1: This week, we’ve been exploring author Kim Scott‘s ideas around what she calls “Radical Candor.”

Which is also the title of her book: Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.

Radical candor involves two critical elements, Kim explains: Care personally and Challenge directly.

That’s what radical candor is. 

2: What about what it is not? 

“Radical Candor is not a license to be … continue reading

1: “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off,” former Secretary of State Colin Powell once said. 

That’s because to be an effective leader, we must be willing to “challenge directly” the people on our teams. 

In her book Radical Candor, author Kim Scott tells us we must both care personally and challenge directly.

Challenging people directly “can be particularly difficult, especially at the outset,” Kim notes. We “may have … continue reading

1: “Very few people start out their careers thinking, I don’t give a damn about people, so I think I’ll be a great boss,” Kim Scott writes in Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.

To create a radically candid environment, Kim believes we must do two things: Care personally and challenge directly.

And yet, many bosses fall short in caring personally for the people on … continue reading

1: “I usually felt a little surge of pleasure,” Kim Scott writes in her book Radical Candor, “as I stepped off the elevator into the cavernous former warehouse in the East Village we’d rented as the office of Juice Software, the start-up I’d cofounded in 2000.”

But not this particular day. Instead, all she felt was stressed. 

“The engineers had worked nights and weekends on an early ‘beta’ version … 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