Team Leadership How to Avoid Arrogance in Business

¶ … start, budget at completion equals estimate at completion -- but that can change. Certainly what the original budget estimates reflect are not set in stone, so yes the final cost of the project can be different from the original estimate. The Budget at Completion (BAC) is the sum of all budget values that were set up when the project was being designed. The BAC is "the total planned value of the project" (project-management-knowledge.com). Each of the items that are part of the projection are " ..

assigned a cost," and that cost is expected to remain the same and when added up, weighed against the "pre-determined budget for the project" (project-management-knowledge.com - pmk). First of all, the project has to be carefully thought out, and the estimate to complete (ETC) is a considerable process that includes -- according to the Project Management Institute (PMI, 200) -- developing "an approximation of the monetary resources" that will be required to complete the project.

There are inputs, tools, and outputs that are part of the estimate of costs, which are basically a prediction of what the final project will cost; taken into consideration are " .. costing alternatives" that will be needed to "initiate and complete the project" (PMI, 201). Among those costs: "direct labor, materials, equipment, services, facilities, information technology .. and financing .. " (PMI, 207). The answer to the question posed at the top of the page, again, is yes, the BAC can change when the project is finished.

The ETC, it should be noted, is calculated and it is applied based in part on assumptions in the past become out-dated and there is a need for fresh estimates. The formula (in calculating the estimate at completion -- EAC) includes taking into consideration "variances .. which will be present in the future," because anticipating that those variances will be present in the future aids in meeting goals (pmk) Ethics and Responsibility Arrogance can and does lead to jumping to conclusions -- and much more.

For an executive or a manager in an important position, the lack of sincerity, first and foremost, is immediately detected by those around the leader, and when there is not trust, there cannot be strong leadership and team success. My position is that management that doesn't listen to employees -- and rationalizes its mistakes rather than learning from them -- is doomed to fail rather than progress. I comprehend the issue by referencing a 2010 Bloomberg Business article, in which journalist Alaina Love presents the situations that indicate poor leadership.

They match perfectly with my own work experiences when leadership failed to support the workers. In Love's "12 Signs of Arrogance," number 7 is very appropriate to my own experiences: "Your leaders dictate more than they listen." This doesn't mean that every manager or executive should have an open door for any employee to walk in and offer ideas and opinions. But being a good leader means you let workers know that you welcome their input.

It could be done in weekly brainstorming sessions (not "bitch sessions"), or it could be accomplished when the manager / executive makes the rounds on a very regular basis and talks to employees about their jobs, and what they believe could make things more efficient. In the PM (project management) professions, leaders can't afford to fall into Love's #6 ("Your leaders believe the company can't fail") or into #2 ("The company underestimates its competition and minimizes the success.