Throughout my career, I have been continually amazed at the different perceptions that coworkers and bosses have of the same employee. At the last two companies I worked for, I knew two colleagues who acted one way when the boss was around, and acted completely different when the boss wasn’t around. This isn’t groundbreaking news, everyone probably knows someone like this at their workplace. The interesting thing for me was that both of these individuals were promoted.
What I have learned from these experiences is that two of the most important aspects of climbing the corporate ladder are executing on plans and kissing the boss’s ass. It really doesn’t matter if you treat your coworkers like garbage, so long as they aren’t complaining directly to the boss, you’re still golden. I would also like to emphasize the point that in both of these situations execution mattered more than strategy development (or vision). Both of the people in the example I cited above were good at making sure things got done, but they were extremely weak in being able to generate new solutions to complex problems.
When you think about it, your boss has hired you to make his/her job easier. Usually this involves doing a set of mundane tasks as opposed to developing a new Theory of Relativity. Your boss also doesn’t want to deal with any personal conflicts at work. For example, he/she doesn’t want someone who always gets things done but is also extremely difficult to get along with (which is why you can’t entirely alienate everyone you work with). This is why a lot of jerks end up getting the corner office; they strive to deliver on promises at the expense of almost everything else—including treating their coworkers with respect.
Corporations are always talking about how easy it is to hire someone to just push buttons; instead, they want someone who can really strategize and pave the way with new ideas and visionary leadership. For the most part, this isn’t true when you look at the people who tend to climb the ladder. Most of these individuals have average insights at best, but these same individuals usually make sure that they’re pushing all the right buttons to get things done. Don’t fall for the line that Fortune 500s really value thinkers, what they really value are people who can do things that will make life easier for the boss.