Arrogance and the IT Professional

This past weekend one of the awesome pastor’s at my church (@robwegner on twitter) delivered a very powerful message about arrogance. I have to admit this really hit home with me. If you are in the IT field you know exactly what I’m talking about. Information Technology has to be one of the most arrogant filled careers in the market today. After all the world depends on technology right? As IT professionals we tend to make sure everyone knows exactly how good we are at doing our job. We want to do it better than the other guy and we want to rub it in his face when he doesn’t measure up. I’ve been wondering. What makes IT folks so arrogant anyway? Maybe it goes back to the pre dot-com fall out when the IT profession was the hottest career out there. I remember seeing news stories where companies were giving high school seniors large sums of money to skip college, grab a certification, and go straight to work. I almost bought into this idea myself. It was a very luring opportunity at the time. It can be easy to fall into the “Arrogance Trap” when the industry is telling you that’s how you should act. Then came the dot-com collapse. Many IT professionals found themselves without jobs. Many of those without college diplomas feared their career as a whole might be in jeopardy. Personally I would think that an event such as that would bring humility to the IT pro, and in a lot of ways I think it has. However we as IT people still tend to let that arrogance slip out when we want to look better than the next guy or show off in front of the boss. I catch myself doing this. It’s almost like we want to prove ourselves to the world. Maybe it’s an insecurity thing or maybe we just like pounding our chest saying “I’m super geek”. Whatever our reasoning, arrogance can kill our relationships. In an industry where we already struggle relating what we do to real business processes, we need to stop making it worse by acting like we’re this all powerful IT dude. I’ve spent this week trying to keep my ego in check and prevent myself from playing the arrogance card. Let me tell you, its not easy at times. I can’t count the times I’ve wanted to tell someone “I’m the IT expert here and you should listen to me”. By holding back my arrogant tactics I’ve realized better communication takes place and people are more open to what I have to say. The lack of arrogance has actually improved my credibility rather than hamper it. It makes a huge difference. So are you an arrogant IT person like the one we remember on Saturday Night Live? Is that how you come across to people you work with or worse yet your clients? If so it’s time to check your ego and show some humility. By doing so you’ll gain a lot more than you’ll lose.