Humbug, Barnyard Epithets and...

Humbug, Barnyard Epithets & Leadership Communication: RIP Harry Frankfurt

Something I’ve done for years around the holiday season is to give a book to teams I’ve led.

The gift would be a work I’d read in the past year (fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose) which had spoken to me emotionally, intellectually, or perhaps both.

A recent obituary in the New York Times caught my eye and made me think of my little tradition. The obit chronicled the passing of Professor Harry G. Frankfurt on 16 July 2023, aged 94. Frankfurt was an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Princeton.

While Professor Frankfurt no doubt wrote many a fine philosophical work in his long career I confess to having only read one: “On Bulls**t”.

Frankfurt notes, “One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much [BS]. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted . . . .”

He anchors his elucidation of BS to the definition of “humbug” taken from “The Prevalence of Humbug”, by Max Black. Black defines humbug as the “. . . deceptive misrepresentation, short of lying, especially by pretentious word or deed, of somebody’s own thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.”

Frank notes strong concurrence between Black’s definition of “humbug” and BS adding to the mix that the BSer has a “. . . lack of connection to a concern with the truth – this indifference to how things really are – that I regard as of the essence of [BS].”

Which is why I gifted this book to my leadership team.

How often we Leaders BS tip-toeing our way around the causes of hard truths or our own role in bad outcomes in favor of engaging in executive magical thinking: working to convince others that down really means up, if you only adjust the frame slightly . . . .

But we’re not fooling anybody. When we BS, everybody knows it and we imperil our credibility as leaders and corrupt the vitality and health of the organizations we lead.

And that’s the leadership nugget. Every time we open our mouths, there’s an opportunity to inspire, influence, motivate and teach. And we throw such opportunities into the bin and do damage when our words display this “. . . indifference to how things really are.” We ought to do better.

By-the-bye, Frank’s book “On Bulls**t” sold millions of copies and he was the toast of the talk show circuit for a while. He wrote another book for popular consumption after “On Bulls**t” called “On Truth”, a title which one would think points to a more noble pursuit and would thereby fly from the shelves. Comparatively though, it was a popular failure. What ought one make of such a fact?

If you would like to discuss how you can develop you or your team’s leadership competencies, including effective communication (including BS reduction), I’d love the chance to speak with you. Please feel free to schedule a Discovery Session with me by clicking on the blue button below.

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Be well everybody,