Archiv der Kategorie: Culture

Here you find posts about life styles and mindsets of different countries, indtustrial sectors and business functions.

When self-confidence becomes hubris

The biggest hurdle on the way to fulfilling one’s initiatives is the insecurity concerning one’s capabilities – the existing roles; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT); the services offered and the associated building blocks (Business Model Canvas); above all, one’s strategy. The elements on which we build self-confidence are irritating because we only have a vague self-image. Additionally, we develop high expectations and overstate our available assets. We overlook our weaknesses and dangers while worshipping an unrealistic perfectionism. These contradictions create disturbing self-doubt that culminates in boastfulness. The situation is reinforced by coaches and consultants who make us believe that we need to underline our offers with a polished external image and confident appearance. They forget to mention that our bottom line is built on our actual capabilities. The result is an exaggerated complacence that easily turns into hubris.

In the step-by-step discovery of our possibilities, we are oriented towards competition. In doing so, we run the risk of losing touch with reality – in the end, the bar is always higher than that of the competitor. If we switch off our honest self-assessment, then blind pride and exaggerated self-love lead to an overestimation of our abilities – from healthy self-confidence straight into hubris. The following measures prevent this drift into unhealthy self-overestimation.

  • Fulfillable deliverables
    The description of your business model, self-image, and strategy provides the elements you will win your customers. The emphasis is on describing. For example, if you do not clarify your future in words and pictures, you cannot expect your clients‘ buy-in. What matters is your feasible value proposition that is tailored to the target audiences you want to attract.
    Do not create expectations that you cannot fulfill.
  • Different points of view
    When developing, take different viewpoints to evaluate your business components with various scales – e.g., from the customer’s point of view, from the financial, design, and technical perspective. By doing so, you will also foster shared understanding.
    Focus on specific groups and avoid the „jack of all trades“, as you will never be able to make everyone happy with one solution.
  • Effective resonance groups
    The review should not be conducted in an elite circle of lateral thinkers in an ivory tower, but with essential internal and external stakeholders – from different levels, areas of expertise, regions, cultures, etc. This will provide comprehensive feedback.
    Try to get as varied responses as possible since you generate more results in a diverse group than if everyone works independently.
  • Open feedback culture
    The exchange of ideas is fast and uncontrolled. This spontaneously releases forces that nip individual suggestions in the bud. It leads to reluctance to express one’s opinion freely. Feedback should be shared to clarify what is objectively meant, and feedback is exchanged value-free, promptly, and privately.
    Avoid toxic responses on feedback by establishing rules that stifle disruptive criticism and encourage the open exchange of ideas.
  • Convincing self-portrayal
    In the end, it is all about an adequate preparation of your capabilities that raise appropriate expectations in the audience – without boastful and unfulfillable pomposity. Based on the measures you have taken so far, you develop your self-image, which you, your managers and employees, as well as partners, can believe in. You present yourself in the right light and generate momentum and commitment in your field.
    Solid self-assurance creates confidence and an authentic appearance – without hubris.

Bottom line: Rattling has been part of the handicraft for centuries. It is the way to attract attention. In the past, rattling was the soundtrack of a trade – mills, machines, tools, and looms rattled. Today, the clatter of the keyboard no longer reaches customers. To draw attention to ourselves, we need a customer-oriented self-presentation, which makes us stand out from the abundance of offers. If self-confidence lacks a foundation, it quickly leads to harmful arrogance. You need deliverable services that are convincingly presented. Look at your business model, strategy, and self-image from different angles. A diverse sounding board supports the evaluation with honest feedback. With an open feedback culture, various opinions are heard and can be realized. The result is a convincing self-presentation that shows your possibilities without exaggeration. Eventually, you prevent with this approach that your self-confidence becomes hubris.

 

Actually, the house always wins

Compulsive players are not discouraged from playing by the sentence „The house always wins“. They are addicted to the anticipation of a gain and accept the risk of losing. In the beginning the bet is only occasional and generates good feelings. Then, the obsession starts and more and more often one loses larger sums. The whole thing culminates in complete despair and hopelessness.
The same happens with stock exchange transactions and other investment opportunities. The game with larger amounts of money triggers the limbic intoxication of a gambler. However, safety nets are currently under construction to cushion these players by allowing them to claim their losses – either through the legal code or through the new court of arbitration that operate outside the national jurisdiction. This allows the players to recover their losses through legal action. By the way – of course, the house wins here too.

In the end, this is a systemic mistake. The risk of the transactions is transferred to the society and the profits remain with the players. What are the interests that heat up the financial transactions and give the participants their fruitful source of income?

  • Companies need capital
    Companies need in advance capital to finance their business, for example to pay
    the personnel and material costs required to develop and prepare products and services.
    In the event of failure, companies go bankrupt or rebrand and leave collateral damage to the society – like environmental damage, unemployment and asset losses.
  • Investors are looking for profits
    The wealthy have more money than they can spend. In order to counteract a loss of value such as above or inflation, they sedulously look for ways to let the money work.
    Investors privatize their profits regardless of collateral damage and socialize their losses to the society.
  • The state is looking for investors
    In principle, it is up to the state to ensure that the population lacks nothing. For this reason, politicians make attractive offers to investors, when they invest in their country – tax advantages and business-friendly laws. And if a business fails, politicians secure the capital invested, borrow money from one bank to relieve another – and vice versa.
    The costs for wrong decisions of the political „economic leaders“, who are interested in nothing else than their mandate, are borne by their voters – which actually is strange.
  • Products need consumers
    Due to the advanced automation of established companies and the globalization, more and more cheap products are developed, which urgently need a customer.
    In the end, these short-lived products pollute the environment. All people bear the consequences.
  • The society needs work
    In contrast to the wealthy; the majority of the population is depending on full-time employment in order to pay for their monthly expenses. Job competition is taking place globally. At the same time, simple tasks are competing with machines, which now perform routine tasks more reliably.
    Overall, traditional employment opportunities are disappearing. Society is impoverishing.
  • The economy has a need for turnover
    In order to prosper, the society must consume the products and services of the companies. The loss of traditional work as well as precarious jobs create a consumer class that needs affordable alternatives to mainstream consumption – like repair cafés, barter sites, sharing, pay-per-use.
    Contrary to the previous standpoints, when it was assumed that the tides would move everyone up and down, the gap is widening regardless of the economic situation – the poor are becoming poorer and the rich richer.

Bottom line: Since many optimize themselves and indemnify based on the society, distortions occur, which go above all at the expense of the powerless. Companies rely on external financing and thus shift the risk to the lenders. Investors maximize their profits by investing their capital in risky transactions and by socializing losses. The state (or its decision-makers) foregoes revenue in order to attract investors. The flood of bad products damages the environment at the end of the ever shorter life cycle. The population can no longer make a living from their work and saves itself in social networks. The economy is overheating in the hope of being able to restart in a coming crash. And all financial transactions, no matter in which direction, are processed by the house – that always win.