Radical Candor: Communication at Work

Kim, Jason and Amy discuss how the fundamental attribution error makes us more likely to use personality attributes to explain someone else’s behavior rather than considering our own behavior or situational factors that were probably the real cause of the behavior. This is where the "not about personality" part of Radical Candor comes into play. Plus, Jason introduces us to the little evil translator inside his head that makes him hear feedback as: "You're terrible. You're completely incompetent. There's no possible way you're going to succeed. It's a miracle that you managed to tie your own shoes to the office this morning." Same? Listen and nod along.Read the show notes >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’re the boss, you’re kind of an emotional shock absorber for your team. You’ve got to be able to deal with other people’s emotions. When we communicate, we communicate on an emotional plane and a rational plane at the same time. If you as the boss dismiss all emotional signals as unprofessional you’re not going to communicate very well. Showing compassion is real work, and, like all real work, it is rewarding and also taxing. In general, we undervalue the emotional labor of being the boss. But this emotional labor is not just part of the job; it’s the key to being a good boss. On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast Kim, Jason and Amy discuss emotional labor through the lens of a scenario sent to us by one of our listeners looking for guidance on how to avoid being a ShamWow for everyone on their team.Read the show notes >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim, Jason and Amy dig into the virtual career advice mailbag and answer questions from Radical Candor listeners and readers. What happens when people think you're too young to lead? How can you stop paying the a**hole tax? How can you be more present at work when everything is stressful all of the time? Listen to find out!Go to the show notes >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quiet Hiring, Turnover Contagion and Layoff Survivor Guilt can lead to a culture of fear. Kim, Jason, Amy and Brandi discuss how when people are working out of fear, they start to avoid taking risks. They learn less, they grow less, they innovate less, and they become less than they could be.The way you treat people when times are tough determines whether you’ll get their best effort, a perfunctory effort, or an effort to sabotage you. When you treat people like cogs in a machine, you’ll get no more than you demand, and you create an incentive to break the machine.See the show notes >>Radical Candor Podcast Checklist If you suddenly find yourself experiencing Quiet Hiring, talk to your manager about how you can leverage your new responsibilities toward your professional development goals. It’s also appropriate to ask how you’ll be compensated for doing additional work. When you do have information that affects your team, commit to delivering it as soon as possible in a way that’s kind and clear. Allow the people who are left behind to ask questions and provide answers if you have them. If you don’t know the answer, it’s OK to admit that you don’t know, but be clear that you will deliver relevant news as soon as you have it. If you’re a manager, have intentional Career Conversations with each person on your team. Let them know that you’re doing this in good faith and not to use it against them. Based on these conversations try to redistribute the work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you experienced a layoff? Jason hosts this episode of the Radical Candor podcast and interviews Amy, Kim and Brandi about layoffs. The team discusses layoffs from a few different perspectives — the most important one is the impact on people who are being laid off. The emotional and financial toll of being laid off is real. Amy says, "Looking back on it, it was a huge transformational time that set my life up in a way that I really wanted. But it felt like absolute sh*t in the process."See the show notes >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim, Jason and Amy discuss absentee management and quiet firing. While these two things can feel the same to the person experiencing them, the thing that makes them different is the intention behind the behavior. Quiet firing happens when managers allow employees to have toxic experiences at work as a way to get them to quit. On the other hand, a more pervasive problem is well-intentioned bosses who practice absentee management. They’re that ghost boss who is rarely seen or heard from by their direct reports. What can you do if you work in this kind of environment? Listen to the episode to learn more.Radical Candor Podcast Checklist Don’t hire people and never talk to them again. Being a hands-off manager is different than being an absentee manager. All managers should be having regular 1:1 meetings with their direct reports, actively soliciting feedback and having regular Career Conversations. Don’t be a jerk. Quiet firing is gaslighting at its worst and junior high behavior at its best. It’s is no way to build a business or a solid team and will most certainly come back to bite you (seriously, people, watch Office Space!) If you need to let someone go for whatever reason, you can do so with Radical Candor. If you are struggling with an absentee manager, a good way to engage them is by requesting a 1:1 meeting with your boss and sharing a challenge you are having and asking for their input, and letting them know when you will additional support from them. And setting some time on the calendar with them as a follow-up! Before you throw your bike helmet against the wall and "rage quit," don't forget to "rage apply" for that job you really want. Questions? Email us at podcast@radicalcandor.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A classic example of a micromanaging helicopter boss is Bill from the 1999 movie Office Space, the bad boss who spawned thousands of memes. He roams around the cubicle farm monitoring everyone’s activity and stops by to scold workers for minor mistakes like forgetting to put the cover sheet on their TPS reports.On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Jason and Amy discuss how to tell if the "helpful" guidance you're giving your team is actually veering off into micromanaging. If you want to be a kick-ass boss instead of having team members who want to kick your ass, this episode is a must-listen!Read the show notes at RadicalCandor.com/Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to season 5 of the Radical Candor podcast! On this episode, we have a montage of Radical Candor, Manipulative Insincerity and Obnoxious Aggression stories from our coaches and core team. Chances are you can relate to one or more of these stories. If you have a story to share, send it to us at podcast@radicalcandor.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ready for some roleplaying? On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast, Kim, Jason and Amy address how to respond to some specific scenarios with Radically Candid feedback that’s kind, clear, specific and sincere. If you truly want to get different results, you’re going to have to change your behavior. We know it’s hard, so we’re going to talk you through it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does anyone actually want to be a manager of managers? And if so, what do these people actually do? On this episode of the Radical Candor podcast Kim, Jason and Amy discuss strategies for being an effective manager of managers. If you're managing people who manage other people, then you're managing managers. Whereas if you're managing individual contributors, you're managing a team. The most significant difference when you become a manager of managers is that now you have to become a thought partner, not just on the functional expertise and the business that they're running or the product that they're building, but you also have to be a thought partner to them on how they're managing their team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices