Ever wondered why otherwise very competent CEOs surround themselves with yes men? You see it all around. Like one first-generation entrepreneur who has built up an empire. But the people who seem to always have his ear have no talent whatsoever. They don’t even have HR skills. Their closeness to the boss makes them abrasive, like durwans who are paid to keep pesky irritants away from the master.

In the case of entrepreneurs, it is often a case of a need for reassurance. Whatever the facade, most extremely successful people have a kernel of doubt deep inside. In fact, it may be responsible for their success. They are always climbing the next mountain because they are not sure that the peaks they have achieved were accidental. That’s why they don’t hang up their boots in case people discover that they have feet of clay.

You get yes men and sycophants in very professional organisations too. Here the reason may be somewhat different. Of course, there are people who like to dominate. You can’t be right all the time. So such bosses should be frequently ending up with egg all over their face. They don’t. It is one of the functions of the yes men to carry the can for such disasters. And it is the responsibility of the boss to publicly “forgive” him for his wrong analysis.

Sometimes, of course, a yes man has to be sacrificed when the blunder is too big to be covered up. But that is the price you pay for all the perks you have enjoyed over the years. Keep quiet and you will be found a slot in some other company. Yes, it is easy to be a yes man. But a good yes man also needs a certain degree of incompetence.

This is not merely because anybody competent wouldn’t like being a yes man. The yes men may be there to take the blame when things go wrong. But, more importantly, they act as a duffer zone between the boss and any claimants to his position.

Look at it this way. The boss has turned 65 and is due to retire according to the company rules. But the layer next to him is filled with yes men, who may not have taken a single independent decision in their life. You can’t find a successor from amongst them. There are competent people in the organisation — there has to be someone doing the work — but you can’t breach the duffer zone and put any of them in charge. The result: company rules are given the go by and the boss gets another five years in the saddle.

“We have had many such instances in India in recent times,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. “Take any company that has had to extend the CEO’s retirement age and I will show you a company with a very active duffer zone.” And most of the boards of directors are packed with yes men anyway.

“The problem is you can’t say ‘no’ to a yes man,” writes Wall Street Journal career columnist Jared Sandberg. “Having rarely uttered it, they don’t value the currency of a ‘no’. This is not about the get-lost ‘no’, but even the most softly peddled, bad-for-the-bottom-line ‘no’. No matter how deftly delivered, a ‘no’ to a yes man is transformed into one of the most career-limiting charges: You’re not a team player.”

One solution is to become a yes man yourself. You’ll always play second fiddle. But it’s a good life. Besides, most yes men are martinets at home. They are training their kids to be yes men too.

ANALYSIS OF THE SPECIES -Yes men and other animals

Sycophantus Maximus: The Brown-Noser

Whether they’re lavishing their boss with praise or recounting their latest achievement to a captive group, the Sycophantus Maximus is unabashedly self-promoting. In their mildest form, sycophants are merely obnoxious. At their worst, they will take the credit for other people's ideas and attempt to curry favour with their superiors by criticising co-workers.

Whinus Semper: The Complainer

You can almost hear the violin music before they appear in your doorway. The complainers seem perpetually unhappy with every aspect of their lives, especially their work, and can’t seem to stop talking about it. Although you initially feel sorry for them, this usually escalates to annoyance, then disgust, as you can’t get anything done.

Lethargus Distractus: The Slacker

The bane of every group project, the slacker is a seemingly helpless hanger-on who is likely to be spotted playing online solitaire when he is supposed to be putting your presentation into Power Point. Some slackers are sneaky, having learned that if they complete their work but do a crummy job, they simply won’t be asked to take on responsibility again.

Source: Sycophants, Slackers, and other Pesky People: How to Avoid Becoming a Workplace Pest and How to Shine Despite Them; University of California, Berkeley