Is Ego necessary for managers?

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, in a recent interview, said when he visited Poona for a music concert, ” This is a creative field. One must have a huge ego to stick to their kind of music.”

Ego is a state of mind which claims " I am alone right". This state is needed when you are engaged in areas which work on subjective evaluation. Artists in music, painting and entertainment are evaluated subjectively. Therefore, in order to stick to one's type of music, it is necessary to have this ego so that one can continue on its path despite other's adverse opinions and even market 'feedback'. The ego is necessary for these artists because evaluation is based on sensorial discrimination, and therefore subjective. That is why you will find popular music as varied as Michael Jackson and Ravi Shankar. Infact, having ego is dire need of artists.

Ego is also needed when one is moving into unventured territory. For instance, cutting edge entrepreneurs also need Ego as they venture in unknown territory. Imagine the conviction that Larry Page or Sergie Brin of Google needed to work on the idea of search engine, when the market of search engine was dominated by Portal kings like Yahoo. This conviction has to be supported by "EGO". Without ego, these entrepreneurs may quickly change their direction when they face the first gust of wind!

In corporate world though, the dynamics is different. 'I am right' is often a wrong receipe because 'collaboration' among different specialists is more important to get the work done. As 'ends' are more important than 'means', management is often guided by what is more appropriate in a given situation than what is right in a situation. Due to the corporate dynamics, Ego is likely to result into grandiose and unrealistic actions. Confidence may also border towards arrogance causing reportees to shut of their mouth resulting into lack of critical inputs on the table. State of ego is therefore generally more harmful in corporate world. One can however think of some situations in corporate world, where it may be a necessity, although such situations could be very small in number.