CE (go) O & the art of “Chanakya Neeti

At Equirus Wealth Private Limited, it was my 3rd role as CEO and over the last 10 years as a CEO, I have had vast amounts of learnings.
One of them is that my role involves a lot of Ego Management. "CEO" also stands for Chief Ego Officer 😊

(1) My own ego – First & foremost, need to keep my own ego in check all the time.
In my early days as CEO in 2015, I was on an ego trip and used to show attitude during my meetings. And guess what, I ended being the loser in the relationships. Thankfully learnt my lesson early & course corrected soon thereafter

(2) Egos around us –Seniors, peers, middle management & the young colleagues.
Surprisingly, I have experienced far less ego on display from successful senior management including promoters & Board members.
It is much more in the “middle management”! Self- confidence is impressive but there is a need to draw a line.
While we may not call it ego but there seems to be a lack of humility in some of the younger co-workers nowadays.

Careers are long & there is so much more left to learn & chieve.

So, what do I do in my role as the C-Ego-O.

I use the good old Chanakya-Neeti principles of साम दाम दंड भेद – “Saam, Daam, Dand & Bhed”
(Roughly translated as persuasion, temptation, punishment & extermination)

In the following order -

(1) Give feedback & hope for improvement
(2) Give positive strokes on seeing change of behaviour
(3) Punish repeat offenders
(4) Exit the relationship and avoid the negativity .

Some doctors refer to Diabetes as a silent killer. And so is EGO. It will eventually come in the way of success & happiness. Either we proactively manage egos or unfortunately we will have to wait for an accident / trauma to correct ourselves.

My take -
Let’s not take ourselves too seriously.
Let's live & let live.
It’s a short life – Enjoy & spread the positivity & cheer 😊