Investor's Business Daily, July 26th, 2007
Somehow the boss doesn't see through their act and they get ahead. They're the office suck-ups.
It's an issue that smacks of dishonesty, as employees try to curry favor by telling the boss how great he or she is, regardless of the truth. But people do it because it works.
How can a leader fall for such transparent behavior?
"It's something that's easy to see in everybody else, but it's hard to see in ourselves," said Marshall Goldsmith, an executive coach based in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
He says most employees have the perception that their boss plays favorites -- but most bosses don't believe they do.
Goldsmith, who wrote the book "What Got You Here Won't Get You There," asks groups of leaders whether they have a dog they love. Hands shoot in the air.
Then he asks who gets the most affection in the house: spouse, kids or dog. It's usually the dog, even though the leaders say they don't love the dog more than the others. Still, the dog doesn't talk back and it responds to affection, so it gets the attention.
"The dog sucks up, and that's what we reinforce," Goldsmith said.
It's human nature to respond to those who like us, or who pretend to, says Mark Eppler, a Cincinnati-based speaker focused on leadership and management issues. Leaders also respond to sucking up because it's often so subtle.
"It's deception of the gradual," Eppler said. "You don't intend for it to happen, but over time it does."
The issue, Eppler says, affects what he calls a leader's "credit(ability) score." It's like an account that gauges the leader's trustworthiness. "Favoritism makes a huge withdrawal," Eppler said. "Your capacity to lead is compromised."
Ways to avoid playing favorites:
Communicate often. Make it clear to workers how you gauge performance. "Say you're not looking for a best friend, you're looking for performance," Eppler said.
Stay grounded. Goldsmith once worked with a group of young generals. He told them that even though people now laugh at their jokes more often, they're not that funny. People write down what they say, but they're not that smart. "It's about the star," he said. "But we want to believe that it's about us."
Don't punish the messenger. Don't critique feedback, Goldsmith says, and don't beat people up for offering it.
Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally recently applauded when an employee came in and admitted he had done something wrong. Mulally was cheering the change in culture.
Reward honesty. One of Goldsmith's client firms pays $1,000 annually to the employee who challenges the system and tells leaders what they don't want to hear.
Emphasize team goals. If group goals are rewarded, Eppler says, there's less need for one person to suck up.
If a firm can avoid the sucking-up culture, leaders will learn about problems before they kill the company, Goldsmith says.
And your best employees stay. "Employees will forgive just about anything but a lack of integrity," said Eppler.
