From the course: Using Feedback to Drive Performance
Lack of humility
- Author Patrick Lencioni writes that the ideal team player is humble, hungry, and smart. If a team player doesn't embody all three of these values, then there is a high likelihood of undesired performance issues. So what do we do if we have a team member that has undesired performance due to lack of humility? While you simply cannot force or teach humility, there are tactics that you can use to improve your performance feedback for your team members with an ego. First, you should try to find out why they have the ego that they have. While you might not always find the answer, if you can determine that this is the result of siblings, parents, dominant figures, experiences, backgrounds, whatever provoked the ego, then you can use this to foster performance. If you know the source of ego, then you can have a better idea of what language to use and what buttons to push, and what areas to challenge to encourage their best behavior. Try to find the source of the ego. You can also lean into the ego in your conversation. Tough love, blame, and accusation typically doesn't work, and isn't as effective with a person lacking humility. If they believe that they are great, lean into it. Egotistical people love praise. So start the conversation by bringing up something good about their contribution to the team. Lean into the ego, and then rather than telling the areas of concern, approach feedback as a question of continuous improvement. Team members that have an ego will more likely engage in feedback discussion for the opportunity of continuous improvement, rather than fixing bad performance. So rather than fixing something that is wrong, improve upon something, ask questions, and make sense suggestions about how you can improve progress towards desired outcomes. If the person is satisfied with their performance and progress, ask for ideas on how they can continuously improve. Frame the conversation from going from good to great, rather than horrendous to satisfactory. Working with egos can be challenging. So when you experience a team member with a lack of humility, here's what I want you to do. Lean into the ego, and then approach the performance conversation through a lens of continuous improvement.
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