Kim Scott, an executive coach and author known for her bestselling books, dives deep into the transformative power of Radical Candor. She outlines a framework that balances personal care with direct challenges, warning against common pitfalls in communication. Scott shares insights from her experiences at Google, emphasizing the importance of open feedback and emotional intelligence in leadership. Additionally, she highlights how admitting uncertainty can foster collaboration and enhance communication skills, paving the way for growth and understanding in teams.
34:20
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Radical Candor Defined
Radical Candor is defined as caring personally and challenging directly.
These qualities are rare, leading to communication issues like obnoxious aggression, manipulative insincerity, and ruinous empathy.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Kim Scott's "Um" Epiphany
Kim Scott learned about Radical Candor after joining Google and giving a presentation to the founders and CEO.
Her boss's feedback about her "ums" led to a transformative experience with a speech coach.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Giving Feedback
Start by soliciting feedback, then offer praise before criticism.
State your intention to help, be humble, and offer both praise and criticism immediately, focusing on actions, not personality.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Radical Candor by Kim Scott offers a practical approach to management by emphasizing the importance of caring personally and challenging directly. The book argues that effective managers must find a balance between being empathetic and providing clear, honest feedback. Scott draws from her experiences at Google and Apple to provide actionable lessons on building strong relationships, giving feedback, and creating a collaborative work environment. The book introduces the concept of 'radical candor' as the sweet spot between obnoxious aggression and ruinous empathy, and provides tools and strategies for managers to implement this approach in their daily work[1][2][5].
Just Work
Russell Muirhead
In 'Just Work,' Russell Muirhead delves into the meaning and justice of work in modern democracies. He argues that work should be evaluated not just on its instrumental value (wages and benefits) but also on its personal and social fit. Muirhead defines fit through two dimensions: social fit, which aligns individual abilities with societal needs, and personal fit, which considers the extent to which work is fulfilling. The book critiques the current pecuniary emphasis on work and advocates for a balance between work, family, and community, highlighting the importance of work in a life well lived and its impact on human dignity and social justice.
Moving forward in our careers often means giving and receiving feedback. But how candid can we be in communicating with others? For Kim Scott, anything less than radical just isn’t enough.
An executive, speaker, author, and executive coach, Scott is known for her concept of Radical Candor, which she defines as “caring personally and challenging directly at the same time." By mapping communication onto the axes of caring and challenging, she derives four quadrants of feedback behavior: radical andor, obnoxious aggression, manipulative insincerity, and ruinous empathy.
In this episode of Think Fast Talk Smart, Scott shares how we can all move our communication into the Radical Candor quadrant, “to learn what we don't know and to help other people learn what they don't know.”
Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques 
