An excerpt from the book BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE by ERIC BARKER. I thought you guys will find this interesting.
“In the short term, sometimes being bad can be very good.
“Work hard, play fair, and you'll get ahead,” they say. Um, sorry but there's actually a lot of evidence that shows this just isn't the case. People surveyed say effort is the number-one predictor of success, but research shows it's actually one of the worst.
Appearances seem to trump truth at the office. According to Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, managing what your boss thinks of you is far more important than actual hard work. A study shows that those who made a good impression got better performance reviews than those who worked harder but didn't manage impressions as well.
Often this comes down to something we're all very familiar with: good ol' ass kissing. Is flattering the boss effective? Research has shown flattery is so powerful that it works even when the boss knows it's insincere. Jennifer Chatman, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, did a study to see at what point flattery backfired . . . but she couldn't find one.
Pfeffer says we need to stop thinking the world is fair. He puts it bluntly:
The lesson from cases of people both keeping and losing their jobs is that as long as you keep your boss or bosses happy, performance really does not matter that much and, by contrast, if you upset them, performance won't save you.
For those of us expecting to be rewarded for long hours and fair play, this can be tough to stomach. But hold on—it gets worse. Ass kissers aren't the only ones who thrive. Jerks do too.
Do you approach salary negotiations with a win-win, mutual benefit attitude? Unfortunately people who push for more money out of self-interest do better. The Harvard Business Review report’s that men low in the personality trait “agreeableness” make as much as ten thousand dollars a year more than men high in agreeableness. Rude people also have better credit scores.
As sad as it sounds, it seems we're all inclined to mistake kindness for weakness. Eighty percent of our evaluations of other people come down characteristics: warmth and competence. And a study from Teresa Amabile at Harvard called “Brilliant but Cruel” shows we assume the two are inversely related: if someone is too nice, we figure they must be less competent. In fact, being a jerk makes others see you as more powerful. Those who break rules are seen as having more power than those who obey.
It's not just an issue of perception; sometimes jerks are actually better at their jobs than the nice guys. Research shows some negative traits can actually make you more likely to become a leader. The managers who moved up the ladder quickest—and were best at their jobs—weren't the people who tried to be team players or who focused on accomplishing tasks. They were the ones most focused
on gaining power.
To add insult to injury, it's not just that jerks do well; being the downtrodden nice guy can kill you. Being powerless at the office – having little control or discretion over your work – is a bigger risk factor for coronary artery disease than obesity or high blood pressure. Feel underpaid? That increases risk for a heart attack too. Mean-while, ass kissing results in a reduction of workplace stress, improving happiness as well as physical health.
Are you a nice guy or gal who is having trouble processing all this bad news? Maybe that's because not having a high status position at the office contributes to a reduction in executive function. Want that in English? Feeling powerless actually makes you dumber.”