This is a pretty insightful (and funny and depressing) article. That said, using these approaches can be quite dangerous because you can end up annoying someone

This is a pretty insightful (and funny and depressing) article. That said, using these approaches can be quite dangerous because you can end up annoying someone with clout. A simpler and safer way to be overrated is simply to do the following: 1) Attend all meetings, ideally be slightly early OR slightly late (and apologetic) but not on-time. One creates the impression you're punctual and eager, the other that you're super busy and important -- so mix it up. If you're always early then you clearly have nothing to do. If you're always late then you're simply disorganized. 2) Reply to all emails within 30-60 minutes (NOT immediately because that increases the probability of an immediate reply). 30 minutes is plenty of time for the sender to get bored and work on something else, e.g. updating Facebook. Ideally if you're being asked to do something you should either request more information or somehow hand it off to a colleague (or, if it's really easy, just do it -- unless you actually enjoy screwing with people). This will create the impression that you are totally on top of things and never the bottleneck. 3) There's no third thing. You're done. You can now rise to the top of virtually any organization. Obviously, it helps to have some clue as to what's going on (e.g. what project you're on and what your role is supposed to be -- your emails should at least make sense in context). All the other stuff mentioned in the article is great if it works, but potentially lethal if you screw the wrong person. E.g. claiming credit may work great in the short term, but it will make you enemies. Remember, some people in the organization may give a damn or know something. Why take the risk? Just show up to meetings and answer emails. People will assign you credit for modesty if nothing else. I might add that if you do this stuff, and -- if only to avoid boredom -- pay some attention during meetings, actually read the emails you respond to, and try to be reasonable when you say or write something, you'll actually be a way-above-average contributor to many bureaucracies.