Sycophants

I hate sycophants. Boot lickers, suck ups, lackeys, toadies, whatever you want to call them. They certainly exist in the corporate world and I saw plenty of them. These are the people who think that sucking up to the boss will help them get ahead. In some of my roles managing people, I saw them trying to work their magic on me. It’s pretty obvious and it made my skin crawl most of the time. I did have one manager reporting to me who was a sycophant but was also quite good at his job. I tolerated his behaviour but made it clear I found it distasteful and unnecessary. If you’re good then you don’t need to polish my boots.

Now I see it happening with our President Trump. The scenes of people – cabinet members and others who like to speak out loud about how wonderful he is….it’s nauseating. Worse – it’s happening in the press corps. Trump has punished those in the press corp who attempt to hold him accountable and ask him difficult questions. He has populated the white house press corps now with other reporters, clearly sycophants. I watched one young lady ask him about his exercise regime because he looks so wonderful he looks even more healthy than during his last regime. I wanted to throw up.

Leaders who need and encourage this kind of behavior are clearly insecure. They need to be reassured all the time, and tend to surround themselves with people who will be sure to do so.

I watch this stuff and wonder how people can not see through this.