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Stop Sucking Up and Start Helping Out

I really despise sycophants. You see them everywhere. They’re at work, of course, currying favor with bosses and coworkers by heaping nothing but praise upon the less-than-deserving. They can be overt or subtle, but they are there. At best, people will state that these folks “never have anything bad to say” and consider them to be generally nice, pleasant human beings.

At worse, these folks are widely recognized as mindless twits without a thought of their own. They aren’t well known for anything other than heaping effusive praise and constant positivity. Unfortunately, there’s no genuine, original contribution, either.

Usually, their inability to contribute anything original is annoying, and does little to mask their lack of talent. However, these folks tend to do very well for themselves. There are more than enough people with even less ability who will reward anyone who makes them look good – even if all those folks do is make others look good.

To the suck-ups:  Have some pride. It’s far better to be known for your own ideas, than for your ability to thoughtlessly promote the ideas of others. To those who reward the suck-ups:  You’re even worse. Let your ideas be judged openly, rather than doling out favors to those who do nothing but agree with you.

For any group to address its problems, whether it is a small project team or a large, multinational body, open discussion and debate is the only way to get ideas flowing and generate the creativity and innovation necessary for learning and, ultimately, problem solving. When one group does nothing but nod their heads at another group’s ideas, and that group does nothing but reward the head-nodders – egos inflate, originality suffers, and stagnation sets in.

Copyright © 2011 David Kasprzak

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