MANAGER SPECIAL ......How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

Managing the tension between pride and arrogance is one of the most difficult, sensitive issues facing top executives. James Heskett asks what leaders can do to prevent pride in an organization from becoming arrogance.

Some would say that the most important task of leadership is that of leading change. Others maintain that it’s the job of fine-tuning and preserving an organization’s culture—its values and behaviors—to enable it to execute successful strategies.

Recent events, including several well-publicized corporate missteps as well as statements made during the recent United States presidential campaigns, suggest that managing the tension between pride and arrogance is one of the most difficult, sensitive issues facing leaders.

The consequences when organizations cross the line between pride and arrogance can be substantial. Just ask leaders like the erstwhile CEO of Lululemon—a company with a well-timed dedication to fitness with employees fanatical about its mission—who forgot this when he apologized to employees for a snafu in introducing a fabric into the Company’s athletic garments that, when stretched, became transparent. He went on to explain on Bloomberg TV that “Some women’s bodies don’t work for the pants.” Employee behaviors began reflecting this attitude, according to complaints lodged against the company. The hit to Lululemon’s bottom line was reasonably immediate and significant. It cost the CEO his job.

There is a real pay-off from building pride among an organization’s employees. It can result in greater loyalty, higher productivity, and lower recruiting and training costs, among other things. Ways that pride is fostered include an inspiring mission, a set of values that are carefully observed, a “way of doing things around here” that is consistent with expectations, an organization that brings people together in teams to carry out their tasks, and an effort to ensure that the organization is a good corporate citizen, often through group activities away from the job.

In short, employee pride can serve an organization in many ways—until it doesn’t. That’s the point at which arrogance among proud employees begins to get in the way of effective relationships with customers, suppliers, and even investors. At a national level, it can damage international relations. Here’s a sample of some indicators of differences between pride and arrogance:

Pride

·         We work for the customer

·         We worry about what we can learn from others

·         We’re open to the outside world

·         We’re still David

·         We spend our time listening to, and hearing, outside views.

Arrogance

·         We work for each other

·         We worry about what others can learn from us

·         We practice secrecy in dealing with the outside world

·         We’re Goliath, and we need to defend our position

·         We spend our time improving what we have and finding flaws in outside views

What can leaders do to ensure that arrogance isn’t the unintended result of efforts to build pride in an organization? Is this relevant for political as well as business leaders? How do you manage the tension between pride and arrogance? What do you think? 

by James Heskett

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-do-leaders-manage-the-tension-between-pride-and-arrogance?cid=spmailing-13865151-WK%20Newsletter%2011-30-2016%20(1)-November%2030,%202016