Look - if you want to stay a career federal employee, you're fine. No need for gratuitous brownnosing. Good leaders will respect your skills and use your talent to their own advantage. Bad leaders will feel threatened by it, but there is a limited amount they can do to you.

If you want promotions, you're a 15, so promotions will likely have to at least be approved by politicals. If you want to be SES, that may require some of the same, but also getting by the review. If your agency has a leadership training program, or similar to prepare people looking for SES jobs, do that.

But in terms of "getting excited" about it, I dunno. in theory you do it to both better your own position and to further agency priorities. Everything goes smoother and the boss is more susceptible to persuasion if they know that you're on their side. if you're not on the boss's side and don't want to be, screw it. you're a career employee and it sounds like you're good at your job. that's all that should be required.

A successful project can make the boss look good, so I don't see that there's a conflict. The project should be something that creates a material benefit (cost savings, productivity boost) or is a priority for the boss's boss, so try to align better with your boss in that way.

Govt is a "push-and-pull" system. You push your boss up, he will pull you up.

I have the same inclinations as you OP but finally embraced this mantra of making your boss feel good, and let me tell you - life is easier with this mentality.

The perks of making your boss look good: you get a preview of important information if s/he feels you're their best confidante. You get better assignments and growth opportunities. Out of a sense of reciprocity they will start to want to make you look good and give you more opportunities to be at the table with higher ups. Your boss will feel your success reflects well on him/her and will use official authority to advance your career.

Conversely, when your success is achieved independently of your boss and it becomes clear to your boss's peers that his/her oversight isn't needed, then obviously that makes your boss feel threatened and casts a shadow of doubt over your motivations.

All that said, I don't compromise my reputation to help out a swindler. If you have a boss who lies to superiors and engages in unethical practices, then just keep your head down and find a way out. Find some one honest who you can support in good conscience.

YOu are a 15 and still don't understand how it works? how did you get to 15? came in from outside? certainly doesn't sound like someone worked up the ladder.

Brown nosers and a$$ ki $$ers are the first to go when new leadership comes in to play. I would rather be an individual contributor with a valued skillset on the marketplace than dependent on one boss's evaluation. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I make my boss look good and in return I get a paycheck, quarterly bonuses, and freedom in my schedule and projects. That's motivation enough for me.

I'm not a Fed, so this likely doesn't help, but I built my career around making my boss look good. I went from $36k to $180K in just over 10 years, with only a bachelor's degree and in a more affordable area of the country. Actually, I started out working in a divisional office in a major city and then was allowed to move to where I wanted, and I work from home when im not traveling to HQ (about once a month). I am now included in the majority of the executive team meetings and 2 of our c-level execs (besides my boss) won't make decisions without consulting me. I'm seen as the "in touch with the front line" voice.

So those 3 things have been big perks for me:
- Good money withour having to leave the org when a boss who does well in the org sees you as indispensable
- flexibility when you're highly trusted and valued
- great credibility and having your opinion valued

That said, I absolutely recognize this is rare, and it's dependent on finding a good leader you stick with for years. If you are starting over with a new boss every couple years, it doesn't work. The boss has to want to "take you with" him or her.

This is too vague. What do you actually do? What is at stake here? Give us an actual scenario.

I've heard some people say in my federal workplace that "making the boss look good" is an important part of success. Are there wiser brains out there who can help me get excited by this prospect?

I'm the sort of person who likes to be given a broad goal or a project and told to implement. I'm a GS-15 so I have the rank/responsibility to lead projects and people, and I do it well. But the "making the boss look good" part just seems completely uninteresting and like lower level work--more staff assistant sort of thing. I have no interest in my boss looking bad and I am always respectful and keep my boss in the loop about what I am doing (and get advance approval when warranted). But I just don't want to spend lots of my time feeding my boss my information and ideas in digestible nuggets, or polishing up his work, or spending a lot of time tracking down random details about things I don't work on directly just to curry favor with the big guy.

That said, I think this preference has cost me. Some of my bosses have absolutely loved me--said I'm a rising star, best person in my class they've worked with, etc. But others--and especially those who were less secure--have seen my successes as a threat and have sought to sideline me/reduce my access to higher ups. I have a feeling if I could get more excited about making them look good, they'd be less likely to have this reaction, but how do I get motivated to do that?