Dealing with yes men

True leaders don't want yes men; that is all great in theory but most of us have managers that are surrounded by hand picked yes men who will do anything to undermine high quality employees to bolster their position. 

How many of us work with true leaders instead of petty managers using their position to manipulate workers for their own means? Generally, such managers are weak leaders too frightened to employ top notch candidates who would be considered a threat to their shaky abilities. Instead, they surround themselves people of limited ability who remain loyal to that manager as they know they will not be likely to pick up a similar position in another company. 

You need to play these guys as hard as you can, they believe that you are weak and will not confront them directly. In military terms, a frontal attack is a poor choice, instead flanking and penetration tactics straight out of the German WWII military manual stand the test of time. 

If you adapt such tactics for business, this ensures you counter-attack from a defensive position and not leave yourself exposed. The German military were not stupid enough to attack France by going over the Maginot Line; instead, they swung around through the poorly defended Belgium and attacked the flank at their weakest point in a Blitzkrieg maneuver. Well, you need to adapt the same tactics and use maneuver to your advantage. 

You need to build alliances to counter their unethical tactics and use game theory to determine your desired outcome and work backwards to counter their every move. That way you will have insights into the way they play the game and be ready to counter their now poorly and hastily planned defensive moves stifling any further offensive moves. Then you have them.