We often hear from fans of Radical Candor: “Gosh, I wish my boss would read this!” Or: “How can I tell my boss about Radical Candor without implying I think she’s bad at it?” We’ve said before that it can be risky to Challenge your boss Directly, even when you show you Care Personally. We’ve shared some tips on our podcast for giving feedback to your boss, but it’s definitely a tricky situation. Not everyone feels comfortable starting out this…
Today I turn for inspiration to Daryl Davis, the R&B musician who helped persuade Roger Kelly, Imperial Wizard, to quit the KKK. “While you are actively learning about someone else you are passively teaching them about yourself. So if you have an adversary, an opponent with a opposing point of view, give that person a platform. Allow them to air that point of view regardless of how extreme it may be. And believe me I’ve heard some things so extreme…
James, you’ve touched the third rail that is gender. I’m writing not to add to the abuse pouring down on you, but because I believe that third rail is hurting not just you but all of us. I’m writing an open letter because I know that there are a lot of others who believe what you believe but are remaining silent. I think this stuff is better out in the open. I’ll admit as a liberal, a woman, and a…
A number of you have asked how to roll out Radical Candor on your team. How can you get started with some of the ideas from the book and the podcast as a group? Last year, I wrote an Advice Column post answering a CEO's question about introducing the concepts and starting to build a Radically Candid culture. But let's get more specific. Here are a few simple things you can do: 1) Start a book discussion group. Have your…
It's hard to take general management and feedback advice and visualize how to apply it in real-life situations. Some Radical Candor readers have mentioned to Kim that it would be helpful to see various feedback and management scenarios acted out. So she and Eleanor Scott did this fun improv role play to help with one of Kim's pieces of advice: Eliminate the words "Don't take it personally" from your vocabulary. Here's why it's such a bad idea to say, "Don't…
This year was a big year for Candor, Inc. We launched a podcast, Radical Candor: How Not To Hate the Boss You Have or Be the Boss You Hate. We also launched a new app, the Candor Coach. It was also a big year for me personally. In March, my book Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity was published, after four years spent writing it, and it hit both the New York Times and the Wall…
Civil discourse and Radical Candor in our country have been dealt a heavy blow by an innocent sounding phrase: “politics divides.” These two words have silenced millions of small conversations that should have happened, and resulted in a political food fight very few of us are enjoying. The phrase "politics divides" has silenced us at work, and even around our own dinner tables. It's caused us to turn our minds off, and to leave those hard issues to others. That phrase, “politics divides,” may…
This note from a nurse-midwife who decided to become a manager made our week. When a really good person decides to become a manager, the world becomes a better place. It's not only managerial leverage, it's good person leverage! Hi Kim and Russ, I am a nurse-midwife who long ago chose to "move up the ladder" in health care by becoming a clinician rather than going into management. Well, soon it will be my turn to join management as first…
Praise usually seems much easier than criticism, but a lot of people actually hesitate to give praise. They worry about coming across as patronizing, pandering, or just insincere. We think that praise is even more important than criticism, so we want to help people learn to give it the right way. https://twitter.com/candor/status/870311268208521216 Here’s a question we got from one of our podcast listeners: I am a new manager of two administrative employees. Their day-to-day tasks are important to my team.…
Hopefully you’re out there asking for and getting feedback regularly. That’s great! Now, if you’re getting a lot of feedback, we can pretty much guarantee that it won’t all be high quality, actionable stuff. We’ve said before, “Don’t criticize the criticism,” and we’ve talked about what to do if you disagree with the feedback. But what about feedback that you’re not sure what it means, or how to act on? What do you do with that? We recently got this…
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