Sycophancy
Etymology
From Greek "sykophantēs," literally "one who shows the fig," from "sykon" (fig) + "phainein" (to show); the fig connection is genuinely obscure, variously explained as an informer on illegal fig exports or an obscene gesture. In Greek it meant a malicious informer; English shifted it to the toadying flatterer.
noun · /SIK-uh-fun-see/
Servile flattery of the powerful in hopes of advantage.
What it names
Names flattery as strategy — the courtier’s craft of pleasing those who can reward you.
Example
Every meeting dissolved into sycophancy the moment the founder walked in.
Related idea
Obsequiousness is a general fawning eagerness to please; sycophancy is that fawning specifically aimed at power for gain.