Beware the flatterer

The flatterer goes by many names, most of them unprintable here. You’ll probably know them as a butt-kisser!

The flatterer seeks to curry favour with those that they flatter, or else are looking for attention for their own work. They don’t tend to flatter to provide meaningful feedback; there’s usually an ulterior motive behind their unsolicited praise.

Very rarely is it unconscious. In my experience, it’s almost always deliberate and I always tell leaders and managers to be on their guard for it.

Flattery breeds resentment amongst peers and teammates, erodes trust, and creates a culture where honest feedback is avoided (for fear of also looking like a butt-kisser!) or abandoned altogether. 

Worse still, are the leaders who start believing their own hype, who use the flattery to make poor decisions, unchallenged. In that respect, the flatterer's gain will always be everyone else's loss.