Top 10 Mafia Leadership Lessons - Confidence vs. Arrogance
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Be confident, not arrogant
Self-confidence is an important part of being a leader. It enables you to act with security and convey authority. It also comes in handy when making tough decisions, since having confidence in your skills and abilities will reassure you about what you are undergoing. Nevertheless, there’s a fine line between self-confidence and outright arrogance. Self-confidence: good. Arrogance: bad. John Gotti learned that lesson the hard way.
After rising to the top of the Gambino Family, he amassed considerable power in the underworld. For a while, Family members liked the fact that the boss exuded an air of “movie-star” quality. He was ‘cool’ and confident. But the ‘coolness’ and confidence went over the fine line. With TV news cameras in front of him day and night because of the different high-profile cases against him, Gotti paraded his handmade suits and always attempted to be the center of attention. The increased publicity, by many accounts, made him a bigger target, subsequently bringing him and the Gambino Family down. Even his own underboss, Sammy Gravano, and many of his capos, later expressed that the correct strategy was to maintain a low profile and not bring too much attention. Gotti didn’t agree, and he payed the price.
Maybe in the personal and corporate worlds arrogance won’t bring you as much visible trouble as the Gambino Family had. But crossing the line over from self-confidence to arrogance and cockiness may no doubt bring harmful consequences. For one, most people don’t enjoy being around someone whose main objective is to exalt him or herself. Relationships suffer as a result of those kinds of attitudes, and therefore leadership suffers, since it is based in many ways on quality relationships. In fact, the person who ratted on Gotti, leading him to a life sentence, was his best buddy and underboss Sammy Gravano. So there’s no need to exagerate your ‘confidence’. Just be reasonably sure of yourself and trust in your capacity. But there’s no need to be arrogant. It could lead you into trouble.
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