Encouraging Feedback Archives

Why It’s Important for Leaders & Coaches to Double Down On Radical Candor During a Crisis

I’ve received a lot of questions over the last few months about how to apply Radical Candor in a crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the workforce in ways we’ve never experienced before. Suddenly, millions of people who are used to working in offices are now working from home. In addition, tens of millions of people have been laid off or furloughed. People have asked me, in these situations, does Radical Candor still apply? The answer is yes. In fact,…

Binge-Worthy Workplace Comedy Series Teaches Radical Candor Virtually

What’s feedback got to do with it? If it’s running a successful business or building strong relationships, effective feedback is everything. This is why Improvising Radical Candor, a co-production of Radical Candor and Second City Works, has created a laugh-and-learn workplace comedy series called The Feedback Loop to teach professionals a simple framework for successfully navigating feedback conversations. (Get the self-paced e-course for $59) Starring award-winning actor David Alan Grier, this binge-worthy series teaches employees the proven feedback framework outlined…

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…

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…

Radical Candor: Feeling Safe to Speak Truth to Power

One of the main ways to build a Radically Candid culture is by creating an environment where people feel comfortable speaking truth to power. This kind of culture can only be achieved when managers understand that it is authentic relationships and not power that drive them forward. Unfortunately, finding a job that fosters this kind of culture can feel akin to finding a unicorn. However, companies that do encourage people to speak truth to power build trust between employees, no…

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…

Feedback, the Law, and Mandated Manipulative Insincerity

I spend a lot of time these days showing people how to put the Radical Candor framework of “Care Personally + Challenge Directly” into practice by providing frequent feedback, and how to use the framework as a way to guide difficult conversations to avoid falling into Ruinous Empathy, Obnoxious Aggression, or Manipulative Insincerity. When it comes to difficult conversations, some of the most difficult are around gender. I have found that gender politics and fear of tears pushes men away from being as radically candid with…

What’s the Ideal Manager-Employee Relationship?

You may have seen me featured as "The Candid Boss" for The Muse, an online career resource destination. One of the questions I am often asked is, can managers and employees be friends at work? An even more essential question to ask is, what does an ideal manager-employee relationship look like? How is it different from a friendship? The “boss-employee” relationship is relatively new. For most of human history, we accomplished our great collaborative feats through terrible brutality — forced labor. During…

The Star Intern: A Mentor’s Radical Candor Journey

We recently heard from Dimitar Simeonov, who shared his story about reading Radical Candor while managing an intern when he was working at Twitter as a senior data scientist. While Dimitar's no longer at Twitter, at the time he had been there for four years and was responsible for the intern’s technical mentorship. Thanks for sharing the learning and the love, Dimitar! *** Two weeks in as an intern mentor, I had a dilemma. My intern was performing with the cadence and…

6 Ways to Roll Out Radical Candor Like a Boss

We love working closely with teams rolling out Radical Candor, and offer coaching, training and customized workshops. We can help teach you to: Share the ideas with your team and learn how to tell your feedback stories; Practice key skills like soliciting feedback, offering meaningful praise, and giving helpful criticism; and Create a culture of guidance so that all the burden of feedback doesn’t fall on your shoulders. We also work with leaders to help you build more cohesive teams…