Leadership and the BISS Clause

While the BISS clause makes managers, it destroys leaders.

When a decision is made, if the only justification is “because I said so”, then we know someone – often a manager or executive – is using their political authority to make that decision.

Let’s call that usage the “because I said so (BISS)” clause.

If you’re a manager in an organization, the BISS clause is the epitome of your political authority over your subordinates.

It is not only one of your managerial instruments, but also one a primary one.

Management, after all, can be particularly effective and efficient when the BISS clause is used. Any alternative approach could drag the decision making process into a long, thorny ordeal of negotiation, representation, and conflict resolution.

The BISS clause effectively handles the “managing down” part of your job as a manager, so that you can put most of your energy on “managing up.”

As a manager, the number of times you use the BISS clause may even be positively correlated with the quality of your management – the more you use it, the more effective and efficient your management becomes.

But as a manager, you not only manage, but also lead. Management and leadership go hand in hand.

Paradoxically, the number of times you use the BISS clause might be negatively correlated with the quality of your leadership – the more you use it, the worse your leadership becomes.

To manage, you merely need to take care of the “technical” side of your people, where things like expertise, capability, capacity, budget matter the most. Those are the things where you can use the BISS clause to “cut corners” – as long as you manage to utilize your own or other people’s expertise and experience to do the right thing, in the right way, and at the right time. Those highly technical shortcuts are the very reason of having you in a manager position.

As a manager, you manage by modelling others.

But to lead, you have to take care of the humane side of your people, where confidence, faith trust, loyalty, relationship, culture, emotion, and lived experience matter the most. Those are the things that can’t be reached by shortcuts. We all know that things like trust has to be earned not by saying it, not even by doing it, but by living it.

As a leader, you lead by modelling yourself.

Unlike management, leadership simply demands a higher bar for being human.

In other words, if you use the BISS clause as your leadership instrument, then you don’t get to talk about trust, culture, or empowerment – you simply can’t lead by the BISS clause.

While the BISS clause makes managers, it destroys leaders.

How often do you see the BISS clause being used?

How often do you use it?

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