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You could be a brand-new entrepreneur who has just founded a business. Or a seasoned business executive in charge of a multibillion-dollar corporation. According to many psychologists, pride is a self-aware feeling that elicits two types of emotional responses: Authentic pride is the major emotion gained from the thrill and excitement of achieving a personal, financial, or professional success.
Envy, frustration, and jealousy all lead to hubristic pride as a secondary emotion. This feeling results from the primary emotion’s cultivation of ego and hubris.
Pride has been shown to be a potent tool for influencing others. Some people abuse it, while others keep it in check. Taking a little pride as an entrepreneur isn’t always a bad thing. It’s fine to be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Excessive pride, on the other hand, might be a problem. Here are three drawbacks to having an excessive amount of pride:
1. Isolating other coworkers
Although affirmative remarks can fulfill one’s ego, they can also render people prisoners of their actions, rights, and judgments. For example, an entrepreneur’s pride may drive him or her to exclude other executives and board members. As a result, their company’s success may be stifled by the connections, ideas, and different viewpoints their peers give.
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of their arrogance by inducing irrational conduct. As a result, they spend a lot of time and effort persuading decent people to do less ethical and legal things for the firm.
2. Ignoring the need to apologize, even when you know you should
You may be due an apology at times, and you may owe someone an apology at other times. However, if you are blinded by pride, the mere act of saying “I’m sorry” and admitting that you were wrong in certain instances is likely to impact you.
If you believe someone is correct, it is not the end of the world. However, it can be devastating if you cannot apologize and move on after making a mistake.
3. You aren’t rooting for your coworker’s achievement
Business leaders with excessive pride do not cheer for their coworkers’ accomplishments. Instead, they have a zero-sum mentality and become envious when a coworker succeeds. Furthermore, they are willing to let someone else fail to walk over them and succeed in their place to satisfy their pride.
This mindset, without a doubt, never ends well, as these people will tumble off their high horses and fail terribly. The too proud professional’s embarrassment may be the greatest answer. Many administrative leaders have been driven away from pursuing their personal and company goals by pride, which is one of the seven deadly sins.
Shame, on the other hand, is the ultimate equalizer when it comes to pride. Shame is the administrative angel that continuously reminds us to be humble and grateful for our hard work that has led to our prosperity. Yet, according to research, shame is an emotional response linked to the need to retreat from public interaction. That’s because nothing can be done right away to restore a person’s image and value.
Unfortunately, many company executives do not have the opportunity to meet their angels until they are forced to face the repercussions of their arrogant behavior. As a result, we are compelled to live with the useful lessons from our contaminated past before we realize it since it is too late to make amends for previous wrongdoings.
Shame keeps us connected to our actions and alerts us to when we may be pushing things too far. Shame is invoked as a heavenly intervention when an excess of pride is left unchecked, drawing us back from the road of our self-destruction.
Opinions expressed by California Gazette contributors are their own.