Part Ten of this series of blogs using films to illustrate the feelings organisations should seek to evoke in employees if they want to create a high performance organisational culture.
Number 10 - Pride
According to the Cambridge dictionary pride is 'a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that you get because you or people connected with you have done or got something good'. It's also possible
to take a pride in something and it defines that as 'to feel very pleased about something or someone you are closely connected with'. Pride is one of the key feelings organisations strive to develop within their employees. It's generally accepted that it's strongly associated with high levels of engagement and is also considered valuable because it's closely linked to advocacy. Organisations want their people to be advocates because they then become sales people for it, they recommend it's products and they recommend it as a place to work. Having employees who are proud of the organisation and advocate it to others is beneficial.
So how is is created? Well actually it's a feeling that is connected to and follows, the feelings covered in previous posts in this series. The outcome of evoking them is that they feel proud of the organisation. It's effectively a lagging indicator of the other feelings. Picture a hierarchy of employee feelings in a great organisation and this is at the top, a lagging indicator that the others are present. As such of course it's also an indicator of issues, a sign that the intensity of those feelings may be low. So the aim should be to create an employee experience which evokes the other feelings and then pride will follow.
The film I've chosen to illustrate pride is the relatively recent, and hugely successful 'The King's Speech'. It tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, King George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a bad stammer and considered by others,and himself, to be unfit to be king, Bertie seeks the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through some unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice. The film culminates in 1939 when he delivers a powerful speech, heard on the radio around the world, in which the UK declares war on Germany. He was subsequently seen as a strong figurehead for the British people throughout the war.
The 'stiff upper lip' that characterised those times is present throughout the film and yet underlying this is the tremendous emotion that Bertie, and those around him feel about his stammer. he is plagued by self doubt and struggles to reconcile his sense of duty to the nation with his low self esteem. At one point he says "the nation believe that when I speak, I speak for them - and I can't speak." But with the help of the man who became his friend he overcomes the problem to the extent that he is able to deliver the powerful speech declaring war. Two strong emotions emerge following that speech. The first is relief. His relief that he had got through it and the relief of those around him. The second is pride. It's clear he's proud of himself and whilst it wouldn't be the done thing to say it to the King, those closest to him share his pride. The acting (Colin Firth plays King George) is superb at this point and you see his self esteem grow as he stands taller and prepares to step onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace to greet the crowds outside.
That's another outcome of pride - levels of self esteem grow. Self esteem as a result of your own achievement or the level of esteem employees feel for their organisation.
The film trailer can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAm7gRXFiRo
This is the final part of this series of ten posts about the feelings to
strive to create amongst employees BUT I will post a summary and recommendations
on how to evoke them tomorrow.
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/timhadfield
Twitter: accordengage
Telephone: (0044) 07906 650019
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