Why Arrogance Is A Corporate Sin

There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance in the workplace. While confidence is essential to climb the corporate ranks – being too arrogant could see your career fade faster than hitting a serpent in a game of snakes and ladders. Here’s why.

Arrogant guy image from Shutterstock

Arrogance can make you lazy: If you believe you already know everything, then what’s left to learn or do? In reality, no one is that good in business that they can afford to take their foot off the accelerator and just coast along. Remember, you’re only as good as your last achievement or decision.

Arrogance can make you mean: People with a superiority complex can be self-centred and feel that they need disparage others to make themselves look better. This can affect their reputation at work because they will be known as someone who isn’t a team player. So if they’re good at their job — they won’t need to need to bring others down to prove it.

Arrogance can make you obnoxious: Big-headed people don’t only tell you how great they are, they need to RAM it down your throat. They’ll be the people who name drop just for the sake of it, or the ones who are always boasting about how they earn much more than you do.

Arrogance can hurt a work environment: Having an arrogant boss (or even work colleague) creates a toxic work environment which erodes the essential trust and cooperation of a successful team structure. Workers quickly learn to keep their heads down and out of the firing line. This means the information flow dries up, and issues which could (and often are) spotted by many eyes, aren’t even mentioned. Often employees – who have themselves suffered unwarranted public ridicule — are even secretly plotting for the arrogant person’s downfall and gloating over any of their inevitable mistakes.

Arrogance can make you short-sighted: Egotistical people are renowned for putting their own wants and needs ahead of the company’s — as demonstrated by their need to destroy others to make themselves look better. They are definitely not thinking strategically to plan for the future, nor are they effectively utilising the resources they already have at their disposal.

Don’t forget:

• Arrogance makes smart people look silly.
• Arrogance can make you mean and obnoxious.
• Egotistical people put their own needs before those of the company.
• People who know everything stop learning.
• Arrogance makes your team less productive.

This article originally appeared on The Naked CEO.