Are you your own worst enemy?

Under-truthfulness
I'm not talking about lying, but the far more common mistake of being afraid to tell the boss stuff he doesn't want to hear.

Berkowitz, our former head of sales, would be called upon to give a status report at the senior staff meeting every Thursday. The problem was that he was afraid to say what was really going on. He put a nice shine on things. Later, the head of finance would paint a much more realistic picture. After a while, when they reached Berkowitz, the chairman would say, "Okay, now let's get a bunch of lies from sales." It wasn't long before Berkowitz took a package.

Over-truthfulness
I'm not saying that Berkowitz should have said, "We're having the worst quarter in our history, and nothing can pull us out." That's just stupid and crude. Better would have been something like, "We have an issue on the upside that we think we can work on with some success in the coming weeks." See? The message is conveyed without embarrassing anybody.

Senior executives deserve the truth, except when it would do neither them nor the business much good, in which case kindness is better. But truth is like chocolate: A little is a pleasure; too much can be lethal. The smart and non-self-destructive player will make the boss aware of the general outlines of the snake pit but not inundate him with enough rancid slime to wash him over the edge.

Rampant distemper

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My first boss was a woman who was fine before lunch but really crabby afterward. Betty would go into a meeting with the very powerful dudes and sit there with a grumpy expression on her face. Everybody in the room, including the chairman, was afraid of her. When she spoke, they would defer to her, because her ideas were very good and very strongly presented.

It wasn't the quality of her work that eventually got her canned. It was the fact that she was what we may define, technically, as a Big Bummer. It was impossible to have a free-flowing discussion around her because she would bite your nuts off.

I'm sure you have a lot to be angry about. But if you radiate bad vibes, those who wear the stripes are going to feel them and pinpoint the source. That's not smart. Lighten up. Or at least be strategic and keep your karmic bleakness to yourself.

Bad credit/blame management
This is a tough one. A lot of people trip over this issue. Naturally, you want credit for the good things you do. This means working in such a way that (a) you are recognized as the author of the good thing in question, and (b) others are happy to give you the credit. Satisfying both criteria is not always easy. And you never want to be seen as a man who hogs other people's credit. As a rule of thumb, attempt to receive no more than 70 percent of the credit that's due you. Give away the rest.

Then there's the issue of blame. Real players never dodge it when it belongs to them. There's nothing a senior guy hates more than a craven, cowardly weasel who tries to lay blame on other people.

How you manage credit and blame is directly influenced by your relationship with your senior officer. If he wants the credit, give it to him. That's what you're there for. And if he's trying to escape blame, take it. The guy who decides your upcoming raise is the only one who needs to be satisfied in either regard.

Of course, if a peer tries to suck off your credit for something, cut off his legs. We're talking strategic management of this issue, not surrender.

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