I was just reading The Daily Stat, which is a blog run by the Harvard Business Review. According to their research, bosses who have been flattered too much by their employees or others, can increase their likelihood of being fired by 64%. The CEO’s who have received the flattery would be more likely to have inflated egos, and not be as likely to make the best decisions about change when corporate performance is less than desireable.
I decided to read this quick article simply because the culture of India encourages endless flattery of those above you. Unfortunately, people do not typically learn to be better, if they already think they are perfect. Good enough is the enemy of “could be better”.
My personal experience has lead me to believe that those who received endless criticism tend to become frustrated and hopeless. While those who never receive any criticism sometimes do not know their own faults, and settle for mediocracy.
I am not recommending that people in India go around insulting their bosses. You will end up on the street if you do that too much. But, if you don’t like your boss, and want him replaced, you could create a secret alliance of the workers to do nothing but flattery until the guy gets canned. There is no guarantee that this strategy will succeed, but the odds are that you will increase his chance of being fired by 64%. If you all do it, then maybe a new statistic would be merited on how likely you are to getting a new boss!