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

  What does integrity mean to you?

The official definition is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness; the state of bring whole and undivided.”

Is your integrity important to you and how do you feel about the integrity of your business? Though you may not put a lot of thought into your own integrity, when it comes to your business, you can be sure that your customers are thinking about it.

They want to know if you mean what you say and if you back up the quality of what you are providing to them. A business relationship is or should be built on trust and if you are at all concerned with the reputation of your company then acting with integrity will always help your business to succeed, no matter what type of business it is.

Integrity is a personality trait, one that begins to develop from a very young age and eventually becomes part of your character. Can it be learned? Since integrity is measured in different ways and looked at differently in other cultures, it can’t be taught to you. You have a certain level or standard of integrity which can be changed so that it is more consistent but you can’t grow it or improve upon it in any other way.

Improving your business integrity will mean taking a long look at your behaviour, breaking habit and reinforcing others which will help your business. The intent to change has to be there. Honesty, one of the most important facets of integrity, will be necessary in all of your business communications including promises to your customers.

Your own code of ethics tells you a lot about your own integrity and how you apply it to your business. While your ethics may have you follow rules, your integrity means you will always do the right thing, regardless of what those rules are.

While not everyone will agree that certain people, including themselves, are ethical, they can usually agree on who has integrity and who doesn’t. Looking at your business this way, from an outsider’s point of view, will often tell you whether or not you find integrity important.

© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2015