Moshe’s Blog

A Leader’s Guide to Overcoming Arrogance: Five Steps to Revolutionize Your Leadership Approach

The Roots of Arrogance

“I don’t take feedback. I give it!” This is arrogance in action, an attitude of superiority that comes from an inflated sense of self-importance and an underlying sense of inferiority.

Arrogant leaders may get things done, but it comes at a huge cost unhappy teams, stifled creativity, damaged relationships, and deep regret.

If you find yourself being an overbearing know-it-all, bullying your people, or dismissing other perspectives, it’s time for introspection. You are suffering from arrogance. It’s one of the “Big 3” costly habits I talk about in my leadership book, The Amare Wave: Uplift Your Business by Putting Love to Work. The good news is you can fix it.

Start by understanding that arrogance masks deep-seated fears: fear of inadequacy, fear of failure, or even fear of being perceived as weak. To hide these fears, you likely overcompensate, creating a facade of overconfidence and often abuse of power. Deep inside, it’s an attempt to feel safe that doesn’t work.

The irony is that this very arrogance prevents the genuine connection and trust that we all crave and is necessary for highly effective leadership. Recognizing this can be transformative. By understanding that arrogance springs from fear, you can start addressing it more compassionately and effectively.

Do you become arrogant when you feel threatened or unsafe?

How do you react when someone challenges your ideas?

How often do you acknowledge and learn from your mistakes?

5 Amare Steps to Overcome Arrogance in Your Leadership Style

1. Assess your arrogance. Gauge how much arrogance shows up in your leadership style with this quick quiz. Notice if the results match your self-perceptions.

2. Understand the payoff. Think about what arrogance helps you avoid, like fear of vulnerability, fear of being perceived as weak, or fear of failure. Ask yourself if that protection serves your highest good.

3. Seek honest feedback. Create a safe space for team members to provide honest feedback about your leadership style, especially regarding any arrogant tendencies.

4. Learn from mistakes. When something goes wrong, ask yourself and your team what you can learn.

5. Take small risks. List five things you can do that require a little vulnerability, saying ‘I don’t know,’ or relying on others. Then do them and see what happens.

Implementing these steps requires patience and dedication. Keep in mind external forces too:

1) In the high-stakes environment of corporate America, arrogance is often mistakenly celebrated as strength. While some leaders with arrogant traits have achieved success, understand that their success isn’t because of their arrogance but in spite of it.

2) Arrogance often develops as companies become successful and slip into thinking the business exists simply to better the business. Anytime this happens, come back to your higher purpose.

Transforming from an arrogant executive to an empathetic and empowering leader is an ongoing journey that is best served by a commitment to love-powered Amare leadership. Each step forward will enrich your leadership style and strengthen your team and organization, fostering a culture of trust and mutual respect.

Strategy & Skill-Building for Leadership Teams

I work with leadership teams on unlocking their genius, trust-building, courageous conversations, and growth strategy, rooted in the Amare Way of love-powered leadership. For more info, contact me here.

Today’s Amare Wave Wednesday Quote

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”

—Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur & Business Philosopher