Unchecked Pride in Business

The arrogant CEO or executive suite, unwilling to listen to feedback from their people, or their customer. Also know as hubris, pride lives in the superiority of the leadership, or the company. Enron is a great example of pride in business gone rampant. The leaders were so filled with hubris they thought themselves untouchable, above the laws of any land. Or our more recent examples of Lehman Brothers, or any of the big firms that seem to think their world deserve a different set of rules, and a pay check that seriously questions how we value value.

The growth of blind pride in business doesn’t happen overnight, but develops through little atrocities.

Pride and superiority ‘over’ others are the building blocks of our current political systems. One side is better than the other side. There is an almost complete absence of humility in any political arena. Yet people long for humility, true service, deep compassion. The very system itself is not designed for integrity or humility.

Conscious business seeks to check pride at the door. Their investment is in showing up with humility. They seek integrity in the workplace. They recognise that the task is not to beat the competition, but to focus on doing what they do so extraordinarily well, with humility and deep reverence for their staff, their customers, their environment. A leadership development plan in a conscious business has as its backbone lessons in humility, transcending ego, and being of service.

Pride in business is not the same as doing a great job and being well satisfied. When we do a really great job and we have a measure of wisdom, there is an absence of arrogance. There simply is gratitude and awe. Great sport people we admire demonstrate this characteristic. Think Roger Federer.

Consider how you show up at work? Where does pride, arrogance, superiority, hubris play its hand?

How about your company? Do they really listen? Or do they coast on a reputation built some time ago? If in doubt, check your customer complaints department. How many complaints and are there and are they the same ones over and over again?

What about your leaders? Where are they blinded with pride?

How do you keep your head from becoming too big. Who keeps your ego in check?

How can you support your organisation to move towards conscious business? And why would you?

This is a sister article to an exploration of pride in my own personal life. It is also part of a series of articles I am writing about the seven deadly sins, and the seven graces, as they relate to business, enterprise and government. This work is inspired by Caroline Myss’s book, Defy Gravity: Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason

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