Bloviating BS harms respect
People who are from systemically advantaged groups or dominant in some way are much more likely to get away with or even be rewarded for bloviating BS. In a fascinating study, researchers asked men and women whether they were experts in 16 distinct math topics, 3 of which were made up. Men were much more likely to claim expertise in these made-up topics than women, as were the rich over the middle class. What’s more, people were more likely to challenge BS from those they perceived as their equals than from people with more power. So if you’re a leader, you need to make sure you’re creating the conditions for people to call BS on you.
Not getting called out on one’s BS breeds a problematic overconfidence that harms collaboration. This can work in the BSer’s favor in situations such as job interviews and grant applications. But that means that if you let it influence your decisions as a leader you’re hiring the BS’er not the expert, giving the grant to the BS’er not the expert. Allowing the BS’er to hog air time in a meeting means your decisions will be unduly influenced by a person who knows less than the others in the room. That’s why it’s your job as a leader to address it.
Not only does allowing Bloviating BS to be rewarded harm decision-making. It’s also unfair because people who are systemically disadvantaged can rarely get away with bloviating BS and so don’t reap its rewards. The answer, though, is not to ensure that everyone gets rewarded for bloviation. The answer is to make sure no one does. There are some privileges that people from systemically advantaged groups have that should be extended to all, and others that should be extended to none.
As a leader, it’s your job to make sure that no one person dominates, especially not a BSer, and that everyone feels comfortable participating in meetings online or off and also in the everyday back-and-forth of conversations at work.
In the first episode of Radical Respect Season 3, Wesley and I discuss Bloviating BS in Hollywood with Tyler Chou. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, or here: https://radicalrespectbook.com/podcast-season-3
