How Pride Affects Your Decisions

Nov 4 / Magda Du Preez
Are you steering your professional decisions, or are your emotions at the wheel? Understanding how pride—a generally positive emotion—affects our decision-making is crucial in any professional setting. Let’s learn to recognize when pride serves us and when it sways us from our best judgment.

The Double Edge of Pride

Pride is often the unsung hero behind our confidence and motivation, propelling us towards significant achievements and leadership success. But if not checked, this same pride can distort our perceptions, leading to overconfidence that may skew our ability to accurately assess risks and make appropriate decisions. Pride is a powerful force that, when unmanaged, can make us blind to potential pitfalls and overly bold in our choices.


Seeing how pride impacts our decisions can be elusive, because we often don’t recognize these biases as they happen. For example, managers with high levels of unchecked pride are 26% more likely to be biased towards information that aligns with their perspective, disregarding valuable feedback and potentially derailing project success. This isn't just about hurt feelings—it’s about tangible losses that could have been avoided.

Imagine that you’ve completed a high-stake project with flying colors. The pride you feel is well-earned, but it can create a mirage of invincibility for your next challenge. This can lead you to overlook critical feedback or under-prepare, assuming that your past success guarantees future results.

Effectively Managing Pride

Staying grounded is essential for using pride to your advantage. Celebrate your achievements, but always reconnect with reality that grounds you. Here’s how:

  • Actively seek feedback. Don’t wait for feedback; ask for it. Make this a regular part of your workflow to keep your decisions in check.
  • Reflect on your decisions. Regularly review the outcomes of decisions with your team. Discuss what role emotions played and how they might have influenced the results.
  • Cultivate a learning culture. Encourage an environment where success is celebrated, but every outcome is seen as a learning opportunity. This helps keep pride in perspective and promotes continuous improvement.

The more aware we are of how pride shapes our decisions, the better equipped we become to harness it constructively. Awareness transforms pride from a potential stumbling block into a motivational force for smarter, more effective leadership.

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