The most logical answer to this question is that it will depend on the personality of your boss. But there are several factors that might not make this practice the most effective one with regards to advancing your career.

Everyone loves a little bit of praise and flattery. But this praise should not be of a smarmy or obsequious nature. Your boss might just be the type that eats this kind of attention up, but it will definitely turn off your fellow co-workers and give you an unwanted reputation as a 'suck up'.

Instead of sucking up to your boss, you should compliment his or her ideas, decisions and business acumen. It's a more subtle strategy to remark on the effectiveness of an idea and even engage your boss on how the idea was conceived. You might even learn something. But no matter how subtle, it will appear like sucking up when it becomes a pattern.

One pitfall of the suck up strategy is that many successful business people are classic Type A personalities, demonstrated by arrogance, self-confidence and a notion that they are the center of the universe. They may identify the suck up behavior as such and peg you as a weakling and abuse you by giving you the most disagreeable tasks and making too many personal requests for services beyond the scope of your job. In their mind, they will begin to think that they own you and have a low opinion of your intellect.

No matter how much the boss may seem to enjoy the flattery, ultimately they will only respect the strong personality, which is the quality they prize most in themselves.

On the other hand, this personality type does not like to be contradicted in front of others and could even feel that his or her leadership position might be threatened. You may want to take the tact that something your boss said gave you an idea and present that idea as a follow-on to what your boss proposed. If you work on your boss with subtlety, you may be able to get a lot further than by blatantly sucking up.

From your first day on the job, observe your boss carefully; see how he operates, take into consideration the personalities of those close associates and most of all check out how he or she reacts to being sucked up to.

Many people are so obsessed with getting ahead and chasing the dollar, pound yen or what have you that sucking up is a seemingly small price to pay. But what you gain with your boss, you will lose with your associates, and perhaps you may become the boss and have to depend on the others within the organization.

This is to say nothing of the nagging feeling that you have become a toady and never knowing if you could have made it on your own merits. But the scale of personalities in the workplace take into account all kinds; the obnoxious boss who demands being sucked up to and the fawning no-talent person who could not get anywhere without polishing the Boss's apple.

But there is one thing all bosses love and respect, and that is results. Becoming a competent professional and cultivating a strong work ethic will make you indispensable to your organization. No amount of sucking up can compensate for incompetence and most bosses know that. How do you think they became bosses?

It never hurts to give an honest compliment or have personal admiration for someone, but put your nose to the grindstone and do it the old fashioned way, by doing the best job you can.

Learn more about this author, Ted Onulak.
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