Kim Scott

Give Immediate Feedback Because Feedback Has a Short Half Life

Radically Candid praise and criticism is immediate. You'll remember the specifics much better when you point something out right away, so you’ll be more clear with your feedback. You’ll also be more kind (and results oriented) because you’ll give the person the opportunity to repeat the good or fix the bad faster. Continuing our tips and techniques for the HIP Approach, here are some reminders and practical suggestions for giving immediate feedback. Feedback has a short half life Remember, the…

Micromanager, Absentee Manager or Thought Partner — Which One Are You?

We call managers who have low, almost non-existent involvement in their team’s work absentee managers. Those with extremely (maybe excruciatingly) close involvement are micromanagers. And in between those are the thought partners, the ones who empower, enable and encourage their teams to do the best work of their lives. How can you determine where you fall on this spectrum so you can learn how to move in the right direction instead of being a micromanager or an absentee manager? To help you figure out when you’re…

How To Practice Radical Candor with Strangers

"I can see how Radical Candor works when I already have a relationship... but what about with people I barely know. Isn’t it too risky?" Our Radical Candor coaches get this question fairly often, and I won’t pretend it isn’t risky to offer feedback to a complete stranger. It is. But not being Radically Candid is also risky. And the rewards of being Radically Candid for you and for the other person can be enormous. In fact, the idea of…

Brutal Honesty and Radical Candor: 6 Ways You’re Getting Radical Candor Wrong and 5 Ways to Get It Right

We have learned something really important from the way that the press sometimes covers Radical Candor. And we want your advice on how to communicate this idea more clearly. We want to learn to describe Radical Candor in a way that is not open to misinterpretation: too often press articles assert that Radical Candor is the same thing as brutal honesty, as front-stabbing, or that it is some sort of license to be a jerk. It is none of those…

3 Ways to Introduce Radical Candor’s Feedback Framework to Your Organization

When we talk about Radical Candor at companies or with individuals, we see a lot of heads nodding in agreement. People understand that Radical Candor's guidance and feedback framework can improve performance, reduce politics and make work more fun. But how do you make sure that these ideas that resonate in the moment actually get implemented, rather than forgotten? Here’s a question from one of our readers: As a CEO who hasn't been practicing Radical Candor, is it advisable to…

Acting Like a Jerk by Not Caring Personally is a Radical Candor Fail

What makes Radical Candor radical is that it’s a deviation from the norm, which tends to fall somewhere between acting like a jerk and avoiding confrontation altogether. The purpose of Radical Candor is to create a new normal where guidance is both kind and clear, not to reinforce bad behavior. This means that if you don’t Care Personally about the person you’re delivering feedback to, you’re exhibiting Obnoxious Aggression, not Radical Candor. Ever since the book Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss…

Direct Reports and Radical Candor: 5 Tips for Giving Guidance and Feedback

This article about practicing Radical Candor with direct reports originally appeared on Deliberate Directions. Your relationships and your responsibilities at work reinforce each other positively or negatively, and this dynamic is what drives you forward as a manager—or leaves you dead in the water. What’s more, your relationships with your direct reports affect the relationships they have with their direct reports, and your team’s overall culture. Like it or not, your ability to build trusting, human connections with the people…

Why You Can’t Skimp On Radically Candid Performance Development Conversations

This post on performance development originally appeared on Bonusly, a company building tools to help people feel a sense of purpose and progress at work. Most everyone has had a boss who failed at performance development⁠—helping people on their team grow and move forward in their careers. In fact, before I developed the Radical Candor framework, Caring Personally while also Challenging Directly, I was this boss. I had an employee I’ll call Bob. Despite having a stellar resume, Bob was…

Radical Candor is Partnering With ilume to Transform Relationships at Work in Australia and New Zealand

From best-selling book to boots on the ground, over the past few years, we at Radical Candor have delivered workshops and keynotes to companies around the world. By providing teams with a shared vocabulary to help them succeed, Radical Candor is transforming the relationships people have at work. Now, Radical Candor is partnering with leadership coaching experts ilume to bring the concepts of caring personally and challenging directly to Australia and New Zealand. “Because Radical Candor is on a mission to ‘rid the world…

There’s No Such Thing as a B Player; There Is the Wrong Person In the Wrong Job

Everyone can be excellent at something. That’s very different from saying anyone can be good at anything—definitely not true. Sadly, lots of people never find work they are truly excellent at because they stay in the wrong job too long. Bosses keep this kind of employee on for several reasons: they’re not sure they can find someone better; it takes time and effort to train new people; and they like the person and feel it would be unfair to encourage them to find…

Give Immediate Feedback Because Feedback Has a Short Half Life

Micromanager, Absentee Manager or Thought Partner — Which One Are You?

How To Practice Radical Candor with Strangers

Brutal Honesty and Radical Candor: 6 Ways You’re Getting Radical Candor Wrong and 5 Ways to Get It Right

3 Ways to Introduce Radical Candor’s Feedback Framework to Your Organization

Acting Like a Jerk by Not Caring Personally is a Radical Candor Fail

Direct Reports and Radical Candor: 5 Tips for Giving Guidance and Feedback

Why You Can’t Skimp On Radically Candid Performance Development Conversations

Radical Candor is Partnering With ilume to Transform Relationships at Work in Australia and New Zealand

There’s No Such Thing as a B Player; There Is the Wrong Person In the Wrong Job

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Care Personally + Challenge Directly