Relationships Transcend Hierarchy This week I’m focused on how you can build a more Radically Candid relationship with your boss. Radical Candor is about strengthening relationships “up,” “down,” and “sideways” – not reinforcing hierarchy. It works...
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Newsflash: training increases employee engagement, customer happiness, and revenue growth When I led the AdSense team at Google, we had a large customer support team. To make sure I understood the work they were doing, I made a point of answering...
Early in my career, I co-founded Juice Software. Despite raising plenty of money, it failed, and looking back, a lot of that had to do with feedback: I didn't know how to get it, how to give praise that didn't feel patronizing or criticism that...
I once led a workshop with the CEOs of several fast-growing tech companies. These were all leaders I respect enormously. Every single one of them had a story about having to fire an employee they really cared about but saying it so gently that the...
The gravitational pull of Ruinous Empathy is driven by the fact that our society has become polarized, making it harder for people on a team to trust one another. They quit talking to each other, sometimes for fear of retribution, sometimes for fear...
During World War II, the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA, wrote a manual for ordinary citizens living under enemy occupation. Declassified in 2008, it was called the Simple Sabotage Field Manual. Its advice for quietly...
People have been asking lately if we have ‘rebranded’ Radical Candor as Compassionate Candor. Nope. These terms are synonymous. Use whichever you prefer.
Developing trust is not simply a matter of "do x, y, and z, and you have a good relationship." Like all human bonds, the connections between bosses and the people who report to them are unpredictable and not subject to absolute rules.
Give your team a sense of autonomy and agency, and they can bring their best selves to work. You can guide your team to real results if you've built a trusting relationship with each person reporting to you, and there can only be real trust when...
The most important question, the question that goes to the heart of being a good boss, doesn’t usually get asked. An exception was Ryan Smith, the CEO of Qualtrics. I’d just started coaching him, and his first question to me was, “I have just hired...