If asked, few of us would outright confess to being arrogant. We - correctly - take it to be a bad thing. Most of us would focus on the idea of being humble, always remembering where we came from - and it’s an attitude we take forward into business.
The problem tends to develop when your business becomes successful. You morph from a fledgling entrepreneur into something altogether more affecting: you become a boss. You had an idea, you worked on it, and it’s worked out for you. Now you can provide a wage for other people, creating a company built around your will to succeed and your vision.
For some business owners, this is a truly humbling experience. They acknowledge - as is inevitably true - that some of the success of any business can be attributed to luck as much as it can to superior business thinking. These people acknowledge that they can’t know everything. They go out of their way to further their knowledge and experience, perhaps pursuing an online MBA and ensuring they continue to learn from others who know better than they do.
What About The Rest?
Chances are, you’d like to think you’re in the aforementioned category. As stated, none of us like to think that we’re arrogant - so you probably assume that you’ve kept your head, that your humility is one of your qualities.
But that’s not true of everyone. Some people have to fall into the other category; the ones who suffer with arrogance. And that’s a particularly bad way to be.
What’s Wrong With Arrogance?
To an extent, there is an arrogance involved in running a business at all. It’s an arrogance that says that you know what people want, that your ideas have value - so you have to be confident in your own ability to pursue your own entrepreneurial dreams.
The problems begin when it goes too far.
The first people who suffer tend to be staff. When faced with an over-ambitious, arrogant boss, employees can feel like they are constantly under fire. You can ruffle feathers by not listening to them and preferring your own viewpoint, meaning you lose traction. The day a system of checks and balances in business operations is lost, is the day the company begins a downhill slope. Take it too far and you’ll soon find yourself labeled as a bad boss who won’t listen and is too stubborn - behind your back, of course.
What Else Can Arrogance Impact?
If you approach life with an attitude of having been there, seen it, and done it, then you can begin to lose sight of your business goals. Rather than acknowledging that all businesses need to innovate and change, you can become set in your ways. It seems justifiable: those ‘ways’ have seen you to the point of success you have achieved now - so why should you change?
Evolution is a natural part of a business process. Twenty years ago, who would have thought that we’d be constantly connected to the internet and relying on technology for everyday tasks? There was no predicting that - things do change, and it’s vital not to let your arrogance prevent you falling into a hole from which your company cannot escape.
