Marshall Goldsmith Library: Stuck on Suck-Ups Page 1 of 3

TALENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE

Stuck on Suck-Ups
by Marshall Goldsmith

Part of my job involves reviewing and rewriting custom-designed

leadership profiles at major corporations.

These documents typically feature boilerplate language to

describe the leadership behaviors each company desires. Such
chestnuts include “communicates a clear vision,” “helps people
develop to their maximum potential” and “avoids playing
favorites.”

I’ve never seen a profile that offered “effectively sucks up to

management” as a preferred leadership characteristic. Yet, given
the dedication to fawning and sucking up that goes on in most
corporations, and how often this behavior is awarded, it probably
should be included.

Almost every company will say it wants people who “challenge the
system,” “are empowered to express their opinions” and “say
what they really think.” But there are plenty of employees who go
along to get along, and there’s certainly no shortage of outright
derriere smoochers.

Most of the leaders I meet say they don’t encourage this kind of
conduct in their organizations, and I don’t doubt their sincerity.
Most of us are easily irritated, if not disgusted, by shameless
suck-ups. This raises an important question: If leaders say they
discourage sucking up, then why is it so prevalent in the
workplace?

Keep in mind these leaders are generally shrewd judges of

character. They’ve spent their careers sizing up people, taking in
first impressions and recalibrating them against later impressions.
And yet, they still fall for the super-skilled suck-ups way too
often.
So why does this happen? The simple answer is we can’t see in
ourselves what we see so clearly in others.

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You might be thinking, “It’s amazing how leaders send out subtle
signals that encourage subordinates to mute their criticism and
exaggerate praise of the powers that be. And it is surprising that
they can’t see this in themselves. Of course, this doesn’t apply to
me. I view interactions with my direct reports entirely without
bias.”

Maybe you’re right. But how can you be sure you aren’t in denial?
I use a simple test with my clients to show how we all
unknowingly encourage sucking up. I ask a group of leaders,
“How many of you own a dog that you love?” Big smiles spread
across the executives’ faces as they wave their hands in the air,
and they beam as they tell me the names of their always faithful
hounds.

Then, I ask them, “At home, who gets most of your unabashed
affection? Is it (a) your spouse or partner, (b) your kids or (c)
your dog?” More than 80 percent of the time, they choose (c.)
After that, I ask them if they love their dogs more than their
family members. The answer is always a resounding “no.” My
follow-up question: “Then why does the dog get more of your
affection?”

Their replies are usually some variation of, “The dog is always
happy to see me,” “The dog never talks back” or “The dog loves
me no matter what I do.” In other words, the dog is a suck-up.

If we aren’t careful, we can wind up treating people at work like

dogs: rewarding those who heap unthinking, unconditional
admiration on us. And what do we get in return? A virulent case
of the suck-ups.

The net result is obvious. You get behavior that serves you, but
not necessarily the best interests of the company. Worse, it tilts
the field against honest, principled employees who won’t play
along. You’re not only playing favorites -- you’re favoring the
wrong people!

We can counter this by categorizing our direct reports in three

ways:

1. How much do they like me? (I know you can’t be sure. What
matters is how much you think they like you.)
2. What is their contribution to the company and its customers?
(In other words, are they A, B or C players or worse?)

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3. How much positive recognition do I give them?

What we’re looking for is whether the correlation is stronger

between the first and the third, or the second and the third. If
we’re honest with ourselves, our recognition may be linked to how
much they seem to like us rather than how well they perform.

We’re encouraging the kind of behavior we despise in others.

Without meaning to, we are basking in hollow praise, which
makes us hollow leaders.

This quick analysis won’t solve the problem. But it does identify it,
and that’s where change begins.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's 24 books include "What Got You

Here Won't Get You There" - a New York Times best-seller,
Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman
Award winner for Business Book of the Year. His latest
book "Succession: Are You Ready?" - is the newest edition
to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. His
personal website,
http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/, contains
hundreds of his articles and videos.

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