Radical Candor

When giving feedback, you should expect emotion. Even when you don’t personalize, it’s personal. That’s why you should eliminate the phrase, “Don’t take it personally” from your vocabulary. In this Radical Candor podcast mini-episode, Kim explains why It’s futile to say in response to emotion, “Don’t take it personally!” Part of your job as a boss (and as a human being) is to deal with emotional responses, not to dismiss them or pretend they’re not there or avoid them. View the show notes >>...

We get a lot of questions about how folks can practice Radical Candor with their bosses as many people are reluctant to give feedback to their managers. It's true that it can be really daunting, and a little risky, to practice Radical Candor with your boss, but it’s such an important skill. If you can share feedback with your boss, you’ll have a much stronger working relationship, enjoy your work more, and be able to do better work together. So, how do you do it? On this episode of the...

On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Amy and Jason discuss what Kim refers to in Radical Candor as “the problem with passion.” You’ve likely heard some form of the phrase, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” But, should your job and your passion be the same thing? What’s more, is it a manager’s responsibility to ensure each person who reports to them is passionate about their position? Listen to find out! Read the show notes >> Learn more about your ad...

Most everyone has had a boss who failed at performance development⁠—helping people on their team grow and move forward in their careers. The way you think about developing the skills of the people in your organization and how you think about performance management must be aligned. It is a manager’s job to both help each person on their team develop and grow in their career, and also to transparently assessing the performance of each person, commonly called performance management. On this...

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...

With more teams working remotely over the past year than ever before, we've received a few questions from folks about how to practice Radical Candor in remote workplaces. On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Jason and Amy talk about how to give feedback to remote employees, what works for the remote Radical Candor team and why it's important to allow your workers time to grieve and heal from the trauma of the past 18 months. Read the show notes >> Learn more about your ad...

Welcome to the Radical Candor podcast's first mini-episode. We'll be posting these bite-sized 5-10 minute mini Radical Candor podcast episodes between regular episodes. These quick hits will feature Kim Scott, Radical Candor author and co-founder, giving actionable tips that allow you to put specific parts of Radical Candor into action immediately. In this first mini-episode, Kim breaks down the principles of Radical Candor in six minutes. Radical Candor is Caring Personally while...

The Workplace Bullying Institute describes workplace bullying as: “Repeated mistreatment of an employee by one or more employees; abusive conduct that is: threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, work sabotage, or verbal abuse.” In its 2021 survey, the WBI noted that 43% of remote employees reported being bullied at work with 50% of that bullying taking place in meetings. On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Amy and Jason talk about combatting bullying in remote work...

Do you ever wonder how the feedback you give others is landing? How about your reaction to the feedback you're receiving? This giving-and-getting feedback stuff can be tricky. On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Amy and Jason talk about how to gauge feedback. In other words, how does the feedback that you give land for the other person? One of the things that we'd like to say is that Radical Candor is measured, not at the speaker's mouth, but at the listener's ear. And, this...

On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, we're bringing back our Radically Candid Conversations series. Amy talks to Kim Scott about her new book Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast & Fair , and her new company Just Work that she's launching with Trier Bryant. Kim and Trier break down how to recognize, address and eliminate bias, prejudice and bullying in the workplace to create more just working environments. Buy the book, learn about the company and listen to the podcast to learn why just...

On this week's episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Amy and Jason discuss why it's so important to share your stories with your team. Show some vulnerability. Your personal stories will explain, better than any management theory, what you really mean and show why you really mean it. That’s why Kim tells all those personal stories in Radical Candor. Your stories will mean a lot more to your team than other people’s stories do because they mean something to you. So, what makes a good story,...

Kim writes in Radical Candor that Apple CEO Tim Cook is a master of silence, a quiet listener. She describes Steve Jobs as a loud listener. What's the difference between quiet and loud listening? On the first episode of the Radical Candor podcast season 3, Kim, Jason and Amy debate the merits of both loud and quiet listening Kim experienced firsthand while working with Steve Jobs and Tim Cook at Apple. Is quiet listening creepy? Is loud listening aggressive? Listen to the Radical Candor...

Whether you’re the one getting emotional or you’re giving someone feedback and they react with unexpected emotion, it’s important to recognize that while you can’t control or manage other people’s emotions, you can manage your emotional reactions at work. On the final episode of season 2 of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Amy and Jason talk about how to navigate emotional reactions at work. The worst thing you can do is ignore emotional reactions. Emotions like anger, sadness and fear are...

How can you get your employees more engaged at work if they're not invested in the company long term, and is it your obligation to be Radically Candid with a peer at work who you know is lying? On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Amy and Jason answer listener questions, discuss their stints working in food service (their experiences involve mayonnaise and organized crime) and muse whether or not people can be more like Clay Christensen. See the show notes:...

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our podcast series, “Radically Candid Conversations,” features experts and guests who help us learn, reflect and put our insights into action. This episode of the Radical Candor podcast features Debora Spar, a Harvard Business School professor and former Barnard College president. Kim talks to Debora about her new book Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny. Kim and Debora discuss the intersections of technology and human relationships. Learn more about your ad choices....

Kim and Jason answer listener questions and share their experiences about being a boss who's younger than their direct reports and having their wings clipped by an absentee manager who isn't invested in their success. They also agree that chair-throwing management styles aren't an effective way to get things done (as Kim learned when she threw her bike helmet at a window when dealing with a bad boss at a former job). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our podcast series, “Radically Candid Conversations,” features experts and guests who will help us learn, reflect and put our insights into action. This episode features Annie Jean-Baptiste, head of product inclusion at Google and author of Building For Everyone: Expand Your Market With Design Practices From Google's Product Inclusion Team. Kim and Annie discuss how to build inclusive products, teams and experiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If someone has approached you and said, "In the spirit of Radical Candor ..." and then proceeded to act like a total jerk, you've experienced how some people use Radical Candor to justify being their worst selves. This behavior is not Radical Candor; it's what we call Obnoxious Aggression. Kim, Jason and Amy agree that nobody should have to pay the asshole tax or work for a seagull swoop-and-poop boss. They also explain why Radical Candor is actually compassionate candor versus a license to...

If you're a boss, 1:1 meetings with your direct reports are a must-do. The purpose of a 1:1 meeting is to listen and clarify — to understand what direction each person working for you wants to head in, and what is blocking them. These meetings are your single best opportunity to listen, really listen, to the people on your team to make sure you understand their perspective on what’s working and what’s not working. On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Amy and Jason share tips...