“The agonized ego is a ring of defense around nothing.”

— Alan Watts

Management and ego sort of travel together. On my worst days at work, I usually trace it back to ego, meaning things that seemed really god awful sort of diminish to “more annoying than tragic” once I ask “was this tragic or am I protecting myself from something?”

I think that’s work for everybody, not just managers, but in the midst of a tough transition, I know my team is watching and appraising and there’s an extra burden: They want stability, advocacy, and a sense of up- and across-managing effectiveness.

It’s not my favorite zone. Hero managers — performative “us against the world” types — feed off the cheap energy of a team they’ve quietly convinced is dependent on them for protection from whatever is out there. That’s unchecked ego. Gratification of the self at the expense of whatever common purpose we can somehow cobble together at work.

I had my hero manager, Man of the People phase, and it hurt my team. My mode is more subdued these days, and that’s an opposite swing of the pendulum that doesn’t always read well in hard times.