Espirit de Corps...

 

The feeling of someone always having your back. 

I have worked in small, high performing teams for most of my career. From the Royal Marines, to being a winchman on Search and Rescue to working with the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service. I have taken for granted the fact that I can rely on those around me. We get the job done and we have each other's back. So, when I was recently asked about Esprit de Corps and how it could be improved or developed it got me thinking. What exactly is Esprit de Corps, and how is it formed?

 I think in a lot of people’s minds Esprit de Corps is a military thing. However, a quick Google search and up comes the definition of ‘a feeling of pride and mutual loyalty shared by the members of a group’. To me, it is the feeling of belonging. 

 I was a member of one of the most exclusive clubs going, the Royal Marines. During training you are instilled with over 350 years of history, legacy and pride. And you are now part of it, carrying the future of that honour on your shoulders. This Esprit de Corps runs through your veins and the sense of belonging you get from day one is amazing. It’s a feeling that you are all in it together and to succeed everyone has to perform. You are surrounded by positive and motivated people. The Royal Marines was not a job it was a culture and a way of life, it was all consuming and dictated the majority of my life.

As strange as it sounds the Marines offered a place of psychological safety, trust and the ability to be vulnerable a bit like a mini family. You felt accepted, appreciate and respected. Knowing that you had your team members backs and they had yours. 

Commando Memorial, Spean Bridge. 

                                   

What I find truly interesting is that in situations of vulnerability you can develop such strong bonds. It is well known that situations of threat can lead to a more intense Esprit de Corps, this is true in most professions where danger is present (Police Officers, Fire fighters, Mountaineers etc) Schuler and Weber (2005).

 I have experienced this on several occasions in the military but also working as a Search and Rescue winchman. We, a team of four including two pilots, a winch operator and me, the winchman, were just setting off on a rescue mission. The helicopter takes off and I feel a slight change in vibration, it just didn’t feel quite right. I mentioned it to the crew and was told that it’s possibly because we were a little heavier than usual. However, at 3000ft the vibration continued and so did my unease. As it got worse the whole crew felt it and it became apparent that something was not right with the helicopter, in particular the tail rotor. I’m not going to talk about survival rate in helicopter crashes, but if you have a tail rotor malfunction the chances of a successful landing are pretty slim.

 At this point 3000ft had never felt so high. The team went into autopilot (excuse the pun) scenarios were discussed, would we need to put the helicopter into the water, could we make the beach? Everyone had a voice. In the end we made it back to the airfield, conducted an emergency landing and all dove out of the helicopter. Once out and safe, we all had a little giggle of relief before spotting that part of the tail rotor was actually missing. As a team we got through it together and gained an even deeper understanding of each other’s behaviour. We could rely on each other even when the shit hits the fan.

Just after the emergency landing, incidentally the lad laughing is already a member of the Goldfish Club.

This sense of bonding and belonging doesn’t have to be born out of physical danger, it can also be linked to psychological pressure. Take a team of nurses in a busy department. There is no danger to them physically, but there is danger in the sense that patients need to be protected and a lot to be done with limited time and man power. At the end of their shift they are exhausted, but through helping each other they’ve managed to get through it together.   

These shared experiences good or bad have a strong impact/ability to connect people, to enable them to have a deeper understanding of each other and to truly understand how they work as a team. 

 

Posdakoff and Mackenzie (1994) noted that helping behaviour is a sign of strong Esprit de Corps, although I have been out of the Marines for over a decade I would still go out of my way for any Royal Marine serving or Ex. It continues to be a massive part of my day to day life and has an impact on the standards I set myself and expect from others (not always a positive), the terminology I use, I have about 3 showers a day, I am always dishing out 20 press-ups as punishments.  

 

So, can Esprit de Corps be consciously developed? I’m not sure. I have never experienced that level of Esprit de Corps again. I have been part of various high performing teams which showed some sort of organisational citizenship but never to the same level as my time in the Marines. I think that’s because as a group we lived together, experiencing big highs and big lows, facing danger, and were vulnerable from day one. I doubt I will ever have such an intimate relationship within a team again. However, it’s about taking what you had in that team and trying to implement that into your day to day life to benefit other teams. There doesn’t have to be such a strong feeling of Esprit de Corps all the time to perform well, but a little goes a long way. 

Here are the things I’ve taken away from it:

o   You have to have the right mindset for Esprit de Corps to exist.

o   Cohesion is key, so get your team mates onboard.

o   Moments of vulnerability can form strong bonds.

o   Self-sufficiency and self-reliance at an individual level leads to Esprit de Corps within a group.

References

Posdakoff, P.M., and MacKenzie, S.B. 1994. Organisational citizenship Behaviours and Sales Unit Effectiveness. Journal of Marketing Research. Vol. 31, No. 3 pp. 351-363. 

 Schuler, D.K., and Weber, P.S. 2005. Individual and Team Behaviours: Exploring the Role of Esprit de Corps. Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology. Vol. 6, Article 9. pp. 117-130.