the presentation is a guide to give radically candid feedback, with examples and counter-examples.
The basis of the presentation is Kim Scott's book - Radical Candour. Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.
4. What’s a leader’s job?
Leaders guide the team to achieve results.
By providing:
• Guidance: create a culture of guidance
(praise and criticism)
• Building teams: understand what motivates
people to avoid burnout or boredom and
keep team cohesive
• Drive results collaborative.
5. You can’t do any of these without
creating strong relationships.
This is where Radical Candour comes in.
6. Two dimensions to Radical Candour
Care
personally
Challenge
directly
=
Radical
Candor
+
https://www.radicalcandor.com/
7. Care personally & Challenge directly
Care Personally
• a.k.a. Give a damn!
• It’s not a business, it’s deeply personal
• “keep it professional” denies the fact
that we’re human
• “Bring your wholesale to work!”
• Only when you actually care about the
whole person with your whole self, can
you build a relationship.
Challenge directly
• Give the hard feedback but also
the good feedback
• Ask to be given feedback as well
• Shows you care enough
• You’re willing to admit you’re
wrong
8. When your team mates trust you, they are more
likely to …
1. … accept and act on your praise and criticism
2. … tell you what they really think about what you’re doing well and not doing
so well
3. … engage in this same behaviour with one another
4. … embrace their role on the team
5. … focus on getting results
10. Before we begin
• The name of each quadrant refers to guidance,
not personality traits.
• Not to be used to label people.
• Everyone spends some time in each quadrant.
11. RADICAL
CANDOR
Radically candid praise:
• Be specific
• Don’t be vague
• Give context (or examples)
• In public and private
Radically candid criticism:
• Criticise the wins
• Face-to-face
• In private
• Immediately after the fact (don’t wait
to give feedback)
12. OBNOXIOUS
AGGRESION
• Criticise without showing you care.
• Debilitating, towards the extreme of
aggression: belittling or public embarrassing is
not acceptable in any working environment.
• The bosses criticise to humiliate, not to elevate
their peers.
• The bosses discourage praise as “babysitting
people’s egoes”.
• Use someone’s vulnerabilities for dominance.
• Can be criticism and praise.
Unfortunately people prefer the “asshole” mode
to the remaining two. If you’re not radically
candid, this is “the next best thing”.
https://www.radicalcandor.com/blog/category/obnoxious-aggression/
13. MANIPULATIVE
INSINCERITY
• It happens when you don’t care enough about
the person to challenge directly.
• They give praise or criticism when they can
gain from it or want to be liked
• Can be praised also: false apology or
admiration
Give a damn about the people you challenge,
without worrying if they give a damn about you.
https://www.radicalcandor.com/blog/category/manipulative-insincerity/
14. RUINOUS
EMPATHY
• NOT effective; purpose: to make the person
feel better, rather to push them grow
• “Being nice” is prioritised at the expense of
critiquing and improving performance
• Vague positive comments. No real support to
the team
• You never know where you stand as you only
get positive feedback
• People are surprised when fired or put on
performance review
• No trust on either side.
Give a damn about the people you challenge,
without worrying if they give a damn about you.
https://www.radicalcandor.com/blog/category/ruinous-empathy/
17. Bob deployed to production a buggy feature.
It’s not his first time he doesn’t test his work.
Private conversation with Bob.
Facts -> effects. This issue keeps happening.
Can we pair program to fix the bug together?
// How can I help?
When you see the bugs on production when you
check you scream in the office: “Who the hell
delivered this? Bob? Just what I thought! Bob,
how many times do I have to tell you to test your
code before you deliver?
You see the bugs and you’re aware that he’s
causing issues for the team. But you don’t want
to make him feel uncomfortable raising the
issues, so you postpone it until he gets fired.
He’ll never learn what he does wrong!
You whisper to your team mates: “Dude, Bob
deployed buggy code to production again. This
guy has no clue about testing and quality,
man…” then you return to your work after some
more giggles.
18. Moving towards Radical Candour
1. Start by asking people to be radically
candid with you: start by getting
feedback first
2. When you start giving it: start with
praise, not criticism
3. When you move to criticism: make sure
you understand the difference between
Radical Candour and Obnoxious
Aggression
19. Good Radically Candid feedback
• Be humble: neither of you possess the whole truth; be open to a reciprocal
challenge to your feedback
• Be helpful: signal that you intend to be helpful; write down objectives of your
feedback before giving it to be certain all you want is to help
• Give immediate feedback: details are lost as time wears on
• Give feedback in person: no email, not online; the next best thing is video
• Praise in public, criticise in private!
• Don’t personalise: don’t give feedback about unchangeable attributes, such as
intelligence. Give feedback on behaviours and results, not character, intelligence
etc.; eg. “You are sloppy” vs “Your work is sloppy”.
20. Give more praise than criticism. Why?
• The biggest learning comes from mistakes, but
still you should praise more. This is why:
1. Guides people in the right direction
2. Encourages people to keep improving.
=> the best praise does a lot more than just
make people feel good. It can challenge them
directly.
• Drop all the 3:1, 5:1, 7:1 praise-to-criticism
ration, there is no “right” ratio. You have to be
sincere and natural with your praise and
criticism. Remember to “care personally”
21. Criticism ….
• For criticism to be effective, it’s crucial “to do it very (1) clearly and articulate (2) why… and to (3) get them
back on track.”
• Criticise without discouraging people
1. Focus on the relationship
2. Ask for criticism before giving it
3. Praise more often than criticise
4. Be humble, helpful, offer guidance in person and immediately
5. Praise in public, criticise in private
6. Don’t personalise; look at the issue / performance, not character of the person
7. Share stories when you’ve been criticised for something similar