105. Radical Candor: The Communication Shift That Can Transform Your Career
Sep 5, 2023
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Kim Scott, an executive, speaker, author, and executive coach known for radical candor, shares tips on giving feedback effectively. She emphasizes the importance of caring personally and challenging directly. The podcast explores the power of admitting ignorance, the role of vulnerability in communication, and the key ingredients for successful communication.
Radical Candor is a communication skill that combines empathy and honesty to provide feedback, fostering a culture of trust and growth.
To cultivate Radical Candor, leaders should set the example by soliciting feedback, encouraging direct conversations, and rewarding candor.
Deep dives
The Importance of Radical Candor
Radical Candor is defined as caring personally and challenging directly. It is an essential communication skill that involves providing feedback in a way that combines empathy with honesty. Radical Candor is rare but crucial, as it fosters a culture of trust, growth, and inclusivity. When feedback lacks personal care, it becomes obnoxious aggression, which not only hurts others but also hinders effective communication. On the other hand, when personal care is present without direct challenges, it becomes ruinous empathy, where important feedback is withheld to avoid hurting someone's feelings. By creating a balance of caring and challenging, Radical Candor promotes open dialogue and productive relationships.
Creating the Radical Candor Culture
To cultivate a culture of Radical Candor, it is crucial for leaders to set the example by soliciting feedback and being open to receiving it. Instead of talking about team members behind their backs, leaders should encourage direct conversations among team members to address conflicts or issues. This promotes clean escalation, where individuals take responsibility for resolving conflicts by engaging in open dialogue. Leaders should also reward Radical Candor by appreciating and valuing the feedback received and using it to improve and grow personally and professionally. By normalizing Radical Candor and reducing fears of status or power differentials, organizations can create an environment where feedback is embraced and seen as a catalyst for positive change.
The Process of Giving Effective Feedback
When giving feedback, it is important to follow a structured approach. The process begins with soliciting feedback by asking open-ended questions that encourage honesty and reflection. Active listening without a defensive response is vital to understanding the feedback and showing genuine interest in the other person's perspective. Next, it is essential to offer praise and gratitude for the person's strengths and contributions, building a foundation of trust and appreciation. Constructive criticism should be provided by stating intentions, using humility, and focusing on behavior or actions that can be improved. It is crucial to provide both positive and negative feedback immediately, without delaying or letting feedback debt accumulate. Feedback conversations should ideally take place synchronously, allowing for a meaningful and authentic dialogue. Lastly, it is necessary to reward the candor by acknowledging and acting upon the feedback received, demonstrating a commitment to growth and improvement.
Embracing Emotions in Radical Candor
Emotions play a significant role in communication, and they should not be ignored but rather embraced. Recognizing and addressing emotions can enhance understanding and strengthen relationships. When someone is sad or mad, it is an opportunity to demonstrate care personally and offer empathy. When faced with anger, it is crucial to resist getting defensive and to remain calm and curious, seeking to understand the root cause of the anger. In contrast, if someone brushes off feedback, it is important to persist on challenging directly, ensuring that the feedback is received and understood. By recognizing and addressing emotions, Radical Candor can navigate the complexities of human interactions and foster greater understanding and growth.
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.”