Check Your Ego

NEW! Ego in Student Government

Big egos don’t just inflate heads — they sink organizations.

You land an officer position — President, Speaker, Chair — and suddenly the title goes straight to your brain. What was once “cool opportunity” becomes “I am the chosen one.”

The campus doesn’t revolve around you. Your SGA doesn’t either. And that inflated sense of self is quietly killing momentum, culture, and results.

Why Big Egos Are Poison

You stop listening.
When you think you already know everything, new ideas sound like threats instead of opportunities.
You’re not that special.
You are special, of course, as a person. But there are 4,501 student governments in the United States. Thousands of presidents and officers every single year. You’re one of them. Not the exception.
Your power is limited.
Your authority stops at the campus edge. Most students won’t remember your name six months after you leave office. That’s reality, not shade.
It repels people.
Arrogance is exhausting. Members ghost meetings, advisors disengage, and potential recruits run the other way when everything becomes about you.

The fix is simple, uncomfortable, and extremely effective: Stay humble—even if you have to fake it at first.

Humble officers build better SGAs. They give credit freely, admit mistakes quickly, and keep the spotlight on the mission instead of their byline. People actually want to work with them.

At 19, I became SGA Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of the community college newspaper—both at the same time. I had barely spoken or made eye contact in high school classes. Now I had TITLES! So naturally, my ego exploded like a popped kernel.

At the newspaper, I made my byline font huge. I wrote all the good stories & handed everyone else the leftovers. In SGA, every announcement, every meeting, every decision somehow became the "Butch Show."

But it didn't take long for a reckoning. The newspaper advisor finally pulled me into his office and said, point blank: “Reign in the ego or you’re out."

That conversation was brutal. And exactly what I needed.

I learned the hard way that real leadership isn’t about making everything about you. It’s about lifting other people up, sharing credit, and remembering the titles are temporary—the impact you leave behind doesn’t have to be.

If a scared, inexperienced 19-year-old could course-correct, you can too.

Butch Signature
Butch Oxendine
Executive Director, ASGA