Love and Truth in Work and Life: Kim Scott

Kim Scott, bestselling author and CEO coach, talks with Jesse about her new book Just Work and her New York Times Bestselling book Radical Candor along with the experiences and lessons that moved her to write. She talks about her lifelong love of writing and the value of storytelling in helping change behaviors. Kim reflects on the connected nature of her writing and executive coaching and on her philosophies on being an engaged professional advisor. 

Kim shares specific and moving examples of how she learned to care personally for people while also challenging them directly, and how caring personally and challenging directly became the basis for her Radical Candor. She also discusses how leaders can foster the right mix of meaningful debate and clear decision making, Kim speaks openly about the discovery of some of her own biases, and how that exploration and her conversations with underrepresented-minority colleagues and their experiences became the motivation for writing Just Work. She even shares a secret she learned about identical twins early on in parenthood.

How do I give critical feedback without damaging my relationships? What is radical candor? How can a leader be caring while also pushing for high achievement? How can we foster a culture of healthy, productive debate in order to drive better decision making? How can we achieve a more just and productive work environment? 

Guest Bio:
Kim Scott is the author of Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity and co-founder of the company Radical Candor. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies.

She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. She’s also managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.

Building Blocks:
What skill or activity or habit is essentially you? Write about what it is and why it's essentially *you*. Maybe you're a surfer and surfing is not just your way of staying in shape and in balance, but of completely escaping the terra firma that anchors you to the day-to-day and inspires you to think of each day anew. Maybe, like Kim, you're a writer - and you have your own ways of using the written word to relax, reflect or reason with yourself. Or it could be art, music, building and repair … or really anything at all. Just take 10 minutes and write out what it is about this skill or activity or habit that's absolutely essential to you and give yourself gratitude for having discovered it and for living it. If you can't put your finger on anything specific, talk to two or three people who know you well and see if they can help you discover something hidden in plain sight or find a passion that you can make your own.

Helpful Links:
In addition to Radical Candor, she is the author of three novels and the forthcoming leadership book Just Work: Get Sh*t Done, Fast & Fair, available March 16, 2021, from St. Martin’s Press.

The Radical Candor organization: https://www.radicalcandor.com/

Kim’s website: https://kimmalonescott.com/

Kim on Twitter: @kimballscott

Kim’s 2017 interview with Kara Swisher: https://www.vox.com/2017/4/13/15295070/transcript-kim-scott-book-radical-candor-live-onstage-recode-decode

Kim at Hubspot’s Inbound Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9GLeNCgm4