How God Complex Impacts Your Leadership Skills? Combat It?

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It’s not surprising, and it happens pretty frequently. People overestimate their skills when it comes to managing things. It does not just affect their work but their relationship with others too.

According to a survey conducted in 2017,  around 80 % of leaders reported that they have a transparent relationship with the employees.

However, there were only 55% of an employee who claimed to have a transparent manager.

The report further stated that 71% of managers believe the right way of motivation but 44% of employees agree.

There is a dichotomy that leaders have,  this leads to the feelings of not being appreciated and unheard among employees.

This is what God complex is all about, and to make sure it doesn’t impact on the leader’s skills, here is how you can address and fix it.

What You Should Know About God Complex?

It’s easier to spot the individual who is suffering from a god complex.

They keep themselves on top of everything.  For them, they are superior and elite.

It’s a psychological state of mind when the person develops the belief that they have much more abilities and powers.

They start believing that they are above the others and consider themselves as some kind of deity.

However, when it comes to having a god complex when you are a leader, it makes the team suffer and affects the overall work too.

When you are suffering from a god complex as a leader, you cause a lack of communication, understanding and the team gets much more confused.

warning sign having god complex

How God Complex Impacts Your Leadership?

Having a god complex can impact on your good skills in leadership. There are several drawbacks and impacts that you need to consider.

Fail To Empower The Team

When you are the leader, it’s tempting that you should have all the answers. But the focus should be empowering your team so they can find their solutions.

Also helps in exploring and doing experiments until they reach the answers to their requests is what leaders need to do.

But when you are having the mindset of doing things only in your way, it won’t inspire the team. And this impact on growth as well as innovation.

God complex also leads the micromanagement and leaves the team feels unappreciated and morally hurt.

Getting Intoxicated With Major Power Trip

When leaders get the feeling of being superior they fall victim to the power trip.

 They become more full of themselves and listen less to the people around them.

This makes them more irritating and unapproachable. And for being a successful leader, this is not something you should have.

The leaders should have the skills like being supportive, transparent, and easy to approach.

Fail To Be Relatable And Approachable

When you get the feeling of superiority, leaders start showcasing their success and triumphs.

This also makes them focus less on their own faults as well as shortcomings.

Not just you get the feeling of intimidating and makes you less approachable by others.

Limitation To The Success

God complex also makes the leaders unwilling to fail. However, to become a successful leader,  failure is the stepping stone that leads to success.

For true leaders,  understanding the chances of errors and how to combat them is crucial.

How Having God Complex Hurts Your Team?

When the leader is suffering from a god complex, not just they have to bear the consequences but the team suffers too.

Here are some points regarding how your god complex is going to damage the team.

Damage The Morale And Spirit Of Team

When leaders are adamant not to accept their faults and mistakes, it makes the team lose their morale. Also, it damages the spirit too.

Also when leaders are suffering from the god complex, they don’t listen to others and when someone points out their mistakes, they lash out instead of accepting.

This can make the team feel like they are not doing work properly. Also, it can increase the rate of people quitting the job.

In such a situation, the communication also gets affected and it can blindside others as well as the team.

Information Can Be Misleading

You might need to communicate with the stakeholders regarding the progress of the projects as you are the leader.

However, leaders with god complex tend to have bad communication skills.  This can mislead others especially when you don’t have the proper information.

Not So Appropriate Roles

Well, leaders who have god complex take roles that are not considered appropriate.

The true role of a leader in creating the vision and mission statement. Also allocating the resources,  analyzing the reports and data.

When you are going through the god complex, you get the belief that you are much better than anyone and it will get the project doomed.

How You Can Combat If You Have a God Complex?

Well if you notice some of the signs and you are willing to change them. There are plenty of points that can help you in getting rid of the god complex.

Here are a few pointers that you can consider using for preventing the god complex and how you can keep the management style away from this.

Embracing The Failure

It’s important that you embrace failure as its important step toward success.

Also, it’s an important step that makes you more supportive and approachable as a leader.

That’s why you should encourage your team to get out of their comfort zone.  Let them stretch their goals and put the big ideas in real ways.

If something is not working out, focus on learning from it.

One of the examples who makes the best use of failures as their powerful tool is Google.

The managers accept the failure but also spend a good amount of time in discussing projects to understand what went wrong.

Focusing On What You Do

Well, leaders require to understand that even if the employee directly reports to you, it doesn’t mean they serve you or whatsoever.

Your employees are working to gain something when they are working with you.

Make sure you are not using sentences that sound self-serving, it includes “ I need you to “ or “ it would really help me if “.

Such sentences emphasize on what your team members can do for you.

However, make sure to focus on how you can serve the team members too.

You can use sentences that make you more supportive and approachable.

Don’t Get Lost In Your Own World

The god-complex leader creates their own world where everything should go according to them.

This mostly happens when the leader forgets to see the bigger picture and focuses solemnly on one thing.

It’s important for the leader to take the bigger picture into consideration, so the team doesn’t lose focus.

Open About What You Struggled

Focusing on your success can help in setting up an example for the team.  And there is nothing wrong when it comes to showcasing what you achieved.

However, you can also share about your efforts, flops, and failure times.

When your team is facing something or struggling, you can share your similar experience to encourage the team.

Also, take accountability and avoid shifting the blame to others.

Ask More Of Questions

When people have a god complex they are not willing to listen. Also, they don’t take someone else’s opinion or thoughts into their consideration.

To make sure you are not doing that, here are a few questions to ask :

  • What is their way that is best to move forward?
  • What do they think about your ideas?
  • What are their suggestions or improvements that they want to add?

Ask the important questions and look for what they respond to you.

Take Other’s Ideas And Suggestions

Instead of believing that your idea is the best and nothing else can compete.  Listen to others.

For creative people, it’s common to get obsessed with their own ideas.  However for success and becoming a better leader, make sure you have an open mind.

Take other people’s thoughts into consideration, and talk about their plans and ideas.

Avoid The Constant Desire To Be Enlightened One

Creative people can go overboard sometimes when it comes to knowing everything. Also, they flaunt their knowledge too.

Lots of times it becomes the way of feeding the insecurity too.  To make sure you are not doing it,  ignoring is the perfect bliss.

Learning is important for leaders, but do not get obsessed with it.

Appreciate Others & Support Them

Leaders are supposed to support and appreciate their teams. It will help in boosting morale and confidence.

The leader should not look down on their own team.

Make sure you are aware of your thoughts and track them. Once you are aware of your own habit you can know how to avoid it too.

Focus on improving the team and approach their efforts.

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