The Bozo Bit

Even if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve probably had an experience with a person that caused you to flip ‘the bozo bit.’ Its an expression that means you have labeled another person as permanently incompetent. They just don’t “get it” and you have made a mental note to never let that person interfere with your success again. The bozo bit is a technical translation of the old saying “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” (for not flipping the bozo bit sooner!).

The bozo bit can get in your way when you make a move into management. For one thing, you can’t afford to permanently downgrade someone on your team unless you are prepared to work with HR and other functions to remove that person permanently. And if you apply “the bit” to anyone else (peers in leadership, superiors) then you are making the assumption that you are superior to that person in every way and you will never need their support or assistance – an assumption that you are in no position to make. In fact, the usefulness of the cold, hard “on/off” bozo bit is really a reflection of your intense technical ability, where cold, hard boundaries exist between right and wrong. In many leadership situations, the line is not so clear.

I was working in a research institution in the 1980’s where my manager, a leading robotics researcher, was the first person who flipped the bozo bit on me. Sure, I struggled with the physics but he was OK with that. The bit flipping came because I betrayed his trust. I asked him if I could take a Friday off so long as I would work the following Monday, which was a holiday. He agreed, and I went out of town on a Thursday night to go see my girlfriend. Somehow when Sunday night came around, it did not seem fair that I had to go to go back to work. So I didn’t. I just skipped out on my end of the bargain, assuming no one would be the wiser because the lab would be empty for the holiday.

What I did not know is that my manager came to work on that holiday specifically to help me move my project forward. He forfeited precious visitation time (he was divorced) with his young daughter to come help me. Only I never showed up. Indeed I was deserving of the bozo bit and our relationship never recovered. I regret my stupidity to this day.

But before this turns in to an episode of “My name is Earl,” let me bring you back into the story. When you enter leadership, you have to realize that people make mistakes. Sometimes they are extremely stupid mistakes. If you manage long enough, you will come to believe that people can screw up in just about any way conceivable.

You are lucky if it’s only technical; for that, you can patch, teach and hopefully move on. If you think the problem is incorrigible, document the pattern and work the individual out of your organization. But do so in an unbiased, non-bozo-bit way. You can’t be fair to someone who you think is incompetent; they have to prove that for themselves, more than just once.

Another class of mistakes is behavioral. A whole subset of these are the domain of HR; in situations where one person’s actions impact other people’s rights, you will need to rely on good advice and leadership from them. Without too many details, some examples would be personal threats, inappropriate sexual conduct and the like. The best advice I have is to engage HR quickly and avoid discussing details with anyone, even your superiors unless directed by HR.

Some behavioral issues, like when I skipped work, are in your management scope. Other examples are expense policy violations, inappropriate use of company resources, violation of confidentiality agreements and so on. No mater how you perceive the mistake, keep your cool and leave the bozo bit off; you have to have an open mind to understand what happened and to treat the offender with dignity. You may choose to initiate harsh consequences but don’t lose control by clouding your perspective with quick, absolute decisions about complicated situations.

Be sure to get educated about your company’s official policies, and to communicate them to your team. People make enough mistakes when they are fully aware of the consequences; don’t give them the excuse of ignorance. As with most situations in life, though, there’s no substitute for judgment. The official policy won’t cover every case, and in some cases, the rules will be wrong.

A final point on this topic is that you can use simple mistakes to build loyalty. When someone does something wrong and you help them recover from it in a fair and dignified way, they will follow your leadership with intense respect. You may think you don't want their respect if the mistake is one you consider grievous but remember that your primarey role in leadership is to achieve through others. If you are unsupportive and biased, they will lose respect for you and lose productivity for the company.

Thanks for reading this Management Use Case. I'm the co-author of a new book on software development leadership entitled You.next() that features dozzens of other use cases for leadership. Please see more at www.youdotnext.com.