Many workers are so focused on managing their relationships with their bosses that they overlook or underestimate the importance of collegial relationships. Office alliances are vital in a team-oriented environment and reveal much about your work style. Are you overly critical? Spend too much time dishing at the water cooler? Disconnected from your officemates altogether? But these very factors can determine whether, say, your officemates will back up your big ideas or undermine your leadership on a key project. If managed carefully, your work buddies can help propel your career, say Janice Reals Ellig and William J. Morin, authors of Driving the Career Highway. They offer some important tips for, yes, exploiting those relationships for your long-term success.