Radical Candor

Prepare and hold the feedback conversation you have been putting off

What it is

Radical Candor is Kim Scott's feedback framework. It asks you to care personally about the person and to challenge them directly in the same conversation, and doing both is what Scott calls Radical Candor. Caring without the challenge is Ruinous Empathy, where you soften the message until the person cannot tell what needs to change. Challenging without visible care is Obnoxious Aggression, and doing neither is Manipulative Insincerity, where you flatter people to their face and complain about them behind their back.

Use the four names to examine a conversation, and avoid turning them into permanent labels for colleagues. Whether you managed both halves is decided by how the feedback lands with the person who receives it.

When to reach for it

Someone on your team is missing an expectation and you have been praising small things instead of raising it
You need to give a hard message and you are worried about how it will land
You have caught yourself complaining about a colleague's work to someone other than that colleague

Try it this week

Choose the conversation you have rehearsed most often without having it, and book it this week.

Write down what you have observed directly, and separate it from what you are assuming.
Decide which expectation the person needs to understand, and which part of the problem belongs to you.
Describe what useful improvement would look like in the next piece of work, and prepare a clear example.
Decide how you will know whether the person understood your message, and leave enough time in the conversation to listen to the answer.
Before you end, ask the person to explain what they will do next and what help they need, and agree when you will look at the work again.

Go deeper

Read the longer article on Radical Candor

Related tools

Source: Kim Scott, Radical Candor, 2017

Want help putting this to work with your team? Book a free thirty minutes with Colin.