Podcast Season 3, Mini Episode 2: It's Not Mean, It's Clear

According to research from Gallup, less than 15% of managers feel confident that the feedback they provide to employees is effective and only 26% of employees say the feedback they receive from their managers is helpful. Sound familiar? If you're forgetting the helpful part of Radical Candor, your feedback is probably falling flat. On the second mini-episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim explains why Radical Candor is helpful and talks about the helpful feedback she got from a complete stranger that gave her words to live by: It's not mean, it's clear.

Listen to the episode:

How To Give Helpful Feedback

Take a moment to think through the reason why you plan to deliver the feedback. If you are clear in your own mind about how your feedback will be helpful, it will come across to the other person naturally. But if you don’t understand why your feedback is helpful, how will the person receiving it know why it's helpful?

Tell the person that you are trying to be helpful. Try a little preamble for hard criticism. For example, try saying, in words that feel like you, “I’m going to tell you something because if I were in your shoes I’d want to know so I could fix it.” Simply exposing your intent to be helpful offers clarity to the other person about your intentions. Most people will want to hear whatever it is you’re going to say. Read more about helpful feedback >>

The Two Minutes That Changed Everything

"The idea of Radical Candor was born for me when a perfect stranger on a street corner in the East Village of New York City criticized something I was doing, and he was helpful. I still have no idea who he is, but I am enormously grateful to him because he changed my whole life in two minutes flat. That stranger helped me be a better dog owner, a better manager, and a better person by being Radically Candid with me while we were waiting for a light to change." — Kim Scott

Just Work is Available Everywhere Books Are Sold!

The Radical Candor Podcast theme music was composed by Cliff Goldmacher. Order his book: The Reason For The Rhymes: Mastering the Seven Essential Skills of Innovation by Learning to Write Songs.

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