Leader's Guide to Team Pride

Leader’s Guide to Team Pride

Developing Team Pride

Fans all over the country regularly show their team pride for football or basketball.  What about your team at work  Are they excited and inspired to work with you for the organization? 

Sometimes developing team pride is easy.  A team with measurable achievements begins to develop pride in themselves.  Unfortunately, when that pride comes too easily, self-esteem can turn from a positive influence into a negative one.  Challenging your team; pushing them to earn that satisfaction and pride keeps the balance on the positive side. There are other factors that counteract the balance, such as working your team too hard, until they shutdown.  The leader who assigns only easy tasks might find the team sliding into arrogance.  This article will offer some tips for finding the balance and leading your team into a healthy level of pride in their work, in their team, and in their company.

Pride at the Organizational Level

For your team to perform at the highest level, they must first believe in and be proud of the organization you and they work for.  An employee who believes in your company is more likely to make a meaningful contribution.  Organizational admiration builds engagement in team members. Before employees develop team pride, they form satisfaction with the organization where they are employed.  They engage more deeply into their job and become proud of their work.

Engagement Through Challenge and Achievement

If people regularly see each other pushing to raise the bar of the team’s standard of excellence, team respect grows exponentially.  Your employees evolve into their high performance potential in groups that consistently dig deep to bring more to the job.  It is critical that you avoid handing your team easy to achieve objectives on a regular basis.  Giving them more demanding work, shows you trust them to achieve the goal, and promotes engagement in the task.  As they achieve the objectives, especially when the work is difficult, engagement grows and pride follows closely.  Pushing the boundaries enough to challenge through discomfort without pushing the employee into failure is the fertile soil of pride.

Pride in the Balance Between Challenges and Achievable Goals

Small wins keep your team encouraged and engaged.  A good leader knows when to squeeze in easier projects between the extremely challenging ones.  Work that is consistently so difficult that your team cannot achieve it, will discourage less proficient team members.  Leaders who know their team members well, know when to balance the tough tasks with easier to achieve goals.  As the team works together to reach those goals, and succeeds, they bond and develop a balance of team pride.

Inspiration

Leadership that inspires by example and team engagement grows with the team.  Their pride is not based on looking good compared to others.  The team and leader pride is based on satisfaction with the company, challenging work, and achievement. You and your team begin to look for higher, more meaningful feats.  Challenges once seen as negative, become opportunities to reach a new level.

Growth

Team pride without growth turns into arrogance.  When you and your team members stand to gain position, new skillsets, and team bonds, team pride is channeled into productivity and accomplishment.  As a leader, when you provide new more challenging goals and offer recognition for the team members when they achieve those goals, you channel team pride into an incredible tool of leadership.  Want to learn more about leadership?  Check out CommandReady Programs and grow into your own leadership potential.