Radical Candor: A Critical Review
Undoubtedly, being a great manager/leader, connecting with people, and creating an environment
of trust at work is a longing for many people, the guide for which can be found in Radical Candor.
Written by Kim Scott, this book offers the ultimate guide to a management technique which
focuses on challenging employees directly, while simultaneously showing empathy at a personal
level. In an interconnected world and a tremendous number of managing employees has become
an ever-increasing challenge. Decreased work performance, poor communication, weak
teamwork, performance pressure, skepticism, turnover and the like, are in most times
consequences of management problems in an organization. Tacking those problems and using the
needed skills to address them properly, would utterly transform the organization and its
performance.
In Radical Candor, many tools and practices on becoming successful leaders are presented, but
this review is limited to three main lessons extracted from this guide book. The structure of the
paper is as follows: the first section will discuss what a Radical Candor actually means; the second
section will present tools to be implemented in achieving efficiency; and the third section will
reveal the most optimal communication strategies needed for an organization or company. Forth,
after having understood what a Radical Candor is, it’s integral to elaborate what it is not! Lastly,
a conclusion with six main takeaways is offered.
I.
The Meaning of Radical Candor
Take Radical for being far-reaching, and Candor for being open and honest, collide them and
realize that Radical Candor is about being thorough, open, and honest with others.1 In terms of
work and management, this means balancing the team, and talking to them about specific areas so
they know what needs to be improved. In order to develop this particular skill, it is important to
begin by building a good relationship with each person in the team. This is done primarily through
showing empathy and talking about things not necessarily related to the business tasks.
As the continuation of such an approach takes place, the ‘Radical Candor’ requires the manager to
challenge his/her employees to perform better when they are not giving their best at work. It is
1
Scott, Kim. (2017). How to Be a Great Boss Without Losing your Humanity. p. 26, 59, and 142.
1
crucial to point them towards their errors, despite this sometimes being difficult to address. 2 To
illustrate, Ms. Scott shares her own experience. While working for Google, after finishing a
presentation, her employer approached and complimented her giving feedback on the presentation.
Employers should be honest and willing to give compliments but should also not hesitate to talk
about things that need improvement. In the end, this is what Radical Candor is all about.
II.
The Steps to Collaborative Leadership
It is utterly exciting to get to work around so many brilliant people, but not every manager
recognizes this. Working close with every team member and leading interesting discussions is
what every employer should not, considering that this is a prerequisite for getting tasks finished.
However, there are bad leaders who do not acknowledge this and end up distancing themselves
from their employees. There is a notion called collaborative leadership, for which Steve Jobs gave
a perfect illustration. He recognized that as a leader, it was apparent that he was not always going
to be right, so he encouraged his employees to feel free and talk to him whenever they disagreed
with him or believed that he was mistaken. Once, Mr. Jobs even got angry for an advice he ignored,
which turned out to be right! It was important to let people advise and correct the employer, as a
prevention for potential mistakes which could occur.
From her experience, Scott identified seven steps to achieve this collaborative leadership. She
called these seven steps the Getting Things Done Wheel which are: Listen, Clarify, Debate,
Decide, Persuade, Execute, and Learn.3 This process allows you to lay the groundworks for
collaboration, instead of impulsively diving right into the task.
She admitted that most managers rushed to simply dive into the task, without taking time to listen
and discuss. As much as this approach sounds like it saves a lot of time, it might end up causing
the opposite – wasting time as a result of miscommunication and misunderstanding.
As a first step, she considered that it is important to listen to people and create a safe space where
they can speak honestly and openly. She thought that when people are comfortable to express their
opinions, without fear of repercussions, an environment for better, and faster results would be
created. This step is based on the very accurate assumption that every team member’s input and
2
3
Ibid., p.45, 165.
Ibid., p.117.
2
active participation is not merely welcomed, but rather necessary for the company’s performance.
She explained that the key to creating a culture of listening is to have a system where employees
can voice complaints and generate ideas, make sure that at least some of the issues raised are being
addressed in the short term, and lastly, regularly offer explanations as to why the other issues have
not been addressed. This system will encourage everyone on the team to point out things that could
be better, as well as enable them to fix those things or make changes.
After establishing a culture of listening, the second step is to create a space where ideas can be
defined and clarified. This step makes sure that an idea does not get disregarded without everyone
understanding its potential value. Jony Ive, in an Apple memorial service for Steve Jobs
emphasized how important it was for Jobs to nurture and clarify new ideas. “He treated the process
of creativity with a rare and wonderful reverence. He understood that while ideas can ultimately
be so powerful, they begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily
compromised, so easily just squished”.4
After the idea is clarified and well defined, the next step is to debate it. The step of debating the
idea and challenging its value is important because this stage gives you the opportunity to convince
your people why the idea is good and get them on board with it. It is important that during this
stage, everybody involved pays attention to the facts, and does not get consumed by self-interest.
Staying objective and pursuing the right answer, without being distracted by seeking ego
validation, will lead to required results faster. This is why it is important to create a healthy
environment of debate, where getting to the result is everybody’s mutual goal, and there is no
winner-loser contest between team members.5
The fourth step includes the decision part. The author used the example of President George W.
Bush who famously claimed, “I am the decider”. It was somehow hilarious knowing that he wasn’t
the decider but could not recognize this fact for himself. Being elected as a president does not
ensure the authority of being an absolute decision maker. The same applies to the manager of the
organization or company. The position does not guarantee the ‘decider’ status, despite the
4
5
Ibid., p.107.
Ibid., p. 111-115.
3
perception that the senior people in a hierarchy are always the deciders. Decision-making process
is much more profound and involves the contribution of everyone in the team. 6
After a decision-making process has occurred, but there are still people who do not agree with the
decision, how do you get persuade and to include them in the implementation of the decision?
Expecting people who do not agree with a particular task, to work on it, results in a bad
performance. It is important to pick the relevant people who are responsible for implementing the
task and let them proceed. It is important to try to persuade people by using logic, emotions, and
credibility, but at the same time not to force an opinion on someone who categorically disagrees.7
Often, execution is considered a solidary task. Despite that the burden of a collaboration tax falls
on the employer, it is important for him to try to minimize it, so the team can take some
responsibility and spend more time in the execution process. Sometimes, it is difficult for the leader
to balance his responsibilities, but nevertheless he/she needs to realize that some tasks are not in
their expertise area and let others who are more appropriate execute those tasks. 8
The last step involves learning, and by the time one has reached this point, something great is
achieved. It is in our human nature to develop an attachment with tasks we have spent a lot of time
working with, that it becomes difficult to step back. However, realizing that results are good or not
sufficiently good, still leads to an experience, which is beneficial for future tasks. 9
III.
Getting to Know the Employees’ Real Motivations
For the employees to stay motivated in the workplace and commit to performing well, it is
important that they know that your goal as a manager is to help them achieve THEIR goals. This
takes the form of having honest conversations about how employees see themselves in the future
and what you as a manager can do to help them get there. Scott’s way of doing this was by first
asking her employees their life stories up to this point. Her intention was to learn what motivates
6
Ibid., p.116-119.
Ibid., p.119-124.
8
Ibid., p.124.
9
Ibid, p.126.
7
4
them. More importantly, by paying attention to moments of change in their life, and the reasons
why those changes occurred, she wanted to learn what their values were. 10
The second thing Scott wanted to know were their dreams. When using the word ‘dream’, her
actual question was what they wanted to achieve at the pinnacle of their career. After this
conversation, she would then ask her direct reports to prepare a spreadsheet filled with the dreams
they brought up in the conversation. The notion of ‘Dream’ for Ms.Scott is a synonym for
employees’ biggest aspirations, what they aim to achieve in their career pathway. 11The following
step is what the author calls an 18-month plan, which involves exploring the plan where employees
want to see themselves in the short term. 12
During the experience in Google, the author gives an instance of how the employer once was
talking to one of the employees who was hesitating to communicate with him. He asked about her
aspirations and what she wanted! Only after having a short discussion did she realize that she
wanted to own a farm, and the next steps were to focus on what her inspiration was and the ways
she ought to follow in order to reach her full potential.13 The leader paved the way for her to reach
her dream, simultaneously harnessing the career talk with his team members, so the whole
company would reach its full potential. Furthermore, the author stressed the fact that there are
several types of conversations the employer can have with the employees which trigger motivation.
She said, “try each of these and with the power of radical candor, your whole team will be reaching
new heights in no time!” 14
IV.
What the Radical Candor is not!
It is apparent that the Radical Candor is about 1. Care Personally and 2. Challenge Directly, yet, it
is significant to know what the Radical Candor is not. Firstly, showing personal care does not mean
turning introverted people into extroverts but is rather about understanding the team and extracting
the best out of them. A failure to follow this approach ends up with obnoxious aggression.
Secondly, challenging employees directly is not about being a nitpick, a failure that would result
10
Ibid., p.201.
Ibid., p.98, 232.
12
Ibid., p.197.
13
Ibid., p.198-202.
14
Ibid., p.196.
11
5
in poor performance. It rather entails putting a lot of energy into a team and focusing on the
important stuff. Lastly, when a leader fails in both approaches, the result is Manipulative
Insincerity, which means that the employer is not sufficiently concerned with the team, and
therefore does not challenge or criticize them. 15
V.
Conclusion and Takeaways
Managers are responsible for guidance; team building, and creating results. What these three
responsibilities require, is strong relationships. Takeaways from this quite comprehensive guide in
becoming a good leader include the following:
1. Building trust with the team. This is done by dealing with oneself first, before moving ahead to
take care of others. There is a need to be relentless in bringing the fullest at work on daily basis.
To increase the trust building within a team, it is important to hang out in a relaxed setting, learn
to manage emotions, and demonstrate openness. 16
2. Regularly Check-in with 1:1s. This is an important tool in enforcing trust and relationship with
each other. This enables the team and their employer to recognize and listen to issues they must
deal with. Questions such as “how can I help?”, “what I can do or do differently to make tasks
easier” and the like, are key to a better inter-communication.17
3. Giving and receiving criticism and praise. This is done by inviting and encouraging the team
to accept criticism but also allow others to criticize the manager back when seen necessary. 18
4. Giving advice. This should not only be reserved for performance reviews. Radical Candor
requires leaders to give advice, immediate feedback and be precise. Stating intention is helpful, as
it reduces defenses in cases of negative feedback. 19
15
Ibid., p.146.
Ibid., p.149-155.
17
Ibid., p.240.
18
Ibid., p.155-156.
19
Ibid., p.135.
16
6
5. Formal performance reviews. If his is part of the job, it is important to ensure that no surprises
are given during this review. Practicing Radical Candor, issues that needs to be discussed, must
take place before a formal review is delivered. 20
6. Driving results through members of the team. This is done by following the seven steps
aforementioned; Listen, Clarify, Debate, Decide, Persuade, Execute the plan, and Learn. The
critical part about this seven step process is that your team understands it and that you move
through the steps quickly enough to keep everybody engaged. 21
VI.
Work Cited
Scott, Kim. (2017). How to Be a Great Boss Without Losing your Humanity. in print.
20
21
Ibid., p.186.
Ibid., p.222.
7
8