IS PRIDE A GOOD THING?

• I told a friend this weekend that “I help executives deal with pride.”
  
  At first he thought I was dealing with people who did not take pride in their organization or their people who did not take pride in their work.
  
  Wrong!
  
  I was referring to those executives whose ego gets in the way of hearing their people express what they think is important for the success of their organization. Worse are those who listen but their pride distorts their understanding…or their pride reverts to anger or frustration.
  
  This is not to diminish the genuine pride an executive should have in building a strong enterprise that continues to grow in this recession of 2009. It is when pride gets in the way that we need to address the implications.
  
  For example:
  
• Employees not having their ideas acted on because leadership needing to be the generator of new approaches to the business.
• Executives who are "too busy" because they are reluctant to delegate decision-making with trust
• Organizations that have low trust of executives because their engagment with the organization is primarily "telling" but less genuine listening
• Employees who really do not understand what is expected of them.
  
  Managers and employees ask, “If we do not know where we are going, how can we be expected to perform in ways to get us there?”
  
  This is truly a challenge I encounter in the beginning of every coaching and consulting assignment: where are we going and how will we know when we arrive? Pride (too much of it) causes lack of clear communication; “Only I know what is happening”.
  
  How does a coach help the issue of pride? With lots of praise and admiration balanced with small does of reality (feedback). One beginning approach is the question, “What is it like working for (executive)?”
  
  It is amazing how this begins to encourage an individual to verbalize some of the “truths” that have been previously ignored.
  
  Example: after a 1.5 hour meeting where the CEO passionately talked 98% of the time, I asked what he thought it was like sitting as a staff member. At first he talked about his entertaining passion and the exciting news he was announcing; but the comments changed when I asked him why, when he asked a question, no one answered!
  
  “Maybe I should involve my staff better!” This does not diminish pride…it just puts it into better balance with other people’s needs as contributing employees.