For decades, experts have touted the advantages of humble leadership. Humility draws people to trust, follow, and perform in ways no other leadership trait can. The executive world has been given so many case studies and success stories to make it virtually impossible to refute the power of humility in leadership.
Yet, more than ever, employees complain about their leaders’ chronic arrogance. Studies show growing employee dissatisfaction, disengagement, and turnover trends due to leadership arrogance. Arrogance at top corporate levels is statistically responsible for startlingly high failure rates in teamwork, efficiency, goal achievement, and profitability. One of the most disdained leadership traits reported in surveys is arrogance, indicating the prevalence of the problem.
Somewhere lies a disconnect between theory (which is generally accepted) and practice. Human nature plays a key role in this disconnect, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Fortunately, there are ways for leaders to recognize arrogant tendencies and eliminate them. Failure to do so typically spells the failure of a career.
The Nature of Arrogance
As with many personality shortcomings, arrogance can be expressed in subtle or blatant ways and everything in between. Some behaviors take time to assess and determine whether they are attributed to arrogance. Other behaviors scream arrogance from the outset, leaving no doubt about the nature of the leader’s style.
Lesser forms of arrogance are disguised as rudeness, inconsideration, disrespect, or coldness. Employees subject to subtle arrogance experience ignoring their ideas or requests, being left out of conversations, or having their work redone by someone else. These slights signal to the employee that they are not considered acceptable or good enough. The leader may be trying to put them in their place or indicate that they need to get on the bandwagon (or perhaps out the door).
Subtle arrogance can be general and not directed at anyone in particular. Small inconsiderations by a leader demonstrate a lack of appreciation—or even acknowledgment—of the value of others. Leaders arrogantly devalue their people by Interrupting people as they speak, not returning a greeting, or communicating personal information through technology rather than in person.
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Most employees can tolerate subtle arrogance, especially if it is directed at everyone. Though they don’t like it, people often learn to adapt to it, accept it as one of the unfavorable aspects of their job, and keep going. Recognizing subtle arrogance in others and depersonalizing makes it tolerable. However, blatant arrogance is another matter. This goes beyond rudeness to reach harsh and unbearable levels. Blatantly arrogant leaders yell and insult people. They flaunt their power and don’t consider the wreckage they leave behind. Their pressing need is to unleash their frustration or anger, where other people are merely objects of vented abuse.
Blatantly arrogant leaders don’t just devalue their people; they hurt them. Temper, anger, audacity, egotism, and disloyalty are weapons in the blatantly arrogant leader’s arsenal. They are self-focused on what their position of privilege allows them to do. Their high-handedness breaks the rules of conduct to get things done their way and in their time. Such contemptuousness wreaks fear, resentment, and outrage.
Unlike subtle arrogance, the blatant form is intolerable for all employees, save for those trapped and with nowhere else to go. A blatantly arrogant leader knows who these people are. These unfortunate souls are typically targets who receive “special” treatment. People do not stand for blatant arrogance; if Human Resources cannot address the problem satisfactorily, they are gone in short order. Life is too short to endure blatant arrogance in a leader.
Some leaders recognize their problems, and some don’t. Neither has an excuse for continuing to treat their people arrogantly. Due to the nature of arrogance, employees generally have little hope of addressing it with their leader. However, an experienced executive coach can aid a leader in discovering and dealing with arrogant tendencies.
What Fuels Arrogance
Our culture has a large role in developing and encouraging leadership arrogance. A culture that values these things fuels human tendencies to desire power, prestige, perks, and privilege. From an early age, we are trained to focus on what we can take from life rather than what we can give. This encourages the quest for the highest power level to be in the best position to be takers.
History shows that egotists are rewarded more than humble leaders, at least from an observable standpoint, whether in business, politics, or social life. Prideful, forceful, outgoing, and brash behavior seem to permit greater levels of advancement than humility. Leaders with these traits are seen as more admired, revered, and feared due to their ability to take charge and get things done. The fallout behind the scenes, where people pay a high price, is generally overlooked. The big accomplishments drown out the detriments.
Arrogance is born from these influences, where leaders feel privileged and free to do as they wish. Because of their positions and accomplishments, they go unchallenged and unquestioned. A mindset develops that they operate under different rules and can take liberties others cannot. Their behavior, especially with how they treat others, is often granted an exceptional status, where the ends justify the means.
The culture also admires ego and the ability to control the world around you. Those who have command are regarded as impressive and important. As described in the HBR article by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, Ego is the Enemy of Good Leadership, importance feeds on itself, magnifying the effect in an upward spiral. Young aspiring professionals are being taught and trained, both in school and on the job, to reach the highest level of importance possible and tell others what to do: to be “in charge.” Arrogance is the natural outcome of someone who believes they deserve to be in charge. This is seen as a fulfilling purpose, and everything else is simply less important.
Another cultural influence on the prevalence of leadership arrogance is the competitive nature of business. It is commonly believed that to survive on today’s battleground for market share and profits, the leader must be tough, aggressive, and ruthless. Boldness, notoriety, and arrogance are the tactics used to gain the upper hand and be victorious. Most business settings have come to expect this, allow for it, and endure it within the ranks.
An HBR article by Bill Taylor on leadership arrogance points out that many view life in business as competitive by nature, requiring an aggressive approach to the outside world and within the company walls. Everyone is in the trenches together, and arrogance becomes a “useful” tool to keep the internal machinery running.
Softness doesn’t seem to get it done, at least not in the minds of many leaders today. Humility is viewed as a weakness. It draws images of inferiority and being subservient. Today’s talent is raised with these notions, a carry-over from generations past. Unfortunately, this is tragically misguided. A qualified executive coach can help sort through leadership myths and uncover the truth about how people are successfully managed.
Breaking the Arrogance Mold
Overcoming arrogance is a matter of overcoming powerful paradigms in corporate culture. Leaders generally cannot sort through this themselves. Engrained for too long, arrogance has become second nature. Their environment supports old-school thinking, and blind spots keep certain realities hidden. Help comes from another pair of eyes that can see what’s happening: the eyes of a trained executive coach.
A leader ready to address interpersonal difficulties in their role can turn to a trusted coach to get a sense of the issues. This is the most critical step for an arrogant personality. Taylor writes that arrogance typically rejects the notion of interdependence and reliance on others for assistance or wisdom. However, leaders benefit greatly by breaking one of the most powerful paradigms: the belief that strength is best portrayed by personal independence, to be smart enough and capable enough not to need guidance from anyone else.
This is a false strength, where a facade hides insecurity of self-image and the fear of what others think, based on the premise that needing help shows weakness or unworthiness. History has shown that the most successful, most admired leaders are the ones who admit they need assistance and get it. True strength is founded on a confidence and positive outlook that overcomes insecurity and public opinion.
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Getting help is a leadership strategy that uses available resources best to achieve the best results. It’s smart, tactical, courageous, and bold. Contrary to cultural views, humility is the strongest position from which to lead. A qualified coach can instill these concepts and encourage arrogant leaders to break their crippling pattern.
Another paradigm that must be overturned concerns how employees respond to leadership behavior. The old-school mentality of power and control is outdated and damaging. People no longer tolerate those conditions and use their feet to escape them. A telltale sign of arrogant leadership is the rate of employee turnover.
People want several key things from their leader: consideration, support, encouragement, and security. Arrogance subverts each of those. People engage in their duties when they are cared for and valued when their efforts are purposeful and appreciated. The leader and the entire organization benefit from an engaged, willing, and healthy staff who can rise above any challenge as a team when nurtured properly. Executive coaches know there is no better incentive to reverse an arrogant leadership personality than that.
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I help people discover their potential, expand and develop the skills and attitudes necessary to achieve a higher degree of personal and professional success and create a plan that enables them to balance the profit motives of their business with the personal motives of their lives.
