The ones we love to hate

Marshall Goldsmith just published an interesting column in strategy + business discussing why we reward sycophants at the workplace.

He compares the "comically servile behavior" of sycophants to that of dogs and how we continually reward "those who heap unthinking, unconditional admiration upon us."

And he concludes, "We're encouraging the kind of behavior that we despise in others. Without meaning to, we are basking in hollow praise, which makes us hollow leaders."
Woof.