1: We feel good. We’ve just finished making our sales presentation. We spent hours preparing. And we nailed it. Our audience now knows all the powerful and wonderful things our product and service can do.
The first question we get? Something negative: “What about . . . ?”
“If the first question someone asks is about a potential issue they need us to clarify, it means they’ve been thinking about … continue reading
1: As leaders, we must build strong relationships with the people who work for us.
Yet, “like all human bonds, the connections between bosses and the people who report to them are unpredictable and not subject to absolute rules,” Kim Scott writes in her book Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.
There is, however, a framework we can use to create great relationships.
The secret? … continue reading
1: Unchecked power, control, or authority can work, Kim Scott writes in her book Radical Candor.
“They work especially well in a baboon troop or a totalitarian regime,” Kim writes.
But if we’re reading her book or this blog, that’s likely not what we are shooting for.
Kim had just started coaching Ryan Smith, the CEO of Qualtrics.
Ryan asked Kim the most important question for new leaders. The … continue reading
1: “Google is famously viewed as a bottom-up company,” Kim Scott writes in her book Radical Candor, “one that empowers even very young employees to drive decision-making.”
Management at Google is often viewed as a necessary evil.
“The managers’ role is mostly to stay out of the way,” Kim notes, “sometimes to help, but never to interfere too much.”
After working at Google for six years in the … continue reading
1: Growing up, how many times were we told: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”?
Turns out that’s really bad advice if we want to be good managers.
“Bob was one of those instantly likable people who make going to work a pleasure,” Kim Scott writes in Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.
“He was a kind, … continue reading
