The book, Ego Free Leadership is uniquely comprehensive in sharing vital wisdoms needed in the world today. Beyond writing a theoretical how-to book, co-authors, Brandon Black and Shayne Hughes, incorporate their real-life stories of challenges and changes that give a all-inclusive experience of the process. Their fascinating journey keeps the reader engaged through a decade of recent business history.
Black is the CEO of Encore Capital Group and Hughes is a coach partner of Learning as Leadership (LaL). The book follows the shifts in personal and business life of Black and Encore through the coaching relationship from 2005 through today. Black starts the process very skeptically and initially disengages with the coaching process. Necessity opens him slowly up to embracing new concepts and manners that prove worthy as both Black and his company evolve into successes.
The concepts of Ego Less Leadership are both common sense and evolutionary. Hughes writes:
" Even when we grasp what proper collaboration looks like, if we don’t recognize when our ego has been triggered during a workplace interaction, we will contribute to mistrust and discord through our frustration and agitation.
The parts of ourselves that we don’t know that we don’t know them, our subconscious or unconscious mechanisms, become the enemy to our objectives. Saying and believing we want a goal is our conscious awareness, yet underlying beliefs often drive our behaviors and, thus, results. Hughes terms these underlying sabotaging beliefs as ego and shows how the ego is brought to the surface of consciousness to work with. As a coach, he facilitates the client to "identify ego threats and communicate with vulnerability. "
We have many hidden ego threats, which are expanded upon in the book. One of the biggest hazards in a business can be divisiveness within what is meant to be collaboration. " When we are caught up in our Us vs. Them dynamics, our frustrations with the other side lead us to ignore the damage we are causing with our gridlock and accusations," Hughes explains.
The presentation through this case study gives an in depth look at the transformation from dysfunction to successful leadership. I commend Black for his exemplary vulnerability and "egolessness" in gifting the world with his story. Hughes' unmasks another leadership quality through his own persistence to adhere to the ego-free model as he guides Black.
Whether you are leading a business or a family relationship, anyone serious about making a real shift from struggle to joyful flow will find Ego Free Leadership captivating.