In a difficult situation at work, the speaker learned valuable leadership lessons from his boss Cheryl. He was advised to go through a specific decision-making loop which involved listening to and helping team members clarify their ideas, encouraging debate to identify deciders, pushing decisions based on facts, persuading the team collectively, giving the team the lead, ensuring time for idea implementation, and learning from outcomes to restart the process if needed.
Honesty may be the best policy, but that doesn’t make giving honest feedback any easier. That’s why Kim Scott, a veteran of Google and Apple, wrote “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.” It’s a life-saving guide for anyone who’s ever had to dole out difficult but important feedback. Which means all of us.