Radical CandorPrevious | Books | Film | Index | 日本語 | Pics | Training | Next |
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3 July 2024 - Długołęka
Kim Scott's book Radical Candor has had a marked effect on the tech community, but mostly focuses on the above two-dimensional graph with caring personally on one axis and challenging directly on the other. Radical candor requires both and much of Scott's book describes examples when one or both is missing in business interactions. The underlying premise is, of course, that all business interactions have the potential to be collaborative. Challenging without caring she labels obnoxious aggression, and everyone has probably had a boss that falls into this category because it's the second most effective form of interaction in a business setting. Other people may call you an asshole, but things get done. It's also important to note that each of these four quadrants applies to bosses, employees and colleagues. And no one's interactions are always in the same quadrant. Some days the person striving for radical candor falls into obnoxious aggression or ruinous empathy. Ruinous empathy is caring without challenging, that is, caring so much about a person's feelings that you accomplish nothing. In a business setting this worse than obnoxious aggression, and as a boss if you are ruinously empathetic to a failing employee, everyone else will see it and likely lower their efforts accordingly. The worst quadrant to be in is maniuplative insincerity - not only do you not care, but you're not challenging either. An obnoxiously aggressive boss can push people into this quandrant with constant belittling. Overall I think Kim Scott's framework is a good one form understanding business interactions and how we can make them more effective, but I think her book about it is unnecessarily long-winded. Still worth a read though.
