Office Space’s Bill Lumbergh was incompetent and The Devil’s Advocate’s John Milton was literally Satan himself, but these Hollywood versions of nightmare bosses also exhibited an incredible arrogance.

When that trait shows up in real-life organizations, however, it’s less than entertaining and has a far greater impact than simply making the arrogant managers look bad to the people who report to them.  

“Two things were happening when someone was arrogant,” says Stanley Silverman, a social science professor at the University of Akron who advises organizations on leadership and management style. “They were hurting their own job performance, but they were also hurting the organization.”

Are you Arrogant? On a scale of 1-5 (1 = never and 5 = always), please rate your answers to the following questions: 1 2 3 4 5 To what degree do you discredit others’ ideas during meetings and, consequently, make them look bad?     1 2 3 4 5 To what degree do you put your agenda above that of the organization?      1 2 3 4 5 To what degree do you reject constructive feedback?      1 2 3 4 5 To what degree do you take credit for successes, but not blame for failures?      1 2 3 4 5 To what degree do you believe you know better than everyone else?      1 2 3 4 5 To what degree do you make decisions that impact others without asking for their input? Now, ask your staff to anonymously complete the same questions concerning your leadership. Look for any items that are rated above 3. Scores above 18 show you are leaning toward arrogance.

Silverman worked with University of Akron graduate assistants to develop a system to measure managerial arrogance and set out to gather data.

Individuals in the study rated themselves on 26-arrogance related questions, but they were also evaluated by their own managers and peers.

When Silverman compared the results of the arrogance-related questions with other categories such as job performance and intelligence, two things surprised him.

First, people who are arrogant tend to score lower on general intelligence tests. “It’s counter-intuitive,” he says, “but there is a strong negative relationship between arrogance and intelligence.”

Secondly, Silverman was stunned by just how much arrogance is out there in the workplace.

“We see it everywhere,” he says. “What happens is that many organizational folks are very competitive, and they misunderstand the difference between self-confidence and arrogance.

“They get away with it for a while,” he adds. “And they think that being arrogant is helping them become successful.”

So what does an arrogant boss look like?

They put their subordinates down frequently while puffing themselves up. They take credit for successes but refuse to take responsibility for failures. They believe they are better than everyone else in the organization and often put their personal agenda ahead of that of the organization. They make decisions that affect many people but never ask for input. Finally, they reject constructive feedback.

Silverman says his arrogance evaluation should be a regular part of organizations’ annual employee evaluations. That way, a company can correct the problem as soon as it’s identified.

“If you can get to people earlier on in their careers,” he says, “they don’t become arrogant later on.”

Advice for the Arrogant Leader

☑ Become an enlightened leader. Continually look for ways to gain feedback from those who work with you. Use the feedback to become a more successful leader. Learn to accept criticism. ☑ Listen to those who work for you even in situations where you believe you have more knowledge.

☑ Continually monitor your behaviors and the reactions to those around you to make sure are not coming across as overly self-confident to the point that you are making others feel inferior. ☑ Ask for feedback on a regular, informal basis. ☑ Let other people take credit for their work. (2012).

Source: Stanley B. Silverman

- NEONow

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