“Radical Candor*: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity” (2018) is a management guide by Kim Scott. The author has held various management roles within Silicon Valley-based technology firms such as Google where she oversaw AdSense, YouTube and DoubleClick Online Sales Operations teams before transitioning to Apple where she designed and taught an in-house leadership seminar to their top 100 executives. The book serves as a management guide and practical framework for improving relationships at work through radical candour – one of the main concepts covered within its pages.
In my company, “Radical Candor” has taken on something of a legendary status, but mostly for the wrong reasons. People, who assumedly have not read it, believe that “Radical Candor” explains how to give colleagues feedback that is blunt to the point of rudeness – perhaps even provoking a few tears along the way. In reality, according to Scott, radical candour represents an equilibrium point between two dysfunctional extremes: ruinous empathy – which involves caring too deeply while failing to challenge directly; and obnoxious aggression – whereby people challenge directly without ever caring personally about others or responding directly. Scott further proposes manipulative insincerity where no-one cares personally nor challenges directly.
What is the book about?
Scott asserts that radical candour is key to effective management and leadership. This involves giving clear, direct feedback while at the same time maintaining genuine care for team members. Scott emphasises this doesn’t involve brutal honesty or hurtfulness but constructive feedback which helps people grow.
The book is organised into two main parts. The first explores radical candour’s philosophy and its quadrant framework and compares it with traditional management styles. Scott uses personal anecdotes from her experiences to illustrate her points and make them more relatable.
The second part of Scott’s book offers more action-oriented advice about how radical candour should be implemented across various management scenarios. She details tips for building an environment of feedback, understanding individual team member motivations, driving results collaboratively and managing tough conversations effectively.
“Radical Candor” emphasises the value of cultivating strong workplace relationships. Scott asserts that managers should get to know their employees personally, showing genuine concern for their well-being; according to him, taking such measures will ultimately create more productive teams as well as an ultimately more successful organisation.
Scott’s work goes beyond mere management philosophy – it provides leaders with a call-to-action for honourable leadership that embraces honesty, empathy, challenging their teams while taking into consideration individual differences as individuals. Scott presents an alternative, humane take on management focusing on communication, feedback and empathy at work.
What are the key takeways?
One of my “a-ha” moments from the book was when Scott gives advice to leaders on creating space for their teams to find solutions. She highlights that the much vaunted management cliche of “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions!” is flawed. Asking employees to bring you solutions often deprives them of the ability to share ideas, brainstorm and innovate on these ideas in a safe space with team members. Scott feels that one of the reasons that Apple is so successful is because they have created this culture where employees are encouraged to challenge and enhance ideas, and that all criticism should come with a suggestion for improvement attached. In my view, leaders often believe they are empowering their employees by telling them to go off and come up with a solution. However, if this approach is followed, the risk is that the solutions are limited by one individual’s thoughts and creativity.
The other main takeaways from the book for me were:
Radical Candour: At the core of this book lies radical candour: an approach that balances caring personally about team members while challenging them directly. Being radical means providing clear, direct, honest feedback with empathy and respect – something requiring leaders who can both communicate directly as well as tactfully.
Understand and Avoid Other Behaviour Extremes: In addition to radical candour, Kim Scott describes three other quadrants leaders should avoid: ruinous empathy (caring personally but not challenging directly), obnoxious aggression (challenger who does not care personally but challenges directly), and manipulative insincerity. Each can interfere with effective management and reduce workplace relationships.
Create an Environment of Feedback: One practical application of radical candour is creating an atmosphere rich in feedback. Leaders should promote both praise and criticism within their team interactions; feedback must also be delivered in an expeditious, relevant fashion that’s actionable – giving a glimpse of where growth and learning may lie for all members involved in growth processes. Likewise, leaders themselves need to remain open to receiving input from team members as part of this growth journey.
Who should read this book?
“Radical Candor” will be of benefit to both current managers and leaders as well as the aspiring managers of tomorrow. Leaders at all levels will gain something from Scott’s balanced and considerate approach. In fact, all employees can learn how to better communicate with colleagues from reading this book. HR Professionals or other organisational change leaders will also learn how to create a culture based on feedback and communication.
*As a British English user, the spelling of “candour” posed a challenge for me in writing this review! Therefore, when I quote the title of the book directly, I use the published (and American English) spelling. For all other instances of the word, British spelling is used.
