Posted by
Gary A McAvin on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:28:32 AM
You would think there is a chance the employee/s will identify the right things on which to focus their time and attention, but I respectfully submit that there's also a good chance that many bosses have devised and implemented a program for encouraging and rewarding sycophants. Personally; if you are smart, you will make sure to surround yourself with people who continue to help you stay grounded rather than vacuous sycophants who laud your every word and deed because they are desperate for your approval. Flattery can only ruin the individual as they become more psychological dependent upon constant praise and admiration. In their mildest form, sycophants are merely obnoxious. At their worst, they will take the credit for other people's ideas and attempt to curry favor with their superiors by criticizing fellow co-workers. Like sycophants, slackers (lazy people in general) sometimes rely on charm (or masquerade as whiners) to avoid responsibility when a deadline is approaching. Only someone with a need for flattery—and who possesses low self-esteem—would tolerate, much less desire, much less seek out, sycophants.
Sycophant derives from Greek sukophantes, "an accuser (especially a false accuser) or rogue," from sukon, "fig" + phantes, "one who shows," from phainein, "to show. The follow excerpt from an article published on http://www.management-issues.com cuts to the heart of the matter. Are all bosses psychopaths? Are all praise loving toady seeking bosses, surrounded by enabling sycophants? Read on!
Psychopaths & Sycophants by Max McKeown
“Far too many organizations are stuffed with sycophants prepared to overlook anything shady, illegal, or unethical as long as they are getting to hang around and share some power; even if that means pandering to a corporate psychopath.
Leaders need followers, right? It doesn't follow that anyone who doesn't lead is a follower but what if a subset of leaders are psychopathic - or at least antisocial and unburdened by conscience - while a subset of followers are sycophantic - those who are willing to please leaders in exchange for power and privilege, or even the promise or proximity of power and privilege?
What if the two groups are symbiotic? You need those who forgo the respect of self and peer to achieve privilege to be willing to carry out the desires of those psychopaths who have power and no, or little,
conscience.
In fact these two groups share much in common. They consider other people and other people's feelings expendable and differ in ways that make them necessary to each other's success.
Identifying psychopaths is both difficult and easy. A mnemonic that can be used to remember the criteria for antisocial personality disorder, ordinarily considered to be the umbrella term that includes psychopaths, is "CORRUPT":
C - Cannot follow law
O - Obligations ignored
R – Remorselessness
R – Recklessness
U – Underhandedness
P - Planning deficit and
T – Temper.
Only three or more of these are viewed as necessary to point towards an antisocial personality disorder, so you can assess yourself and anyone else against the seven criteria – none of which require the individual to have killed anyone!” These characteristics are displayed openly in the Senate leadership and the toady sycophants that follow these jejune people’s blind leadership. The obnoxiousness of Senator’s Reid, Schumer, Durbin, Clinton, et al; well; we can actually list all Democrat Senators, as they are for the most part worthless sycophantic obnoxious leaders overall. And; there are many of the same genre on the other side of the isle also, i.e. Specter for one! I will bring forth some more info on sycophants are obnoxious in part two.