In my humble practice as a member of teams in an organization, I have experienced guidance from leaders, especially , regarding how their office should be copied in emails and other forms of correspondence.

The concern is generally that tge office would be flooded with emails and other forms of communication by way of carbon copy (cc) that did not require any action from the person or office that was copied.

My take aways from this experience are many and I will share a few.

In some cases, actors will cc their leaders because they would like to show that they are working on a matter. In my view, there may be a sense of insecurity and/or lack of confidence in oneself, especially if this action is being done before the delivery time to the leader. If work is executed within the agreed period, is it necessary for one to demonstrate to the leader that the legwork is being done? Remember, there is a presumption of competence that the leader makes and the expectation is that the deliverable is the end product. It is like calling a CEO to be present during all the stages of production of the bar of soap which is the product that the company sells. What time will the CEO have for overseeing strategy implementation?

In other cases, people would cc a senior person as a way to posture to the principal addressee that the senior person is aware and probably agrees with the sender. This may cause apprehension on the part of the principal addressee and they may be reluctant to freely express themselves in the workstream for fear of being reprimanded by the senior person. Motivations of this nature may have a negative impact.

I would certainly propose the approach of a conscious and practical assessment of a decision on whether to cc a colleague. I offer the following questions we can ask ourselves;

1. Are you conveying communication on behalf of the person you are copying?

2. Have you been requested to keep that person in copy?

3. What action do you expect from the person you are copying?

4. Will you be contributing to reducing your colleagues productivity on account of opening your email which requires them to do nothing?

5. Is the correspondence part of urgency, emergency or crisis management where the person in copy may have to provide guidance or intervene almost immediately?

Any thoughts?

Let’s share!