Who would you pick as your boss?

Would you choose an aggressive and a manipulative boss who challenges you all the time and doesn't give a damn about you??

OR?

Would you rather choose a boss who is ruinously empathetic, never critical of your work and is always nice to you.?

I guess for most of us, a dream boss would be someone who is a mix of both the categories mentioned above, someone who challenges you as well as cares for you, basically, someone who gives a damn about you.?

This is exactly what Kim Scott's Radical Candor talks about - the ability to challenge directly and show that you care personally at the same time.?

Radical Candor helps you to build genuine, trusted relationships across the organisation, if implemented correctly.?

Most people are uncomfortable giving feedback as they do not want to come across as scornful and harsh.A lot of us have been told to be "professional" and "not take things personally" at work. Being professional loosely translates to being callous and leaving your humane side dormant, while at work. We've been given the same advice while giving or receiving feedback too.?

In order to give feedback that's radically candid, you have to care personally. There are no two ways about it.?

So how do you care personally and challenge directly while giving feedback??

We become receptive to feedback -? negative feedback especially, when we know it's coming from a person who cares about our well-being and has our best interests in mind.?

In the words of Kim Scott herself, "Caring personally makes it much easier to do the next thing you have to do as a good boss, which is being willing to piss people off.”?

Challenging others is difficult and seems impolite but as a boss, it's imperative to be clear about what's working and what's clearly not working.?

Radical Candor, therefore, is a combination of caring personally and challenging directly. Kim Scott has created an acronym to help people know what Radical Candor looks like in practice.?

HHIPP: “Radical candor is humble, it’s helpful, it’s immediate, it’s in person — in private if it’s criticism and in public if it’s praise — and it doesn’t personalize.” That last P makes a key distinction: For example, you may find your employee's idea unintelligent, not the employee himself/herself.?

Is Radical Candor really worth it??

If you're still concerned about adopting Radical Candor, understand that if you do not care personally or challenge directly, you may fall into the other three quadrants mentioned in the diagram below.?

Obnoxious Aggression: When you challenge but care two hoots about your people.?

Ruinous Empathy: When you care way too much but don't challenge at all and in fact sugar-coat criticism.

Manipulative Insincerity: When you neither care nor challenge and are insincere with praise and unclear with criticism.?

Initiating Radical Candor at work:?

One thing that you must understand and accept before you initiate Radical Candor at work is that you can't be radically candid all the time. You've got to let your whole team know that you're going to express what you think more clearly because you care about each person in the team.

You’ll find a lot of steps online that organisations use to initiate radical candor at work. I’m listing down steps that could work in Startup scenarios -?

1. Get management support?

HRs’ need to get the management onboard before implementing this change. Once the management is onboard, you could cascade it down to the team leads/managers.?Make the managers the custodian/ambassadors of the change here. Maybe get radically candid with them too ;)

2. Build a shared concept and try it with different teams

Share examples of what was done in the past and build some vocabulary around this.Link behaviours to illustrate Radical Candor better.

3. Guidance vis-a-vis Feedback

Feedback sounds preachy and sanctimonious whereas focused guidance is something that most of us would love to receive. Bosses must focus on the same and instead of waiting to give “feedback” during appraisals, employees should be guided as and when required. Managers should be equally open to receiving guidance and encouraging it, in fact.

4. Embrace discomfort

Too often we have been told to stay mum instead of saying something that may seem impolite and “not nice”. Giving and receiving feedback, especially negative feedback may seem daunting and uncomfortable but choosing to stay mum could be detrimental not only to the team but also to someone’s career. So, as a good boss, it’s important to care personally enough to challenge the employee directly.

5. Stay committed

It’s always easy to initiate a new concept; what makes it challenging is to be at it, to be committed to it, especially in the case of Radical Candor, as it’s something that needs to be worked on continuously; it’s a work in progress and will continue to remain so.

Unlike the famous Feedback Sandwich, Radical Candor is humane in its approach and encourages candidness which was grossly missing in the former.

As Adam Grant rightly pointed out, “When you start and end with positive feedback, it’s all too easy for the criticism to get buried or discounted.”

Move beyond Feedback Sandwich, Radical Candor is the way to be!