Posts tagged ‘Arrogance’

Earlier this month I wrote a post about the subject of managers needing to be fixed – which they don’t. Yet, today I was reflecting on past coaching assignments with non=managers who were mostly fast trackers with People Skill issues.

While these very smart and very technically savvy individuals were critical to there company’s overall success, they all had one thing in common. Poor People Skills was their Achilles Heal. Seems these people were frequently being reported to Human Resources due to some issue or conflict.

Here is what we found working with these talented people who unfortunately lacked some understanding of how to play well with others. There are Seven Issues… Continue reading ‘Do People Need to be Fixed? Seven Results’ »

Share, Email, Print or Bookmark this
[Ask] [BlogBookmark] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Faves] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Posted by Voss Graham on August 18, 2011 at 1:51 am under High Performance Factors.
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comment on this post.

Have you ever heard of the Tall Poppy Syndrome?  The term is used mostly outside the U.S., primarily in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.  The term is derogatory in nature and refers to “cutting down” people who have higher social, economic, or political status.  The reference dates back first to Livy’s (59 BCE) History of Rome, Book I which recounts the story of a Roman King symbolically sweeping a stick through his garden to chop off the heads of the tallest poppies growing in the garden.  This was to symbolize a society that was leery of people who are deserving of genuine merit and positive attention.   In other words, do not stand above the crowd! Continue reading ‘Snobbery, Arrogance, and the Tall Poppy Syndrome’ »

Share, Email, Print or Bookmark this
[Ask] [BlogBookmark] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Faves] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Posted by Inneractive Consulting Insights on September 3, 2010 at 12:22 am under Personal Development.
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Comment on this post.

Arrogance is major problem with some leaders. It is the toxic attitude that kills new ideas or improvements to old methods. This liability to leadership effectiveness has its roots in a fixation of thought. Plus, we find an additional attitude of selfishness in the “I know more than you, so don’t dare question my authority!”

The level of arrogance is controlled by the overall need to have position power rather than personal power. Thus, a lack of true effectiveness rules the day of the arrogant leader. It is as if they can not get out of their own way with others and situations.

Today’s economic crisis is in part due to the arrogant leaders of the financial industry. We find that several of the key leaders use only their position to lead others down a pathway. A pathway that is closer to the past than the future, thus a continued reliance upon tactics, strategies and methodologies that clearly do not work for change or improvement.

Another way of thinking about the effects of arrogance is the how much selfishness gets into the actions of these leaders. When someone thinks they are better, smarter or wiser than everyone else, they begin to do things that protect their status, rather than improve the overall good of the organization. Again, we find these attitude in all levels of an organization. When we find these people, we find the source of poor and selfish decision making.

Examples of these poor decisions include a lack of change of products for a competitive advantage (See IBM and the Power PC chip for printers and the personal computer); military advisors that thought poorly of a scientist-engineer who invented major improvements for tanks and was ignored (See the Russian army that incorporated his improvements into their battle tanks that beat the Germans in WWII.); the Financial bean counter who think that cutting cost is the only way to improve or sell a product (See entire industries become commodized or shipped overseas due to lack of understanding the total or big picture of economics); and finally look at our educational systems that continue to use the methods and classroom of the early 19th century to educate people for the 21st Century. Arrogance is alive and well in every part of professional, private and public sectors of business and the social  sectors of life.

You can overcome the arrogance factor. Read our post on Tuesday for the answers.

Share, Email, Print or Bookmark this
[Ask] [BlogBookmark] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Faves] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Newsvine] [Reddit] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Posted by Voss Graham on October 27, 2008 at 7:01 am under Leadership, Personal Development.
Tags: , , ,
Comment on this post.