Radical Candor

Key takeaways

• Good feedback needs two things at once: caring personally and challenging directly
• Staying silent to be nice is ruinous empathy, and it hurts people more than honesty
• Ask for criticism of yourself first, then give praise and criticism in small daily doses
• Your team has rock stars and superstars; both deserve support, only one wants promotion
• Get stuff done by listening, clarifying, debating and deciding before you persuade and execute

Inside this bit

1. The feedback most bosses never give

   A manager watches a capable colleague give a sloppy presentation to an important client, then tells him afterwards that it went fine. Months later he is let go, and he asks why nobody warned him.

2. Two axes, four quadrants

   Scott draws a simple grid. The vertical axis is how much you care personally about someone.

3. Get criticism before you give it

   Feedback flows more easily downhill once it has flowed uphill. Scott suggests starting by asking your team to criticise you, and then making it safe to answer.

4. Rock stars and superstars

   Scott replaces the usual ranking of employees with a more useful question: is this person on a steep growth trajectory or a gradual one right now? Superstars want bigger challenges and promotions, and they will leave if you bore them.

5. Getting things done together

   Bosses who tell people what to do get compliance, not commitment. Scott lays out a loop for making decisions as a team.

6. Put it to work

   This week, ask each person on your team one specific question about what you could do better, and count to six in silence before you fill the gap. Deliver one piece of criticism you have been postponing, within a day of the event, in private, describing the behaviour and its effect.