The good times are over. Do we still have room for egos, office politics, and power games? As a leader, you should leave your ego at the door.
Entrepreneurs and military commanders have much more in common than you might think.
Why do I know? As the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, and an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces, I can draw examples from both worlds.
However, with all the commonalities, there is a large variation in personality among entrepreneurs and military commanders. Some of them are down-to-earth and quietly doing their work, while others rely on status symbols and public clout.
I am of the first type. I hate status symbols, office politics, and ego shows. I have even left a well-paid corporate job because I decided I had different goals in life than participating in office politics.
During my last military career step, I came across a person of the second type. Here is a comparison of our different world views.
Mission First
It’s quite simple: The only mission of a startup is to solve a problem for its customers and make money doing so. The only mission of a battalion is to deliver its defined combat performance in support of the Armed Forces as a whole.
Down-to-earth leaders focus on getting the job done — in the military, we call this “mission first.”
Egocentric leaders don’t solve the pressing problems, but keep telling everyone how special their startup or battalion is. You can call it an excuse for not solving the pressing problems if you want.
Simplicity
Getting the job done in a startup or in a battalion is difficult. In today’s fast-changing world, customer needs and enemy tactics change faster than ever before. That’s why you will have to invest all your time and energy in making your organization work under those conditions.
Down-to-earth leaders know that simplicity beats complexity. The more complex a solution, the less likely it is to work in the real world.
Egocentric leaders weave their hunger for power and status into day-to-day work, complicating things for everybody.
Camaraderie
In the military, there is the concept of camaraderie. In a nutshell, it describes that a random bunch of people who haven’t chosen to work with each other need to survive and succeed in the adverse conditions of combat.
Down-to-earth leaders work with the team they have, well knowing that they depend as much on their team as the team depends on their leadership. In Switzerland, we call this one for all, all for one.
Egocentric leaders maintain an inner circle, give privileges to individual team members, and badmouth other team members behind their backs.
Conclusion
Of course, it’s not as black-and-white as I described it above. Nevertheless, the good times are over, and we are once again facing dire times. I leave it to you to assess if we still have room for egos in tough times, or if we should rather focus on solving the pressing problems together with our teams.
Is it naive to think that egos, office politics, and power games will disappear entirely when the ride gets tough? Maybe. But if you don’t start working on your own attitude, they will for sure not disappear.
