Notes on Radical Candor by Kim Scott

I recently completed Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had heard of it over the years and recently had several people recommend it. I loved the firsthand specific stories and anecdotes in the book and the overall framework the author describes. Also, the material at the end regarding how to actually implement the advice, do 1:1s, set up performance reviews, etc. was really helpful and actionable. I can understand why this book is so popular for managers and how the approach can be so impactful (but also not easy to implement and accept).

​Below are some of my major notes and takeaways.

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​Preface
Compassionate candor, empathy different

Intro

How to use book

Part 1: a new management philosophy

1 Build radically candid relationships. Bringing your whole self to work
Being emotional therapist or babysitter for your employees is part of your job
Emotional labor
Bosses guide teams to achieve results
Guidance
Giving feedback 
Team building
Care personally + challenge directly
Care personally 
Bring whole self to work. Show vulnerability. 
Challenge directly
Challenging others
Willing to admit you’re wrong
Embrace conflict rather than avoiding
Encourage others to challenge you directly
Leave 3 unimportant things unsaid each day

2 get give and encourage guidance: creating a culture of open communication 
It’s not mean. It’s clear. 
Radically candid praise
Radically candid criticism. Criticize during and after wins. 
Ask people to be candid with you and give you feedback
Start by asking for criticism of you

3 understand what motivates each person on your team: helping them take a step in the direction of their dreams 
Stable vs ambitious
What growth trajectory is the person on
Past performance and growth trajectory considered
Don’t promote rock solid performers because may get role not suited for. Recognize in other ways like raises and bonuses or teaching or mentorship or designate as gurus
Fair performance ratings 
Rock stars vs superstars
Awards and plaques for tenure
Dangers of promotion obsession
Peter principle
Keep superstars challenged
Don’t squash or block them
Limit power of managers to curb growth
People nominate themselves for promotion, and promo committee (without manager) decides
Allow transfer between groups without manager approval
IC career path which is even more prestigious than manager one
Don’t accept mediocrity
Poor performance and trajectory: part ways
Have you given radically candid guidance?
How is poor performance affecting rest of team?
Have you sought out second opinion?
Lies managers tell themselves to avoid firing
It’ll get better
Somebody better than nobody
A hole is better than an asshole
Transfer is the answer
Bad for morale
Be radically candid with person you are firing
There’s a lid for every pot
This job sucks for this person. Another job out there. Can I help them find it?
Good growth trajectory and bad performance
Wrong role?
Are expectations clear enough?
Personal problems?
Poor fit?

4 drive results collaboratively: telling people what to do doesn’t work
Listen, clarify, debate, decide

Part 2 tools and techniques

5 relationships: an approach to establishing trust with your direct reports
Work life integration 
Do not try to control others’ emotions
Acknowledge emotions

6 guidance: ideas for getting, giving, encouraging praise and criticism
Encourage criticism of you
You are the exception of the criticize in private rule
Ask people to criticize you publicly 
What could I do or stop doing to make it easier to work with me?
Listen with the intent to understand not to respond
So what I hear you saying is
Reward criticism to show you actually welcome it
Tell them you need to think about the criticism and schedule a time to follow up on it
Management fix-it weeks to tackle annoying issues like eng does
When giving feedback, describe Situation, behavior, impact
I’m going to describe what I’m seeing. I may be wrong, and if that’s the case, I hope you will tell me. 
Give feedback immediately 
Guidance convos can be 2-3 min total
Don’t wait to give feedback for prescheduled 1:1 or performance review
Best to deliver guidance in person
Praise in public, criticize in private
If someone makes a mistake by email, reply to them directly and tell them to reply all
Say “I think that’s wrong” instead of you’re wrong
Listen, challenge, commit
Skip level meetings so people can give feedback about their bosses (your direct reports)
Tell people you will share what they said with direct report without attribution 
What’s your manager doing well, what could they be doing better, what really sucks
Ask people to prioritize the points
Share notes with direct reports and ask for specific actions they will take and to share those to their teams for what they learned and cc you and to set up a next step meeting to review process and changes 
Do this once per year

7 team: techniques for avoiding boredom and burnout
Career conversations to ask about goal of each person
Ask people about their past
Asking about skills for future dreams
Figure out way for them to develop them
3 conversations to get to know reports
First conversation: tell me about your life
Why they made those choices
Write down motivators
Second conversation: dreams
Have them list out the skills needed for each of dreams and level of competence with each
Can then figure out plans to help them develop new skills
Third conversation: 18 month plan
Learn skills
List who does what by when
Growth management plans for each person
Bucket people into 3 buckets: great, good, not good
Ask outsider to bucket them and see if they disagree
Figure out plan for each person
Hiring process
Define team fit for job description
Skills assessment before interviewing
Firing
Promotions
Committee based
Absentee management vs partnership vs micromanagement
1:1 convos
Employees set agenda
Listen and clarify
How can I help
What keeps you up at night
Staff meetings
Review key metrics and dashboards
Public snippets of major things done by a team and working on that others read
Think time
Blocked off daily and held sacres
Big debate meeting
Not deciding, just debating
All hands meetings
Presentations
Q&As to CEO and founders
Kanban boards to make work visible
Measure activities 
Block off personal execution time
management by walking around and fixing even small problems
Clarify what you are saying

Getting started

First solicit feedback, then give praise, then give criticism
Go to questions to solicit feedback
Count to 6 silently while waiting for response
Listen with intent to understand not reply
Breathing exercise
Add soliciting feedback to 1;1 agenda

Performance review
Different from continuous developmental feedback
Key categories: Results, teamwork, innovation, efficiency
Rating choices: not ok, ok for now, good, great
Job ladders
Track non-regretted attrition for amount of underperformance
Twice per year best (once less formal and once more formal and 360)
360 better than just manager
360 best when transparent, not anonymous