Where Does Pride Come Into It?

• The old adage is that pride comes before the fall but is this truly the case?
• Is it more likely that pride comes after you put in the work, after you spend years of focus aiming for one core goal?
• Is this what pride is or should it be considered something that is potentially dangerous?

Before the Fall?

Coming before the fall is the quickest and easiest way to look at things as it offers an instant route out of the current situation and towards a quick and easy fix, yet is that what we should focus our lives around, quick and easy?

Or is the more appropriate wheel of thought that the focus should be on long-term solutions such as therapy, rather than quick ways to drown our sorrows via drugs or alcohol?

Pride is something that can provide us with a unique sense of confidence. It can help us push forward and continue to enable change as we feel proud of our achievements and we want more.

The danger of pride in the work-based concept is that whilst it can and will help us to push ourselves forward and enable us to succeed, it can also cause us to rest on our laurels and not seek to adapt our behaviour.

Pride can hold us back and prevent us from doing that which we need to in order to succeed. That is what pride can do when left to run riot but if carefully honed, it can be effective.

Effective Use

When you have a team, as a manager, you are responsible for ensuring that they reach their goals. To ensure that they continue to succeed no matter what the challenges are around them.

You are in many ways responsible for ensuring that they continue to succeed as to do otherwise would not enable you to tick off your goals or those targets and objectives that the company has set.

Pride here can be a very powerful motivator. If you can instill a level of pride in your team, in what they are doing, you will ensure continued success where before there was none.

This continued desire for pride can be a powerful driver and this is why on programmes such as Hell's Kitchen, Gordon continually refers to pride. He looks for those who have pride in their work as he knows this will not only be inspiring but also ensure that goals are reached when times are hard.

Most jobs have periods of intense pressure where there is too much going on to manage. Periods where people simply have to dig deeper and find extra hours, in the evenings or at the weekend.

Yes, money and short-term gain are great but really, what keeps people going is pride in their work and ensuring that they are part of a bigger whole that they believe in.

One that is driven by inspirational leadership to ensure that success is lived and breathed. By adding this to your team and leading by example you can create a level of pride that is sought and not assumed.

Discovering New Heights

For me personally, I've never really felt as though I had pride in what I was doing. It wasn't like I was phoning it in but I always had a level of imposter syndrome that was difficult to get away from.

Something that is as frustrating as it was understandable working in an environment that was about as supportive as my bowl habits. It's not something that should be taken as laziness.

Now today, as I write this email, I have just completed the final unit of a presentation course. Something that I never thought I was great at and yet walk away feeling as though I have excelled myself.

I have shifted to that next level which feels fantastic as though I have truly achieved something and that is something for me to feel proud of without feeling guilty or as though I am obsessing and this is something that I can build from.

With this success, I will use it to achieve new heights and new successes which is something to be very proud of without the guilt that can be associated with the arrogance that can befall people. People who are so prideful of their work that they cannot acknowledge anything else.

A Final Thought

Pride can come before the fall and that is something to fear, yet if you use it effectively and instill a level of pride in your team, then you cannot go wrong as it can help push them to new heights.

I have worked in environments that sap your enthusiasm and they are something to flee from.

Something that can send a shiver down the spine and offer warnings to even the most experienced individuals as pride is something that can prevent innovation and growth, whereas by maintaining pride at a safe and effective distance, you can inspire beyond the traditional means of time.

Over the last 18 months, I have achieved more than I ever thought possible and it is something that I could not have done without being provided with a level of pride that cannot be found elsewhere.

A new level of success and one that I wish to hold onto until the end of time or more appropriately, as long as I physically can as to do otherwise is to enable a level of disrespect that can never be returned from.