The Biggest Mistake New Leaders Make | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

*Video Transcription*

Hi, I’m Emily Bermes, and this is 120 Seconds to Better Leadership. 

I want to talk quickly today about one of the biggest mistakes that I see leaders make when they assume a new role. And there are about 10 of them that I talk about in my book that’s coming out in just a couple of months. There’ll be more about pre-orders on that soon.

But the most detrimental mistake executives make is to come into a new role leading with their ego.

And what that can look like – it can look a lot of different ways – but it can look like people who are very quick to tout their past accomplishments, name-drop folks that they have worked with in the past. They tend to vie for status and power in meetings, sometimes by shutting other people down, sometimes by talking more or louder than other people. 

And it’s sort of a credential-measuring contest when you get two high-ego people in a room, and it can become quite dysfunctional. Because what happens when we come from our egos – and we all have them but is that primarily where you’re coming from? – then we actually provoke other people to be defensive, and therefore to go into more of their egoic state as well. So, it adds fuel to the fire.

We all have egos, but when someone comes in and really leads with it, it tends to make other people either shut down or react similarly.

If you imagine the quality of conversation in meetings when too much of what’s going on is really about jockeying for position or vying for power, a whole lot of important parts of the conversation are not happening, and it’s very difficult to be leading with any sort of humility if that’s the state of mind that you’re in.

So, that’s one of the many cautionary tales about starting a new role. 

Lead with humility. Lead with an attitude of curiosity and learning and check your ego at the door.

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