Radical Candor: Communication at Work

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 transparent...

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 expl...

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...

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 p...

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...

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 Ra...

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...

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...

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 A...

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 w...

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 wheth...

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 c...

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 disc...

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 bo...

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, te...

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...

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 wh...

Being the boss doesn’t mean you automatically get respect from people, but the authority does have an automatic impact on what people will say to you. Unfortunately, people are primed to mistrust you based on all the preconceived notions against bosses. As the boss, you’ll tend to get more flattery than critical feedback that can help you learn and grow. Kim, Jason and Amy talk about how bosses ca...

Kim, Jason and Amy discuss how doing less can lead to more success. Kim recommends creating a proactive forbearance list where you list all of the things you're not going to do. Instead of feeling guilty about not doing the things on your list, celebrate them. This allows you to focus on the things you actually need to get done now. In addition, Jason explains the spoon theory and Amy talks Radica...

Radical Candor readers regularly reach out to us for advice about how to Care Personally and Challenge Directly. On this episode, Amy and Jason shed some light on how to give upwards feedback, how to give feedback to direct reports without making them develop a fear of coffee, how introverts can manage expectations about impromptu feedback, and how to Care Personally about someone you have nothing...

Our new podcast series, “Radically Candid Conversations,” features experts and guests who will help us learn, reflect, and put our insights into action. Our second episode features Tiffani Lee, a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight, who recently wrote in an article about addressing racial injustice for Law360: "Our response to the grave injustice of this moment must be informed by Radical Can...

Our first discussion with Kim Scott and Dr. A. Breeze Harper, Ph. D., a diversity and inclusion strategist, antiracism scholar and facilitator, explores how to practice Radical Candor when addressing systemic racism; the historical origins and research-based understanding of white, racialized consciousness; what it means to be antiracist and how to practice anti-racism, and how we can be antiracis...

In its most basic form, Radical Candor is a framework to facilitate communication that is kind, clear, specific and sincere. It’s about being able to Care Personally and Challenge Directly at the same time. While this kind of communication is always important for building trust and maintaining relationships, it’s even more important during a crisis when anxieties are heightened and everything is u...

Even though we're physically distant at work, that doesn't mean we can't cultivate caring and candid relationships with peers, managers and direct reports. On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Jason and Amy talk about how to effectively check in with teams of all sizes while working remotely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Radical Candor author and co-founder Kim Scott talks with Kelly Leonard, executive director of insights and applied improvisation at Second City Works and author of the book, Yes, And: Lessons from The Second City, talk about how an improv mindset coupled with practicing Radical Candor can help managers lead remote teams with kindness and clarity during times of uncertainty. This special discussio...