I would say performance is a (more or less) necessary but not sufficient condition. We've all heard of cases where managers promote useless schmoozers, but my s

I would say performance is a (more or less) necessary but not sufficient condition. We've all heard of cases where managers promote useless schmoozers, but my sense is that performance is still very very useful for being someone your manager cares about. If only because it more easily allows them to justify their patronage to their manager.