Collective pride is a powerful motivator, especially in organizations and teams that can harness it.
Practically speaking, collective pride is the shared sense of dignity, value, and emotional attachment team members feel toward the team or organization they belong to.
Such pride is the emotional glue that turns individuals into a united front capable of confronting any challenge. It reflects more than anything else that people feel worthwhile in working together.
Team members feel collective pride when they believe what they do matters, who they are is respected, and their collective efforts connect to something bigger than themselves.
When team members feel collective pride, they actively protect the group’s reputation and hold themselves to a higher standard. They stick together during hardships and move toward solution, not blame, when facing setbacks.
Because they are proud of who they are together, they hold each other accountable to the standards and norms of the team culture. The pride they feel pushes them to confront others who do not share or act in accordance with the team’s values.
On prideful teams, declarations like “That’s not who we are,” and “We don’t treat people or respond like that,” are common.
Collective pride is a trust multiplier. It changes how people interpret each other’s behavior.
When collective pride exists, team members assume shared values, especially the commitment toward team goals. Team members engage each other with the expectation that the team comes before individual needs.
Any conflict or disagreement is treated as normal and workable rather than as a threat.
Leaders can’t manufacture pride, but they can create the conditions for it and learn to channel it. The best leaders continually articulate a believable group identity, talking about “who we are” and “who we refuse to be.”
Every time they link the daily work and sacrifices of the team to the higher cause or mission, the leader enables pride to emerge.
When groups overcome challenges and achieve success together, pride grows and binds them closer to each other and the team.
This IS where the leader plays a critical role.
Good leaders don’t tell people to be prideful. They point to team successes and show members that they couldn’t have achieved them without each other.
Collective pride answers a deep human need: Where do I belong, and why does that belonging matter?
Good leaders reinforce how team members have found the colleagues and place where they truly fit and are valued.
Pride swells when team members come to believe they finally belong.
