99U: One of the most destructive of creative sins is an over-inflated ego. When many people hear the word “ego,” they immediately think of the know-it-all manager charging into the room and insisting that everyone bend their life and work around his every whim. This is certainly one exhibition of ego, but there are less obvious types that we must be careful to avoid if we want to do our best creative work consistently.
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This reminds me a little of an earlier article about passion versus engagement- they both emphasized strongly that an effective worker always puts the work before themselves. I've worked with people like this before, and it was difficult every time. While the person who plays the victim and disengages is annoying, I feel that the other two people- the aggressive and easily offended people- can be more dangerous to a project, as they risk hurting other people and ruining effective cooperation.
I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but I think all of these suggestions can be boiled down to having a sense of humor. The title of the article, "Get Over Yourself," alludes to this fact. All three of the "traps" mentioned here would be avoided with a healthy sense of humor to guide us. By sense of humor I don't mean being good at making jokes. In fact, being seen as the "joker" in a professional group can often be a detriment. Humor is about balance. The term comes from an idea in ancient Greek medicine that proposed a mixture of fluids coursed through our bodies, each responsible for an aspect of health or character. When one fluid was too low or too high, out of whack, symptoms of ill-health or ill-temper would arise. For me, then, a sense of humor is also about balance, between confidence and humility, between self-promotion and self-deprecation, between seriousness and levity. Another way to say this might be "perspective." Egotism shutters all true perspective because the view is always perceived as being from the top. Discerning how our specific skill set serves the goals of the group at the moment is the first step in being effective, and it starts with knowing what we're good at and what we're not, a distinction which ego does not allow.
I particularly liked the ending of this article, saying to put yourself in your work and not to let your ego or anyone else's in the way of doing your best work. I have had to work with people that are very into themselves and do not care much to listen to what the rest of the group had to say and this just makes the work so much more challenging. It turns a simple task into a fight over how things should be done and ends with disagreement and a project that may not turn out so well.
As soon as I saw the title of the article I actually started to think about how ego has effect my creativity and my thoughts went to a similar area that his first point went to. The article makes three good points, that I really should think about on a daily basis, but I wanted to say it is nice for a person to feel "safe" in a environment to say their ideas, which is nice but truly I do not think is needed. A person should have confidence that their ideas are worth being said, they may not be the idea that solves everything but it could be a point on a map. People bring different perspective and that what makes working on a team great. These are three points I need to remember and to remember to take a risk.
*A little note before this post... After writing it, I realized I got very personal... which I guess was unnecessary, but this has been a very predominant subject on my mind recently...*
It's funny, people always mistaken confidence and ego. I know that I'm someone who has to get over themselves, I fall victim to the last two points. I always feel like I'm being attacked and I am easily offended. I don't play the victim though, I actually hate when people do that. I try really hard not to be offended or defensive when I get criticism and what ever I feel, I keep inside and don't project and I'll take the criticism and see what I can do with it. When I get criticism or when someone says something that is somehow related to me, I always feel like there is an underlying meaning to what they are saying. I think it developed when I was really young and I got picked on a lot but I denied it constantly because I remember saying that I was never bullied or made fun of... but then as I got older, I realized I was. Throughout elementary school, probably because of the way others treated me, I had wanted everyone to like me and I thought if one person disliked me, everyone else must dislike me too. So growing up, I've been used a lot. I like doing things for other people because it allows me to sort of step out of my own life. (I guess that's pretty selfish too) I somehow developed this tendency to assume that everyone hates me or sees me invaluable until I'm actually useful for something. (My ego speaking!) The worst part is, I also feel like I'm always on everyone's fence and so one mistake, I'm done and everyone will know and everyone will hate me and I'll be alone.
It's a problem and I totally need to "get over myself". It's hard but I have amazing people in my life who have been helping me and I am now able to say aloud that I have a problem and I'm not ashamed of it, it's just something I need to work on!
One thing this article reminds me of is our drawing class. People get so caught up in worrying that their drawing isn't good. They don't like how it looks and they think then that they are not good at drawing and will never be and that is the end. They decide that because they are not good at drawing, its not their responsibility to try to improve their skills and they shut themselves off to learning. Similar to the article's "playing the victim" section, this doesn't really seem like a display of ego; these people are acknowledging that they don't have a skill. But what they are actually doing is not fully putting themselves into the work in front of them, like the article says, because they are afraid of opening themselves up to critique when they expect they will not receive positive feedback. Accepting that you don't have strong skills in something does not display putting one's ego aside; what does do this is a willingness to work on something that they consider a weakness and put themselves into it fully as they would something that they are confident in.
The first place my mind went with this article was towards management. Arguable I don't personally view my craft as one fraught with creativity, thought I'm sure some of my peers would disagree in that regard. I see this idea of "ego" really rooted in the idea of perception or understanding of what your job is, and how it's meant to be performed. When people establish what their role is, and what the process should be, they start closing themselves off to other ways that could not only prove to be more engaging and educational, but serve the final product better. As managers it is crucial for us to be almost chameleon like with our approach to creative process to allow a production to reach it's full potential. And by prescribing traditional conventions of how something should become is really detrimental to a process as well as a product.
This article reminds me of a very good friend of mine. I am extremely close with this friend and somehow I manage to put up with his ego. He happens to work for a major national lighting rental company, which has boosted his ego significantly the past few years. I have worked alongside him and personally seen how his ego hurts him. I notice people don't particularly enjoy working with him even though I don't let his ego bother me. I certainly can see how ego creates a hostile work environment as the article points out. After watching my friend I have always promised myself to not act that way, because ego really does hinder the work we do in the entertainment industry.
I found this to be a very thought-provoking article. Growing up, my mother would reinforce to us that "language is everything" and "it's all in how you say it". The difference between "I'm valuable" and "I'm invaluable" is slight, but huge. I read this and heard her voice in my head regarding semantics and optimism. These traps are all too easy to fall into, but as he mentions, the important part is to maintain a healthy dose of perspective. This in itself can be a challenge when you are so invested in your work.
While the points made in this argument are extremely valuable, I feel as though it really all boils down to one key point. Creativity is only available to those who are open and accepting. Each point that Henry makes is simply a restatement of how to be open or a good tip of how to do so. Nonetheless, this article is extremely valuable and hits on some very important ponta for artists to take to heart.
Within the School of Drama, or any performing arts organization, you see a lot of people falling into these “Ego Traps,” myself no less than anybody else. As theatre artists, we tend to fall into these traps simply doing our jobs. I think the article’s distinction between ego and confidence is probably the best line of the article. “Confidence says ‘I’m Valuable’ while ego says ‘ I’m Invaluable’”.
We might all do well to think about the difference between having confidence in ourselves and our work compared to having an inflated personality.
School of drama is definitely known for being such a large egotistical community. But this article effectively nails on the head how to peg the difference between ego and confidence.
Playing the victim: not willing to compromise with anyone
Over defending turf: I can do no wrong versus I can get this right
Being easily offended
The last I feel is the most significant to School of drama, I have found myself succumbing to this reaction on countless occasions but in such a collaborative field like ours I try to remind myself to not take offense and admit when I am wrong or mistaken and learn from it. There is no need to become offensive or try to play the victim if I have been proven incorrect on something.
I found this article really interesting and pretty enlightening. I didn't realize that playing the victim was actually a form of ego. In the past I have definitely had those thoughts, "they don't want to hear my opinion so I just won't even try to give it", and others in the past and I never realized that was actually my ego. This has motivated me to avoid those kind of thoughts and always to my best regardless of what others think about my contributions. I have definitely worked with people in the past whose ego have made it difficult to work with them and I really don't want to be like that. This article has made me reevaluate how I think about myself.
Make sure that you keep the conversation about the work in a creative environment. People need to get over the idea that what they have to say is the only way to do things. People need to be able to be very open about their intuition about certain items and if there is an easily offended person in the room that can be tough. Sometimes in a creative context the other line that is not really clear happens to be the most important. You need to know who has the final say in a collaborative environment and people need to have mutual respect in order to be able to let it go when they are over ruled. You can through a much longer and more difficult consensus process remove the ego and most of the personal character dominance but that process requires in many cases more time and discipline than people have. If you want to indulge your creativity to its fullest and make sure that each persons input is respected then you need to look at setting aside the time and people need to have the confidence to fully develop their ideas. In our industry I completely agree with Andrew and think that you need to find the balance and that will be a continual struggle throughout life. You must know yourself and know the group in order to be true collaborators and if the group dynamic does not allow for that you need a backup plan to deal with someone who has brought ego into the room. Being a good creative collaborator takes a lifetime of study of human interaction and some of us are naturally better at it than others but the second that you stop evaluating how you interact and how you comport yourself in that context you are no longer growing as a collaborator.
I've definitely fallen into some of these traps before. I think I've learned the hard way to always keep a good mindset about you and to make sure you're always willing to get along with your team mates. I think a lot of this advice speaks to healthy collaboration and teamwork. You should be a solid and respected member of your group, but you shouldn't overstep your bounds nor "take your ball and go home." Playing nicely with others is definitely just as valuable as how good you are at playing.
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