Challenge Directly and Care Personally

Dear Essentialists, 

This week I sat down with the author of Radical Candor, Kim Scott, on the What's Essential podcast.

At an early point in Kim's career, she had so many responsibilities she wasn't doing any of them well. Instead of continuing to do a mediocre job on many things, she decided to have a prioritization conversation with her boss.

Kim identified the three most important things she was working on. She told her boss in order to do these things well there were many other things she wouldn’t be able to do. Kim needed her boss to help her feel good about not doing those other things. To her relief, her boss agreed. Kim’s productivity, to say nothing of her happiness, soared. 

Listen to my conversation with Kim and discover how you can balance caring personally with challenging directly.

How can you have an effective Prioritization Conversation?

1. Every day answer the question, "What's the most important thing I need to do today?" 
2. Initiate a conversation with your manager. But speak in terms of your manager’s agenda (not your own). 
3. Ask for your manager's support. 

Read more here from an article I wrote for HBR. 

Remember: You can’t negotiate if you don’t know what you want.

Thank you, really thank you, for reading,

Greg

p.s. Feeling burned out at work? I recently spoke with Fast Company about how to talk to your boss about it. Read it here.

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