The Ego Fallacy to demonstrate leading & managing

I’m sure you already know that you lead people and manage tasks & things.

The confusing piece is that in a real work scenario, most of the time you have to lead and manage simultaneously.

Which is where The Ego Fallacy comes into play “You have to manage a salesperson’s ego.”

That is just crazy! Ego is someone’s view of themselves. You can’t manage that.

You can lead a salesperson to hold up their metaphorical ego mirror and bring them to the path of working toward a healthy ego. They have to be willing to walk down that path on their own – you can’t manage the ego work they choose to do or not do.

What you can manage is the task of outlining appropriate ways to interact with other people and departments. You can hold a salesperson accountable for the communication style they choose and the ways they communicate. You can ensure they understand the implications of not being aligned with people they work with, along with the things they can do to create teamwork working toward a common objective.

This task isn’t simple, as you are leading and managing all at once, and it certainly isn’t easy to accomplish with every individual salesperson on your team.