It's lonely on top

I work for a large insurance company. One senior manager was a real charmer, everyone seemed to love him. He was funny, energetic, passionate and seemed to take time to be friends with everyone.

So that being said, his strong points were his people skills. He did however lack the skills to get the job done, but was great at getting other people to do the work for him. Unfortunately, instead of playing the angle on his ability to "motivate employees", he chose to steal the credit. He looked great to upper management, but those who did the work for him felt shafted.

Needless to say, he was promoted. While on top and now asking more people for more work, people generally did the job (because they had too.. he was even more senior after all) but the quality of work which they generated was less than adequate. Nobody felt it was worth doing any work because they wouldn't be recognized.

I had to thank him though because after I observed that, I did the opposite and gave people full credit. Upper management recognized me as a motivator and a leader and I was moved into his position (after of course, he couldn't deliver as expected)