tired of being overruled, and they lose the will to fight for their As one subordinate put it, "My boss tells me how to execute every detail. Rather than a with him, I've ended up wanting say, 'Come on, just tell me what you want me to do, and I'll go do it. You become a robot." Another perceived weak performer explained, "When my boss tells me to do something, I just do it mechanically. Shutting down also involves disengaging personally-essentially reducing contact with the boss. Partly, this disengagement is moti vated by the nature of previous exchanges that have tended to be negative in tone. As one subordinate admitted, "I used to initiate much more contact with my boss until the only thing I received was negative feedback; then I started shying away." Besides the risk ofa negative reaction, perceived weaker perform ers are concerned with not tainting their images further, Following the often-heard aphorism "Better to keep quiet and look like a fool than to open your mouth and prove it, they avoid asking for help for fear of further exposing their limitations. They also tend to volun teer less information-a simple "heads up" from a perceived under- performer can cause the boss to overreact and jump into action