevaluate them and make
adjustments when needed.
2. People should have the right and opportunity to attack
your ideas while at the same time praising you as a person.
3. Determination is closing the gap of what you think is right
and what is really right. This is something that must be
reviewed regularly as things are always changing.
24
Increasing your determination
Increase your
determination

25. Method of addressing a difficult subject:
1. Ask permission to ask questions.
2. Make your intentions clear before asking any questions.
3. Be very candid in exposing as much factual information
as possible. Let people observe them and examine them.
4. After the above three, go into your questioning.
25
Determination - Getting to the true situation
I wonder what
is the truth!

26. To be most competitive, a company should
build an open-minded culture.
It should maximize peoples’ individual talents
and strengths by intense business debate
with the intentions of progress and without
excess conflict and premature judgment.
With ego under control, greater honesty will
increase the speed of innovation and higher
performance.
Conclusion - Becoming more competitive
26

27. A company’s
greatest asset ……
Or biggest expense
Thank you
27
CEO Pride