To get on with senior staff or peers and subordinates

[Spidergirl8]

I've observed during my career that often the managers most liked by team members are softer and perhaps not as keen to address difficult issues/give bad news. Whereas staff who get on with senior staff tend to have demonstrated some grit and capability in making difficukt decisions.
Of course there are always the &@se lickers etc, but putting them to one side, I'm interested to hear you opinions.
Is it better to put ones effort into getting on with and being noticed by line manager/senior managers or to keep the peace and get on with peers/team members. Any thoughts on this much appreciated.

Depends on what you want. If you want to climb the ladder then you have to make sure managers want to promote you. You can do both though! It's not one or the other.

Why can't you do both!?

It just seems, at a certain point you need to choose, once you start to progress. My preference would be both, but those I observe in senior roles seem to 'pick a side'....

My own manager (she's now my manager's manager as she got promoted) is abysmal. When I joined the company she was line managing me but ignored me for the first two months of employment, until she promoted someone else to manage her team. She literally spoke to me once during that time, when she saw me at a meeting, kept telling me she'd call me for a chat but never did. (we do not work in same location) Luckily the role is quite autonomous so I just got on with things but I felt let down. I mean she didn't even ask me how I was settling in.

She then won the chairman's manager of the year award! And this is not a small company either. They probably had about 50 or so people to choose from.

I can only imagine that she is very good at creating a good impression above, and sod the impression she creates below.

If you want to climb the ladder, go for pleasing the ones above. But don't forgot the ones beneath you also.

Treat people like humans. I don't have much respect for people who blank those who aren't at least their own rank, but the manager who speaks to everyone with respect, like they're worth listening to - I'd walk over hot coals for him. Well, probably not literally, to be honest. But I've got a lot of time for him because of how he treats people at all levels. It's possible to do both, and climb the ladder, but it's possible that it's easier in some workplace cultures than others.

I often don't know what people's ranks are, so treating everyone with respect by default is the best way - can't go wrong. I am not that bothered about rank - it's what they know, who their contacts are, what they can do which is what interests me.

If I were going to promote someone, I'd be interested in what their peers and subordinates thought of them, not just people they report to. Our company's quite into 360 degree reviews at the moment, though.