I think in organizations you have people who craft their messages to different degrees. I imagine almost all of our manager's have said "Oh we can't say that

I think in organizations you have people who craft their messages to different degrees. I imagine almost all of our manager's have said "Oh we can't say that in that meeting" or "how do we put a better spin on that". And I totally believe people who do this more, and better tend to rise to the top. Competence as perceived by your boss and boss's boss are driven by your results and perception management. And this problem gets worse because they higher you go the less control you have over your actual results. i.e. A developer has a lot more control in delivering a solid piece of performant maintainable code than a V.P. does in delivering revenue growth. And eventually you end up with CEOs who sit around and play roulette while explaining to the board how the losses were unavoidable, and the wins solely driven by his leadership.