When the Enemy is You
I’ve defined enemies very specifically as those that consistently put their own self-interest ahead of the shared organizational purpose. If you want to be a purposeful leader, enemies come with the territory, so we have good reason to love our enemies.
Even if we intend to be purposeful actors, there are times when we are the very enemy we think we oppose. All of us have an ever present motivation to act in our own best interest, and we are all very skilled at deceiving ourselves into believing its only other folks that behave this way.
We should learn to love confronting our own egocentrism daily in order to be prepared to confront the enemy in others when necessary. Our enemies will always choose a fight with the enemy within us over a fight with the purpose. Our ego is not worth fighting for, so always let them win that part of the fight early. Understand that the best way to keep your dignity is to lose your ego.
Make sure what you are fighting for is what is best for us and not just what is best for you. That’s not as easy as it sounds.
Related Posts:
ACT Change: Maintain Reverence For Those Involved In The Change
About the Author: Bret L. Simmons
Welcome to my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section of my posts. I publish all constructive, non-anonymous comments. 
Hi Bret, great post again, short and sweet but incredibly important one in essence! To me this post opens up the doors for a change, a personal change so that we can change others through changing ourselves “ACT principle”, as this is the only way to truly have systems change. Thank you very much for sharing this good stuff with us!!! By the way I have been following you on youtube. You rock it!!!!
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Sorry for the slow reply, Javier. I’m glad you read the stuff on ACT! These are very powerful concepts and principles. Thanks! Bret
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