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Book Discussion Questions for Radical Candor
Discussing Radical Candor as a team can help solidify the ideas and get everyone thinking about how to start applying them to your day-to-day behaviors. We’ve put together this list of questions to get you started with the discussions for each chapter, but we’d love to hear your ideas as well! Let us know what drives the conversation for you in the comments below. Part 1: A New Management Philosophy Intro Describe an experience when you didn’t give direct feedback,…
Podcast Episode 16: Take Feedback Like a Boss
Feedback helps you grow, right? So why is it so hard to take? Kim and Russ share their tips and techniques for what to do after you get feedback. Listen to the episode: In This Week's Episode Taking feedback well is tricky -- it's completely natural to have a defensive reaction when someone tells you how you can improve. In today's episode, Kim and Russ offer advice for getting past that defensive reaction to encourage more feedback and get more out of…
Quitting with Radical Candor
As we’ve mentioned in a couple of podcast episodes (Ep 13: Help! My Boss is a Micromanager and Ep 8: How to Give Feedback to Your Boss), sometimes no matter how hard you try, no matter how much great feedback you solicit and give, a job just isn’t going to work out, and you’re going to have to take the advice I got from Gretchen Rubin: Don’t forget to quit. Quitting can be really hard. Maybe you’ve got a team…
Podcast Episode 15: What’s Your Body Language Telling Me?
We keep saying that in person feedback is best...why is that? Body language! You can learn a lot from someone else's body language, and you can also use your own body language to communicate. Join Kim, Russ, and guest Amy Chang of Accompany to learn how body language can help you out at work. Listen to the episode: In This Episode Most of communication is nonverbal, so you lose a lot of information if you don't communicate in person. (If you're managing…
Radical Candor is Not About Labeling People
The Radical Candor vocabulary can be very useful for creating shared context and a shared standard around feedback. However, there are some good ways and some not-so-good ways to use this vocabulary. When used within a company, it can be tempting to label people using the 4 Radical Candor quadrants. “Oh, yeah, Obnoxious Aggression - that’s totally Ted!” Or people walking around making the letter “M” with their fingers to identify certain co-workers as Manipulatively Insincere (oh, that doesn’t happen…
Podcast Episode 14: Guide for New Managers
Maybe you're a first-time manager at a new company. Maybe you've been promoted within your current company. Either way, you probably have a lot of questions about how to work best with your team and get the best results. Rest assured, Kim and Russ are here to help. Listen now: This Episode at a Glance Kim and Russ have worked with many new managers and gotten a sense for the challenges of transitioning from an individual contributor role into a…
Ruinous Empathy and Recruiting, A Story
Seven years ago, before launching Femgineer and having Kim Scott on FemgineerTV, I had to make my first sales hire for my second startup, BizeeBee. I had never hired a salesperson before. Most of my hiring experience had been with technical folks such as engineers, designers, and product managers. I just figured it would be the same. Find someone who is capable, comes with good references, and then give them some time to ramp up. I decided to hire Adam. Adam…
Podcast Episode 13: Help! My Boss is a Micromanager
If you've ever had a micromanager boss, you know how frustrating and demotivating it is to be micromanaged. You feel powerless -- what can you do? Kim and Russ have some advice for these situations. Listen now: In This Episode Kim and Russ agree, being micromanaged feels terrible. Russ tells a story about a boss who was micromanaging him. Even though the boss wouldn't show up to 1:1s with Russ and didn't know what Russ and his team were doing, he tried…
The Candor Boomerang
Marc Murphy, CEO at Atlatl Software, wrote us recently with this great feedback story, and a great new term to start using. Had a great candor moment this week that I wanted to share. I called it a candor boomerang... Marc met with a manager on his team and had a great, candid session. Marc shared some feedback with the manager. When he finished, the manager said, "Now can I share some feedback that I have for you?" What came next was…
Podcast Episode 12: Make Meetings Less Awful
Meetings can be an extremely frustrating part of work. But they don't have to be! Listen to this episode with guest Claire Johnson of Stripe to discover a meeting opportunity you may be missing, learn how to combat the worst meeting habit, and get some tips you can use to start improving your meetings this week. Listen to this week's episode: In This Episode Everyone loves to hate meetings. But meetings aren't all bad, and Kim and Russ have some advice for…
Tell Your Team Why You’re Using Candor Coach
Our new Candor Coach app for iOS will help you become a Radically Candid manager by coaching you through three types of quick, in-person feedback conversations with your team members. When you get started, it can help to let your team know what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. Here’s an email you can tweak and send to get everyone on the same page. ------ Dear Team, I’m starting to use an app called Candor Coach that will help…
Podcast Episode 11: Creating a Culture of Radical Candor
By now you're familiar with the ideas behind Radical Candor -- Care Personally and Challenge Directly. How can you take these ideas and make organizational change? In this episode, Kim and Russ talk about how to create a culture of Radical Candor in your own workplace. Listen to the episode: In This Episode Kim and Russ talk through some steps for building a culture of Radical Candor across your team or organization. First, focus on yourself. Kim and Russ tell stories…
Video: Radical Candor, the Book
We're very excited for the release of Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, coming next Tuesday, March 14th! To get excited for Pi Day, and the copy of the book that you've hopefully already pre-ordered :), check out this video of Kim talking about why she wrote the book. https://youtu.be/BmY3x9hrMv8 If you still need to pre-order your copies, go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Passage, or your local bookseller!
What It Means to Care Personally About Your Team
Most of us have experienced a bad boss, and unfortunately, those experiences can create lasting effects. Here’s a story and question we got from a listener after she listened to the first episode of the Radical Candor podcast -- it describes a common challenge that bosses have with balancing authority and Caring Personally and with building relationships with their direct reports. Hi Kim and Russ, Just listened to the first episode and wanted to share several of my previous "horrible…
Podcast Episode 10: Staying Connected with Remote Teams
When your team or boss doesn't work in the same location you do, communicating and building a strong relationship are much harder! Kim and Russ share stories of their challenges and successes and give advice for staying connected with remote teams. Listen now: At a Glance In this episode, Kim and Russ talk about what to do when you're working with remote teams. It's harder to build strong relationships and a culture of feedback, but there are tips and techniques that…
Video: A Manipulative Insincerity Story
Manipulative Insincerity is the worst of the quadrants in our Radical Candor 2x2 because you don't Challenge Directly or show you Care Personally. Unfortunately, when you or those around you behave with Manipulative Insincerity, it's often reciprocated and difficult to break out of. We shared a story from Joe Dunn last year about Obnoxious Aggression. Now here's a continuation of that story, when Joe found himself in a meeting surrounded by Manipulative Insincerity. https://youtu.be/nu49ePRFmLI Have you experienced something like this? Share your story…
So You’re Younger Than Your Direct Reports…
We frequently talk to managers who find it challenging to have direct reports who are older or more experienced than they are. We’re taught from a young age to “respect our elders,” which actually means to defer to them. With this kind of conditioning, it can feel awkward to be in a position of authority over these folks. Here’s a question one of our podcast listeners sent in along these lines: I’m a young startup CEO, and both my Director…
Podcast Episode 9: Showing Appreciation Makes Work More Fun
In honor of Employee Appreciation Day, this Friday, March 3rd, Russ and Kim talk about cultivating a sense of appreciation within your team. They explain why many bosses aren't great at this and share some tips for showing appreciation this week! Listen now! At a Glance Employee Appreciation Day is a great reminder that showing appreciation is important. And it's not just for managers to give to their direct reports! Kim and Russ share advice that you can use for showing appreciation to your…
Candor’s “Give Feedback” Playbook
We’ve been so excited about all the engagement we’ve gotten from our podcast listeners. We are getting great, thoughtful questions after each episode, and we know they’re questions that others have as well! So we’ll be sharing some of the advice we’re giving to individual listeners here on the blog. Here’s a question from Kathryn: My question relates to how one can challenge directly regarding inflexibility. I have a staff member that really struggles with his daily responsibilities I think…
Podcast Episode 8: How to Give Feedback to Your Boss
Being able to give your boss feedback is one of the key ways not to hate the boss you have! But this can be extremely daunting and sometimes risky...how do you do it so that you'll be heard and not shut down? Listen to this episode for advice from Russ and Kim: In This Episode We're back this week with more about how not to hate the boss you have. Last week we talked about getting feedback, and now Russ and Kim have…