Narcissists are those who greatly admire their own abilities and while this may seem like an attribute that would help in business, the need for constant gratification can quickly mean the demise of any success your business has already seen.
Believing in yourself is one thing but when your ego takes over and you have an inflated sense of self-importance, you can also miss opportunities for advancement. Is narcissism becoming more common? It certainly seems that way. As a state of mind, appearances seem to be everything to more and more of our customers and at the same time, it’s also becoming more common among business owners.
Ask yourself, when your business runs into difficulties, are you open to discussing it with someone else or taking an honest look at what went wrong or do you tend to blame something or someone else for your problems? Are you interested in the business community in your area or is it all about you and your business? If either of these questions shows that others hold no interest for you, then there is a good possibility that you tend to be narcissistic.
Realizing your temperament tends toward narcissism is the first step toward changing it. Looking at yourself in a mature manner shows you that narcissism has no place in your business. What you appear to be is not necessarily what you are and to be successful as a business owner, your customers want to know that what they see is what they get.
Turning your narcissism into pride in your work is a big help toward ridding yourself of an unwanted personality trait. Of course you should be proud of what you do and you can show it in your marketing and advertising. Taking it a step further, ask your customers what they don’t like about your current offers and what they would like to see available in the future.
Those two steps alone will take your mind off yourself and onto something productive. Rather than believing that you will automatically attain success and that you deserve it, take the steps that need t be taken to ensure your business is headed up, not down. While a need for attention is strong in narcissists, there is no reason why that attention has to come from outside yourself. Put some effort into learning something or developing a new product that you would praise if it came from another.
There is nothing wrong with thinking the best of yourself. It’s when it gets in the way of thinking about others that it causes a problem. Your business is based on what others think. Taking advantage of your customers for your own personal gain will cause you to lose your business. Learn more about empathy and find out how your caring about others, through your business, can actually help you feel better.
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2015
image courtesy of sickrose
