Your ego can get in the way of marketing your business, service, or concern. From our need to be always right, to talking about ourselves incessantly, coming from an attitude of arrogance, to getting attached to the outcomes of what we do. These are just some of the ways that our ego can get in the way.
It becomes all about what we want, when it should be about our hungry customers or our inquiring clients. It becomes imperative that we’re aware of how we conduct ourselves, and how we’re sabotaging our success.
Our ego, however, can also serve us as well. Our ego can help us in setting boundaries and standards of performance and excellence. It can give us the confidence to know we can make a positive difference for our clients.
If we don’t believe in what we do, then no one else will. Ego, in a healthy way, is about playing to our strengths and not to our weaknesses.
There are ways on how can we step away from our ego gratification, and market our business more effectively.
Have An Open Mind
When we come from a place of ego, we tend to be narrowly scoped. Usually, we have difficulty seeing beyond what we can understand. We think we know the only way, that we have all of the answers.
Business success, results, demands that we see the bigger picture. We must be open to new ideas, trends, opinions, and most importantly to the variety of potential customers or clients with whom we’ll undoubtedly interface.
An open perspective may lead us to developing new and innovative products or programs. It allows us to seek out others who we might otherwise dismiss, possibly creating the opportunity for strategic business alliances or partnerships. An open mind gives us these opportunities.
Listening More Than You Talk
Almost every single time that we speak, we’re talking from a place of ego. We are talking about ourselves, something we saw, something we did, something we have an opinion about.
While that is all fine, when it comes to business we need to make some adjustments. Business is about serving the needs of others, specifically your target market. It’s all about them.
To be successful, you need to listen to what they say. What are their biggest problems, needs, and desires? What are they looking for you to do for them? How can your products or services solve their issues?
The only way to determine that is by listening closely and carefully. When you speak, come from a place of inquiry and curiosity. Make sure that everything you talk about, relates back to the client in some way.
Always Serve Others Instead Of Yourself
We’re in business to make money. That end is worthy and necessary to meet our goals of making a living. In order to create a successful business, our orientation must be from the standpoint of serving others.
It’s by serving others that we serve ourselves. Of all the business blunders, this is probably the one that leads the way to slow growth or to eventual business failure.
Each day, we need to evaluate our activities. Certainly, we must handle the various administrative and operational tasks, but aside from them, all other activities need to be focused around serving our clients.
Ask yourself “Is what I’m doing serving or going to serve the needs and requirements of my clients?” If the answer is no, then re-evaluate why you’re doing it in the first place.
You may be wasting your time, money, and energy pursuing activities that have no value. Orient everything you do around serving others, and you’ll end up serving yourself as well.
Always Be Practicing Humility
Humility, the state of being humble is an absolute must in business. Regardless of what you do in life, there will always be times when we can’t control what is happening around us, or to us.
By developing an attitude of gratitude and being thankful in the moment for things that are going well, we’ll then be able to weather the storm much better when things don’t go right.
Practicing humility means that we must face our own failures and imperfections. It also means that we must know our place when it comes to dealing with others. That we must treat others as how we would like to be treated ourselves.
It demands that we set aside our ego and realize that we’re no better or no worse than anyone else, that we’re on our own path that’s unique to us, and for us. There’s no place for ego in a humble heart.
Never Get Too Attached To The Outcome
Becoming attached to outcomes is a surefire path to disappointment and a waste of our mental energy. It’s our ego that fuels our intense desire to create specific outcomes.
And, just like clockwork, this type of attitude leads to disappointment when the desired outcome fails to manifest itself. No one can control the outcome of a situation.
All we can do is make decisions, this based on the best data possible. There are a myriad of intervening circumstances that can derail even the best of plans. For this reason, it’s important to set aside our egos and understand we only have so much power to steer our course.
We need to develop a sense of peace that we have made the best decisions based upon what we know, and then leave it at that.
Avoid Trying To Be Perfect
A big ego usually accompanies an attitude that everything has to be perfect. That you’re perfect. Perfection is an impossible idealism which keeps people from moving forward and accomplishing what they can.
Don’t allow this unproductive attitude to invade your life. It’s rooted in ego, this need to be right, a need to be better than others and beyond reproach. Ironically, most people are not drawn to perfectionists, as they are often perceived as uptight, unrealistic, and appear better than everyone else.
Your clients will be drawn to you because of who you are, your failures, mistakes, and imperfections. People will seek you out because you’re a real genuine person, someone they can identify with. Never allow perfection to stand in the way of being who you are.
Make Mistakes And Talk About Them
Mistakes are a part of life. They’re not mistakes, they’re experiences. What experiences do is they provide us with feedback, which allows us to make better decisions which leads us towards what we want to accomplish.
If we’re not willing to have experiences, we aren’t going to have a business or a life, for that matter. A big ego will often prevent us from having experiences because it perceives that a “mistake” is a bad thing, a sign of failure.
The funny thing about this is that you’re probably the only one who notices the mistake, as others are much too busy being concerned with their own lives to notice.
Get out of yourself, lose your ego and start living. The most successful business owners are the ones who step out, have experiences, fail, and then talk and laugh about them on their way to success.
Consult Ask Others For Help
Always seek out help, information, get feedback from others for inspiration and motivation in everything that you do. If your ego was in play, you wouldn’t, couldn’t even consider such a thing.
If you have a big ego, you don’t have a place for others, their ideas, what they think. Business is all about interfacing with others, from your colleagues, vendors, mentors, to your customers or clients.
To have an open mind, tremendous opportunities can come your way by consulting with others, so just ask for help.
Get Your Story Told By Others
Take yourself and your ego out of the picture and allow others to speak for you. Testimonials, feedback, and referrals are by far the most powerful tools that you can use to build your business.
People relate to the stories that others tell them. They hold much more credibility than if you were to talk about yourself and your clients successes. So actively gather testimonials from those you do business with, then make sure to include them on your site for everyone to read.