Three Negative Achievement Behaviors Caused by Ego Goal Orientation
Ego goal orientation is one of two ways to approach goals as defined in goal perspective theory. It’s when you focus on comparing yourself to others instead of focusing on your own personal improvement and learning. For example, measuring personal success against the accomplishments of peers or when your primary source of happiness comes from outperforming others. While some positive motivation is possible with ego goal orientation, it almost goes without saying that too much ego is bad.
Specifically, there are three main negative achievement behaviors that too much ego causes.
1) Lack of Persistence
Lack of persistence is when one gives up too soon. An ego goal orientation drives this behavior in situations when others are making progress faster. That faster progress of others then causes feelings of self-doubt. This self-doubt then leads to thoughts that something is wrong, even when there is not. As a result, the ego drives a decision to change one’s course of action prematurely without analyzing any other factors.
2) Debilitated Performance
Debilitated performance is when someone performs worse than their true ability. Ego goal orientation causes this in scenarios when too much focus is put on countering the competition’s strengths. When the focus is on countering the competition’s strengths, it’s typical to neglect the tactics and skills that utilize one’s own strengths. Consequently, the competition dictates the rules of engagement. This reactive approach rarely works. It drives one’s attention away from dictating the pace, space, and skills that allow them to be at their best. This almost always leads to a decrease in performance.
3) Rescinding effort
Rescinding effort is when effort decreases when the challenge increases. Ego orientation causes this because one seeks to protect the ego by intentionally not giving one’s best effort as the excuse for losing. If someone with an ego goal orientation gave their best effort and still loss, the emotional blow would be too much for them to handle. Therefore, they use the lack of effort to rationalize losing when the going gets tough.