Leadership: Stop The Bleeding, Don’t Flip The Bozo Bit
As I progress in my career, I continue to find parallels between my early days as a basketball player and my current state as whatever-you-call-guys-that-talk-about-digital-all-day-long. This has never been truer than in thinking about teamwork. Everyone has that friend, growing up, that just doesn’t vibe with the group. For whatever reason, they just tend to strum along to their own tune, as my grandfather used to say. (you might also like cut of your own jib. Now, more than ever, I am tempted to write entire blog posts seemingly driven by all of my grandfather’s one liners: You Pickin’ Up What I’m Puttin Down, Son?).
In any case, they don’t get along with the core team. You get it.
What’s the easiest thing to do when you are a kid, at this very moment? We used to ‘clown’ folks. Remind them that they are inherently different, as if they didn’t already know that this was the case. I’m not sure what the kids are calling that these days. *Enter Old Man Chuckle*
Sadly, not a lot has changed in the way grown-folks-teams operate today. We tell ourselves a number of lies to mask our inability to make people better. Lies like “It’s for the sake of efficiency” or “I’m too busy to babysit the new guy”. Jim McCarthy, in his 1995 book Dynamics of Software Development, introduced an idea that “social issues trump technical ones on almost every project”. He listed a number of rules to help mitigate these issues to ensure a better delivery.
Rule #4 was, “Don’t Flip The Bozo Bit”. McCarthy’s advice is pretty simple:
Everyone has something to contribute.
He warns that it is easy, and arguably tempting, when someone annoys you or makes a mistake, to simply place them in a box where you disregard their input, indefinitely, by setting — what he calls — the “bozo flag” to TRUE for the remainder of said person’s existence.
But, ultimately, if you take some time to think about what it means intrinsically to call yourself a leader, you will find that you are taking the easy way out. You, in fact, are the bigger perpetrator and have effectively poisoned any further team interactions because you have removed the possibility of deriving any value from the “bozo” at any point in the future.
With great opportunity comes great responsibility. Once you subscribe to the notion that you are a leader, then you must also acknowledge that you are in a position that demands much more from you than anyone else on the team. It is your job to play above the fray. To find a better way to navigate the obstacles.
You can’t afford to put anyone in a space where they are no longer allowed to contribute. Your only option here is to let that person go. And if you are not there yet, then there is still value to be gleaned from their contribution to the build.
It’s your job to avoid Flipping The Bozo Bit.
And sometimes, you will find, that is your only job.
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