I have never come across a moment in my professional career…

Arrogance is the quality of being 'unpleasantly proud and behaving as if you are better, or know more than other people'.

This is the actual definition of it.

And it means the only time arrogance serves well is when being unpleasant & up yourself, works in your favour.

Arrogance makes it easy to repel people you don't want to associate yourself with.

If you're a leader or in a position of influence, its very easy for your pleasantness to be mistaken for availability,

in which everyone would flock to abuse it with no regard or respect.

Allowing everyone your time will devalue your credibility down to those who have none.

So it makes sense to be unpleasant around those you don't want to waste time around.

It also makes others work hard to get your recognition & availability.

If you've worked hard to get to where you are, not everyone has the right for your availability.

Arrogance insulates you from those who seek clout & extract value off you. Its a useful tool to employ to preserve your time.

But even then, you risk repelling people of value.

Arrogance is useful when coercive leadership is required.

There are moments where circumstances demand swift decision making & action. People under pressure or a threat, often freeze & become indecisive out of fear.

Arrogance will tilt power to you by eradicating resistance.

Arrogance is intimidation. Anyone in a leadership position knows how useful that can be when unnecessary resistance is faced.

It is also a trait that projects confrontation.

This combo makes arrogance very effective when those inferior to you cluelessly resist your leadership.

Arrogance ONLY works if you have the credibility to pull it off. You must have the reputation first, a value you provide, before being selectively arrogant.

There's ALWAYS damage that accommodates arrogance.

The permissible reasons discussed above simply maximises the benefits.

Arrogance RARELY pays off. Even with those who are arrogant towards you.

99% of the time, you will humble a credible arrogant person with your humility instead of mirroring him.

Those who dont humble up, are those who have nothing to provide aside from unmerited superiority.

Lastly, don't use humility as a virtuous quality. Use it to filter out the fake from the credible.

Its an effective weapon against arrogance. Those who are credible will be disarmed. Those who have nothing will double-down and take advantage.

Full essay will be on my blog soon.