This was several years back. Keep in mind that early in my career, my father had told me that doing a good job often meant doing what needed to be done in spite of your boss. And by that he meant that you can either make your boss successful and happy or you can run every decision by your boss. In which case no one is successful or happy. I was working at the time for a Fortune 500 company and our CTO had signed up to deliver a big project for an important client with whom he had personal connections.