Radical Candor® is what happens when you show someone that you Care Personally while you Challenge Directly, without being aggressive or insincere. Radical Candor really just means saying what you think while also giving a damn about the person you’re saying it to. It’s praise that is specific and sincere and criticism that is kind and clear.

Practicing Radical Candor can move you from a command-and-control culture to one of collaboration. Developed by Kim Scott, Radical Candor is a communication framework for specific and sincere praise and kind and clear criticism.

 

The reason we use the word Radical is that the kind of compassionate candor we’re talking about is rare. It feels unnatural to practice. It flies in the face of the “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all” maxim that most of us have heard since we learned to talk. Changing training that’s been instilled in us since we were eighteen months old is hard.

Radical Candor can sometimes be misinterpreted or evoke unintended associations. The term Radical Candor was chosen to emphasize the importance of being both direct and caring in communication. The word “radical” was intended to highlight the rarity and transformative nature of combining these two elements—Caring Personally and Challenging Directly.

Radical Candor is all about creating an environment of mutual respect and support where people can grow and thrive. It’s about caring personally for your colleagues while also challenging them directly — giving feedback that is kind, clear, specific, and sincere, even when it’s difficult.

The key is finding that sweet spot between being too soft (Ruinous Empathy) and too harsh (Obnoxious Aggression). Radical candor is about building strong, trusting relationships so you can have the tough conversations that lead to growth and success.

It may not always be easy, but the benefits of a culture of Radical Candor are immense. When you create an environment where people feel safe to be vulnerable and take risks, that’s when the real magic happens. So don’t be afraid to lean into Radical Candor — your team will thank you for it.

Learn more about Radical Candor

Brutal Honesty and Radical Candor: 6 Ways You’re Getting Radical Candor Wrong and 6 Ways to Get It Right

What’s Your Radical Candor Story? Candor Coaches Share The Feedback They’re Most Grateful For

How to Get and Give Feedback Using the Radical Candor Order of Operations

Share

The concept of Care Personally is about giving a damn, sharing more than just your work self, and encouraging everyone who reports to you to do the same. It’s not enough to care only about people’s ability to perform a job. To have a good relationship, you have to care about each of the people who work for you as human beings.

The first step to Caring Personally is deciding that your job is to enable the success of your team. It means you put their needs first, above yours.

Caring Personally, more than anything else, is about listening to people. Of course, listen to their hopes, their fears, their dreams, but also listen to their ideas for improving the team, the work, the environment. All the answers are there from your team; you just have to ask.

 As a manager, one of the most important things you can do is show your employees that you care about them personally, not just as workers but as whole human beings. This doesn’t mean you have to be best friends or share every detail of your personal life — it’s about demonstrating that you genuinely care about their well-being and want to support their growth and success.

Ways to Care Personally

1. Regularly asking them questions to understand what’s on their mind and what’s important to them, like “What’s on your mind?” or “How can I help remove any blockers for you?” This shows you’re invested in their needs and challenges.
2. Make time for real, meaningful conversations, even when you’re busy. Carving out that one-on-one time to listen to their stories, understand their motivations, and encourage them to pursue their dreams conveys that you see them as whole people, not just employees.
3. Providing frequent guidance and feedback to help them develop and grow. Coaching them, giving them credit when they shine, and removing obstacles for them demonstrates that you’re invested in their ongoing success.
4. Take the time to get to know them as individuals — their hobbies, families, goals, and challenges. Showing you care about the whole person, not just their work, builds trust and a stronger connection.

The key is to put their needs first and demonstrate that you’re truly in service to your team, not the other way around. When employees feel that their manager genuinely cares about them as people, it can go a long way in building trust, engagement, and a positive work environment.

This takes emotional energy and a true commitment to your team’s well-being. But it’s so worth it. When you care personally, you build deep, meaningful relationships that make the work more rewarding for everyone.

Your employees will feel valued, supported, and inspired to do their best. And you’ll experience the joy of helping people you genuinely care about achieve their dreams. That’s the kind of manager-employee relationship we should all strive for.

 

Share

The concept of Challenge Directly involves telling people when their work isn’t good enough — and when it is; when they are not going to get that new role they wanted, or when you’re going to hire a new boss instead of promoting them; when the results don’t justify further investment in what they’re working on.

Delivering hard feedback, making tough calls about who does what on a team, and holding a high bar for results — isn’t that the job of any manager?

But most people struggle with doing these things. Challenging people generally pisses them off, and that doesn’t seem like a good way to build a relationship or to show that you Care Personally.

And yet challenging people is often the best way to show them that you care when you’re the boss.

Remember, it’s not mean, it’s clear.

 As a manager, it’s important to challenge your employees directly when needed, even though it can be uncomfortable. This means clearly communicating performance issues, offering kind and clear criticism, and having open conversations about both strengths and areas for improvement.

For example, if an employee is consistently missing deadlines, you should have a direct conversation with them about it. Explain the impact it’s having on the team and the project, and work together to identify the root causes and come up with a plan to get them back on track by using the Radical Candor CORE method.

Or if an employee is struggling with a particular skill, you can challenge them by providing detailed feedback on where they need to improve, and then follow up regularly to monitor their progress. The key is to frame it in the context of helping them achieve their long-term career goals.

Challenge Directly Example

Here is an instance of employing CORE when Kim Scott’s boss had to challenge her directly:

“After the meeting when I told you that you said ‘um’ a lot and recommended a speech coach,” (context), “you made a brush-off gesture” (observation). “This makes me feel like you weren’t hearing me and won’t go to the speech coach I’m recommending, which would be a shame because if you stop saying um so much you’ll be more effective” (result). “Go to the damn speech coach! (nExt stEps)”

Challenging directly may feel difficult in the moment, but it’s one of the most caring things you can do as a manager. It shows you’re invested in your employees’ success and growth. And when done with empathy and clarity, it can actually strengthen the trust and communication in your relationship.

Share

The ultimate goal of Radical Candor is to achieve results collaboratively that you could never achieve individually. By creating a culture of guidance where people care personally and challenge directly, you build an exemplary team that embodies the Radical Candor ethos.

This allows the team to fire on all cylinders and develop a self-correcting quality where most problems are solved before you even become aware of them. With this foundation in place, you can then focus your team on achieving amazing results together.

Radical Candor isn’t about buying a yacht and sailing off — it’s about using the gift of freed-up time and energy to drive incredible collaborative achievements.

 

@sethbaderesqRadical Candor is a secret that isnt shared enough♬ original sound – Seth Allan Bader

 Companies that have implemented Radical Candor say it’s changed the way they work, improved their relationships, and increased their revenue. For example, at Gather, Radical Candor encouraged managers to step outside their comfort zones, engage in healthy debates, and think about feedback differently. This led to better communication and stronger relationships between managers and their direct reports.

Similarly, at ZenHub, fostering a culture of impromptu Radical Candor feedback allowed them to move faster as an agile company, get to the root of issues faster, and mentor their team more effectively. And at Heitman, Radical Candor training dramatically improved the relationship between a manager and their employee, going from uncertainty to confidence in their career goals.

Overall, the key successful outcomes seem to be improved business performance, stronger team dynamics and relationships, more effective communication and feedback, and greater employee engagement and development. Radical Candor appears to be a powerful management approach for driving these kinds of positive results.

 

 

Share

Radical Candor is. not brutal honesty. There is a world of difference between Radical Candor and brutal honesty, or as we call it, Obnoxious Aggression.

The difference between Radical Candor and brutal honesty is that Radical Candor involves caring personally about the person you’re giving feedback to, while brutal honesty does not.

Radical Candor happens when you challenge someone directly because you genuinely care about them and want them to succeed. Brutal honesty, on the other hand, is just being a jerk and saying whatever you want without any consideration for the other person.

 

The core idea behind Radical Candor is that it is absolutely possible to genuinely care about someone while also directly challenging them. The key distinction between brutal honesty and Radical Candor is caring personally about the individuals you interact with.

We don’t have to be trapped in a false dichotomy where people feel forced to choose between being harsh or ineffective. That’s an unacceptable choice that no one should have to make.

In fact, if you truly care about someone, you will tell them when you think they are making a mistake—and when they are doing well.

Radical Candor occurs when you Care Personally and Challenge Directly simultaneously. Caring Personally means you care about the other person’s growth, not just trying to be popular.

Challenging Directly means openly sharing your perspective while inviting the other person to do the same.

Radical Candor is about creating a new normal where feedback is both kind and clear, not reinforcing bad behavior like brutal honesty does. Remember, if you don’t care personally, it’s not Radical Candor.

Share

Obnoxious Aggression® is what happens when you challenge someone directly, but don’t care about them personally. It’s being clear, but not kind; praise that doesn’t feel sincere or criticism that isn’t delivered kindly. Obnoxious Aggression is also called “brutal honesty” or “front stabbing.”

Unfortunately, some confuse Radical Candor with Obnoxious Aggression — for example, in HBO’s Silicon Valley. And Dilbert, who mistakes Radical Candor for Obnoxious Aggression.

This type of behavior can get short-term results, but it often leaves a trail of damaged relationships and hurt feelings in its wake. People will see you as an insensitive jerk, even if you’re technically right. Obnoxious Aggression erodes trust and makes it harder for your team to grow and improve.

The key is to balance the direct challenge with genuine care and concern for the other person. That’s what separates Radical Candor from Obnoxious Aggression. It’s about being clear AND kind, not just clear at the expense of kindness.

What Kim Says About Obnoxious Aggression

 As a leader, I’ve seen firsthand how Obnoxious Aggression can really poison a work environment. I once had a boss who would constantly criticize and belittle the team, often in front of everyone. He seemed to take pleasure in finding our weaknesses and exploiting them. It was so demoralizing and made people dread interacting with him.

Another example is a company I worked at where the executives would routinely dismiss positive feedback as “babysitting people’s egos.” They wanted a tough, no-nonsense culture, but it just came across as callous and uncaring. People were afraid to give each other praise or recognition, which really stifled morale and collaboration.

The worst is when a boss uses their intimate knowledge of someone’s insecurities or vulnerabilities to deliberately hurt them. I had a manager who would constantly make snide comments about my appearance or personal life, knowing it would get under my skin. It was a calculated attempt to assert dominance and control, and it was incredibly damaging.

Obnoxious Aggression might seem effective in the short term, but in the long run, it just leaves a trail of resentment and broken trust. As a leader, it’s so important to balance challenging your team directly with genuinely caring about them as people. That’s the only way to create a healthy, productive work environment.

Need help overcoming Obnoxious Aggression? Let’s talk!

 

Learn more about Obnoxious Aggression >>

Share

The Ruinous Empathy® quadrant of Radical Candor is the one that causes the most unintended destruction to relationships. What is Ruinous Empathy? It’s “nice” but it’s not kind.

In fact, Ruinous Empathy is ultimately unhelpful or even damaging. It’s what happens when you care about someone personally but fail to challenge them directly.

Ruinous Empathy Examples include praise that isn’t specific enough to help the person understand what was good, or criticism that is sugar-coated and unclear.

Ruinous Empathy is seeing somebody with their fly down, but, not wanting to embarrass them, saying nothing, with the result that 15 more people see them with their fly down — more embarrassing for them. So, not so “nice” after all.

Watch Kim Explain Ruinous Empathy

 Ruinous Empathy is a big problem that affects companies across every industry. The key things to understand about Ruinous Empathy are:

• It happens when managers and colleagues avoid giving the feedback people need to improve and repeat success because they don’t want to create tension or discomfort.
• It’s like the well-meaning parent who can’t bear to discipline their kids — they end up inadvertently ruining the employee’s chance of success and the entire team.
• Praise can also be Ruinously Empathetic when it’s not specific enough to help the person understand what was good.
• Ruinous Empathy is actually more damaging than being a jerk (Obnoxious Aggression) or backstabbing (Manipulative Insincerity). It prevents people from getting the feedback they need to grow.

Ruinous Empathy is a toxic form of “niceness” that ends up hurting people in the long run.

Learn more about Ruinous Empathy >>

Share

Manipulative Insincerity® is what happens when you neither Care Personally nor Challenge Directly. It’s praise that is non-specific and insincere or criticism that is neither clear nor kind. It’s the kind of backstabbing, political, passive-aggressive behavior that might be fun to tell stories about but makes for a toxic workplace, ruining relationships and ruining work.

Manipulative Insincerity is the opposite of Radical Candor. It’s when you give praise that is insincere or criticism that is unclear and unkind, not because you genuinely believe it, but because you have some other motive or agenda.

Maybe you’re too tired to have a tough conversation, or you’re more focused on being liked than giving honest feedback. Whatever the reason, Manipulative Insincerity is a toxic behavior that ruins relationships and creates a dysfunctional work environment.

 

Manipulative Insincerity Examples

1. Using humor/jokes as an excuse: Making jokes or sarcastic comments that are insensitive or hurtful, and then claiming it was “just a joke” when called out.
2. Playing the victim: Deflecting accountability by claiming you are being mistreated or victimized when receiving radically candid feedback from others.
3. Gaslighting: Denying or dismissing someone’s valid feelings/reactions in order to manipulate them into questioning their own reality/perception.

The core of manipulative insincerity is lacking the courage and care to honestly challenge someone while showing you care about them as a person. It is hiding behind surface-level niceties while harboring hidden motives.

Learn more about Manipulative Insincerity >>

Share

Radical Candor delivers keynotes and workshops virtually and in person worldwide, providing opportunities for teams to try out real-life scenarios and put Radical Candor into practice. Radical Candor also offers digital products, consulting, training, and content licensing.

Candor Keynote: The Talk
– Kim Scott or a Radical Candor coach delivers a keynote introducing key Radical Candor concepts through stories
– Provides a framework and vocabulary for improving feedback and building a culture of guidance
– Available for large audiences over 1,000 or smaller intimate groups
– Offered virtually or in-person

Interactive Workshops
– Immersive virtual or in-person workshops to practice giving, receiving, and soliciting feedback using Radical Candor
– Teaches core concepts, vocabulary, tips/techniques through real-life scenarios
– Helps teams understand how to immediately implement Radical Candor

Solutions That Scale
– Train-the-Trainer Workshop: Get certified to facilitate Radical Candor workshops internally
– Content Licensing: Unlimited access to training materials to use across the organization

Digital Candor Courses
– Learn From the Expert: Animated video course taught by Kim Scott
– The Feedback Loop: Workplace comedy video series with improv exercises

The offerings aim to equip teams with Radical Candor skills through keynotes, hands-on workshops, train-the-trainer sessions, digital courses, and content licensing for scaling across an organization.

Learn more about our services >>

 

 

Share

More than 1,500 organizations have hosted Radical Candor talks and workshops. This includes giant global corporations like Eaton Industrial Management Systems in Ohio and Schindler Elevator in Switzerland.

It also includes growth companies such as Qualtrics (a survey company in Utah), Nubank (a fintech startup in Brazil), MiQ (a marketing intelligence firm in India and New York City), and LuLuLemon in Canada.

Several financial institutions have also adopted Radical Candor, ranging from private equity firms to American bulge bracket banks and Royal Bank of Canada.

Non-profits like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and assisted living facilities throughout the U.S. have embraced it as well. Even small businesses like bookstores and hair salons have implemented Radical Candor.

The public sector has caught on too, with the LA Fire Department, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and public school systems like Colorado’s St. Vrain Valley School District adopting these principles.

Radical Candor has been delivered in North and South America, across Europe and the UK, in the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Asia.

Want us to bring Radical Candor to you? Let's talk!

Share