3.0 KiB
Chapter One
The two parts of radical candor are: care personally, challenge directly.
Caring personally can be accomplished by "bringing your whole self to work". Bring your whole self to work means caring about people. It may mean being hated--even though you care deeply, personally about everyone on the team!
The hardest part about challenging directly is not giving it to others, but creating the environment where they can give it to you. This may make you angry at them and can be hard to deal with!
Being radically candid is not accomplished by simply starting your feedback with "let me be radically candid with you"! You have to care personally. It also does not mean saying everything you want to. A good rule of thumb is to leave three things unsaid every day.
Radical candor is not about endless communication that exhausts introverts. It's not about endless activities together to "build team". It's simply being human.
You may need to adjust what this means by country, team, company, etc. Not every "radically candid" practice will translate directly as you apply it in different contexts.
- In Israel, respect and caring personally was shown by being extremely direct and even aggressive in communicating with each other
- In Japan, it was more about being persistently polite
Chapter Two
Creating a culture of open communication
Caring personally and challenging directly = radical candor
Challenging directly without caring personally = obnoxious aggression
Caring personally without challenging directly = ruinous empathy
Neither = manipulative insincerity
A useful quip: "it's not mean, it's clear". Being clear can avoid being mean later--like firing someone after not being clear about their work early enough!
When praising, giving specific praise is best.
Most people for a "competent asshole" than a "nice incompetent". You don't have to choose between the two. You can be a competent nice manager.
Ruinous empathy doesn't work because it's aimed at making someone feel better instead of helping someone improve at their job.
Chapter Three
You have to understand what motivates each person on your team--how does their job fit into their life goals?
In WWII the US Air force started to bring their best pilots home to train the next ones. This lead to finally defeating the Nazi air force because they tended to fly their aces until they were shot down.
I would say that Justin Strandburg is a "rock star" (rock of Gibralter type rock, not Guns 'n' Roses rock star) and that Ezekiel Pierson is more of the super star. Ezekiel is ambitious, rising quickly, learning a lot.
Rock stars need to be recognized as valuable to the company--they get a lot done--and not disrespected for being "b players". I should be careful to no try to promote them, if they are happy in their current jobs. We don't want to fall into the Peter principle where workers are promoted to the position of least competence.
Super stars need to be continually challenged.