The Dangerous Seduction of BCC Emails

Transparency

I was recently extolling the value of trust and transparency with a coaching client. I asked: “What is the opposite of transparency in leadership?” My answer: Hidden Agendas. Why?

“Whenever there are hidden agendas you create barriers to trust.”

I didn’t realize that walking the talk would soon pose a challenge for me.

If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Do It

That very same day, I found myself engaged in an email debate as I was frustrated with the apparent ignorance of my collaborator. And I used the BCC feature to share the message with the President of the organization. That tactic was quickly exposed as the President responded with a reply-to-all and added other key players to organize a circle-the-wagons conference call. Oops! My snitching message copy stayed under-the-radar for all of five minutes. Why wasn’t I transparent enough to simply CC the big guy? Why was I hiding the fact that I took my argument upstairs?

The BCC Email Seduction

In my case I was reenacting a child-like behavior: “I’m gonna tell on you.” I sought to secretly expose the stupidity of my collaborator. And I lacked the courage to be transparent. Shame on me for not following my own advise. So with the cat instantly out of the bag, the relationship is even more adversarial. I won the battle. But winning the war suddenly became more difficult. The BCC feature can be a tool for fostering hidden agendas. Because transparency and trust are critical, I’m now using more discretion when considering the BCC (blind carbon copy) function. In my case, there were three other options:

1. Simply use the CC option to provide a heads up to the recipient that I was taking my argument to a higher place.
2. Forward the email to the big cheese after the fact with comments would make my intent more apparent. A less transparent choice with a slightly better chance of improving the outcome.
3. Fight the battle alone and keep my collaborator’s boss out of the picture.

When SHOULD You BCC?

Sending an email blast to a long list of recipients who may not know each other is a breach of their privacy. Our homeowners association sends-to-all and now we have a clueless insurance agent neighbor spamming the neighborhood. For broadcast emails, it’s best when you address the message to yourself and BCC everyone else. Other than broadcasts, I struggle to think of a time when using BCC ever serves your ability to build trust through transparency. Can you? Don’t be seduced!

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