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...
Read MoreHow do you create a climate where trust can flourish? How do you create a climate in which Radically Candid relationships can flourish? Your role as boss is far more meaningful than the usual Dilbert stereotype.
What Do Bosses Actually Do? Given my line of work, I get asked by almost everyone I meet how to be a better boss/manager/leader. I get questions from the people who worked for me, the CEOs I coached, the people who attended a class I taught, or a...
Sebastian Mallaby, author of The Infinity Machine, wrote that “Artificial Intelligence heralds a transformation more profound than anything since homo sapiens acquired the capacity for abstract thought some 70,000 years ago.” Adam Becker, author of...
Corrections, factual observations, disagreements, and debates are different from criticism. It’s vital to be able to correct somebody’s work, to make a factual observation, or to have a debate in public. But criticism should be offered in private.
In 2009, investors asked Tim Cook questions about what would happen when Steve Jobs was no longer Apple's CEO. He responded with the Cook Doctrine, one of the best articulations of how culture serves as a company's DNA that transcends any one...
1:1s Are Your Must-Do Meetings 1:1 conversations are your single best opportunity to listen, really listen, to the people on your team to make sure you understand their perspective on what’s working and what’s not working. These meetings also...
By Kim Scott I’ve been thinking about what the most important thing is for leaders to think about in 2026. This may be kind of a random segue, but I was born in 1967 - the Age of Aquarius. Peace, love, harmony. All you need is love. That was the era...
Every once in a while, if you’re lucky, you get to work on something that is so fun you can’t believe it’s work. For me, collaborating with my team and the folks at Second City Works to create a workplace comedy series, The Feedback Loop, was one of...
*This post about how to apply Radical Candor in a crisis was originally written at the beginning of the pandemic. In the wake of recent mass layoffs at tech companies and reports of 'quiet cracking', this information about how to communicate during...