Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity - Radical Candor

There isn't anything new in this book, it's a repackaging of ideas developed by better authors. She rips off more then half of the material and relabeled it as her ideas never crediting the original author.The story telling is weak, mostly self aggrandizement of the authors education, world travels, and positions held in prominent companies. It's a parade of self appointed awesomeness. Do yourself, and your credibility a favor by passing up on this hack.

Eh. I feel like this could all be condensed in to an article. I didn’t find it too inspiring. I found it a little hard to get through, there were a lot of name dropping that I simply didn’t care for. I found this a bit repetitive and honestly a bit dangerous in the wrong managers hands.

I've worked with Kim at Google and I can assure you her success is no accident. She is a kick-ass person and boss, and I loved her book. My worse performance area as a manager was giving actionable development feedback, and she has does an incredible job explaining how to handle this important aspect of the job, with great examples. Too bad I retired before I had a chance to try it!

One of the best books on management and leadership I have read. I recently became a manager of managers and found this book very timely and accurate. The book is specific with advice as well as examples. I will re-read this one and also buy for my managers to learn from and incorporate.

I have read 50+ management books and have never been moved to write a review, but the reviews posted so far for Radical Candor do not frame this amazing book properly or portray its ubiquitous utility clearly. Not only is it the best ever(!) book on being a boss and how to manage,but also it is the best book on how to craft a corporate culture.. A habit of candid caring conversation changes not only your corporation, but your entire world. I think the book deserves at least 7 stars and all the non-fiction book awards for the year.
Barry Brooks, MD

I have read 50+ management books and have never been moved to write a review, but the reviews posted so far for Radical Candor do not frame this amazing book properly or portray its ubiquitous utility clearly. Not only is it the best ever(!) book on being a boss and how to manage,but also it is the best book on how to craft a corporate culture.. A habit of candid caring conversation changes not only your corporation, but your entire world. I think the book deserves at least 7 stars and all the non-fiction book awards for the year.
Barry Brooks, MD

This book is a comprehensive playbook for the best management practices in Silicon Valley - taken directly from Kim Scott's incredible experience at Google and Apple. If you are looking for a way to lead teams in today's world, look no further! Kim's authentic stories about her own successes and failures as a manager, humanize a manager's role and demystify the simple steps you can take to improve team morale and business results. No one has more radical candor than Kim Scott, which is why she's advised the best and brightest executives in the technology industry. Now everyone can have Kim's secret sauce - her wisdom, humor, humility and practical suggestions for being a killer boss and leader. This book is a compelling, entertaining and useful read. Every global training team should buy a copy for first-time and tenured company leaders.

I love this book, every boss needs to read and practice it. The ultimate goal of radical candor is to achieve results collaboratively that you could never achieve individually. This is the culture of guidance that Kim talked about. You do this by creating an exemplary team that embodies the Radical Candor ethos by caring personally and challenge directly. As a result your team can be firing on all cylinders; developing a self-correcting quality and problems are solved even before you are aware of them.

This is a great book for new managers like myself. It offers a different perspective on management and managing teams in contemporary companies. It clearly shows that Kim knows all the hardships of a new manager and gives some hands on advice which will GREATLY help during your first year as a manager.

Kim has taken the leadership styles from her startup days and major companies like Apple and Google and combined her expertise into an easy to follow step by step guide to leading people. Kim's storytelling ability really allows the reader to remember the lessons that formed the heart of the Radical Candor philosophy, from her "Um" story at Google, to teaching her team to directly challenge the status quo in Japan, to drinking vodka in Russia.

I've always wanted to be a good boss that can achieve great results, be empathetic, not be a jerk, or push my biases on to anyone else. Kim's guide on caring deeply about the people you work with, asking for criticism before giving it, and being candid with your direct reports is a framework any leader can follow for success.

This isn't just a framework for leadership but a framework for getting the most out of your relationships both professionally and personally. If your human...you should read it.

A good read on managing and focused on people, recommended if you are a manager or help others manage. This book takes a teaching and mentoring approach to management, very much of the school that managers primarily exist to help the people on their team. The advice is both practical and actionable, with specific advice for running 1:1s and meetings, and focused how to encourage conversations where people strive to improve themselves as well as helping others.

One of my favorite parts, quoted from the book: "The ultimate goal of Radical Candor is to achieve results collaboratively that you could never achieve individually ... A culture of guidance ... An exemplary team ... self-correcting quality whereby most problems are solved before you are even aware of them ... Don't start by bossing people. They'll just hate you. Start by listening to them."

This book is really great! I've been listening to the Radical Candor podcast for the last few weeks, so have been getting a great preview of the information in this book from Kim Scott and Russ Laraway (I highly recommend the podcast too). I feel validated by the information about the importance of caring personally and I could do so much better in challenging directly. It's the hard part of the equation for me. I'm afraid of saying the wrong thing or damaging our relationship. Those fears give me an excuse to procrastinate indefinitely. The important message of this book is that if you care about the people you supervise, you will challenge them directly. It's your responsibility, but more importantly, it will help them much more than if you stay silent or only mention their positive qualities. There are many practical tips and great examples from Kim's career. I bought the audible.com and kindle editions on the first day the book was released. I listen to the audio version while driving or at home. I like the kindle edition because I can follow along the audio and highlight in the e-version. But, this book is so good that I also bought the paper edition.

This book is an amazing management tool while also being a fun and fast read. I highly recommend it to anyone who leads or manages people.

Of course the headline idea of combining "Caring Personally" with "Challenging Directly" is a powerful one and something that's helped me become a better leader. What surprised me however was how many other great management ideas are packed into this one book. I think the headline undersells it - it's really a much more complete book about how to be a great boss.

One of the best books on management and leadership I have read. I recently became a manager of managers and found this book very timely and accurate. The book is specific with advice as well as examples. I will re-read this one and also buy for my managers to learn from and incorporate.

Kim has clearly outlined what is at the core of being a good boss in this book. It comes down to two simple things which are "caring personally", and "challenging directly". I feel that a book like this could easily have become very theoretical, but she has very specific, practical advise that would benefit new bosses along with people who have been doing this for a long time.

I don't read many books about management, but this one intrigued me from the start.

Love this book. As a person who is trying to decide whether I want to move into management, I think it's a very helpful read to determine how to better work with people and to give you insight into the daily struggles most managers have. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book has transformed how I approach communication at work and with friends and family. Scott's advice and tips are practical and impactful, and help make a real difference in the culture of your workplace. I would recommend this book (and often do!) to anyone in a leadership position--or those who aspire to lead in the near future.

Kim Scott’s book will make you a better leader, employee, parent and community member. Her experience at Google, Apple University and as adviser to numerous other Silicon Valley companies provided many wonderful examples of what to do to be both happier and more effective at work. Her central premise is that we should challenge people directly (being honest and not pulling punches), while still caring personally about the other person, is just the tip of the iceberg of the great advice she shares in this book. The book is well researched, easy to read, interesting and practical. It will change how we manage, and how we work.

The only reason I'm giving this a two star review is because I feel it was a genuine effort by the author to impart some wisdom to their readers. This said, what is so radical about being direct; telling the truth; and conducting yourself with some integrity? Seriously, is this really all that ground-breaking??

Also, I'm now very cautious about purchasing books from ex-Apple, Google, Facebook, etc. executives. These books are nothing short of self-promotion and marketing efforts that have two goals in mind - taking your money and satisfying a narcissistic craving for attention.

My advice is to find something better to do with your time rather than reading this book.

Radical Candor is a book you will want to read more than once. It is a unique combination of inventive frameworks, guidance for how to think about and use the frameworks, stories that bring their application to life, elaboration of how to apply them well and how they can go wrong and specific ideas and suggestions to try. All in one book. For leading. For life. Based on years of mindfulness on her journey in the big leagues of business and human effort.

From my decades of coaching of CEOs, this book focuses on the core of efforts to stimulate my clients to discover for themselves how to be a better boss as well as more content in their role. But to see so much wisdom and practical counsel in one place is persuasive of the need to read and re-read this book. This book applies to leaders at all levels of an organization.

stephen h baum

I purchased this book based off of her conversation on NPR. I enjoyed her story-telling on radio, but her book is very poorly written. I have not reached the second chapter and have already decided to put the book down based on it reading like a textbook, spending too much time talking about what the book is going to talk about. If I purchase a book, you've already caught my eye. I don't need you attempting to sell the book to me as I'm reading it.

Nothing here that’s new. Basically just packages common sense under the name “Radical Candor”. There is absolutely nothing radical about it. Also, there’s an overwhelming sense of a sales push for the author’s current venture.

Low quality recording and it is kind of "lispy". I was unable to listen to the book because the "lispy" noise/quality hurt my ears while listening. The reading is by the author and lacks any kind of emotion. Had my ears not been bleeding from the recording quality, I would most likely fallen asleep.

Buy it. Read it. Quote it at cocktail parties. This book is as straightforward as you'd expect, and as helpful. Kim Scott practices what she preaches - and it shows in her writing. We live in tricky times, communications-wise. She simplifies them. And, maybe best, reassures us that you can be human and kind while also being direct and honest. It's a business book, but secretly, it's a life book.

This is read by the author. No offense to her, but she does not in any way, shape or form have a proper reading voice. Someone should have addressed this issue before making it available for sale. Also, it's read as if she's never read it before, which is odd...like someone in school being called upon to read for the class.
The content I've listened to seems good so far, but the format is terrible.

This book presents ideas that are deeply needed in Silicon Valley. Other books focus so often on a single aspect of management and I'm glad to see the balance of honesty & warmth Kim Scott presents.

Profound, courageous, witty, and highly relevant not only in the office.

A great, helpful reference, guide, and tool.

Plus, Kim Scott writes beautifully. Radical Candor is a delight to read.

Kim Scott nails it.

Kim Scott has distilled a fresh perceptive on the Golden Rule.

I saw her present at a Qualitrics event in 2016 and have been following the development of Radical Candor ever since.

The concept is not difficult and your inner voice may tell you you don't need this book because you already do it. Don't listen to that voice. Tom Peters has said that if he gets one idea from a $20 book then it's a great investment. This book is a little less and I guarantee there is more than one thing that will help you.

Forget about the Boss part. (Unless of course you are or have teenagers and are familiar with the the term 'Like a Boss...') This book is about being a better human being and doing your part to help others be better human beings.

In the same way that Malcolm Gladwell took us beyond David and Goliath, Kim Scott obliterates the idea that 'if you can't say anything nice, [you shouldn't] say anything at all.'

If you want to live in a better world, start here.

Dale H.

As a conscientious "boss", I'm always looking for ways to engage with my team and help everyone be the best versions of themselves. I found the premise of the book appealing but it's really the wrong medium. I think this book speaks to an audience in the private sector and perhaps more particularly the tech sector where the push to innovate is coupled with intolerance for mistakes/incompetence/complacency/etc. In a public sector environment, more leeway is required, and you can't fire people because their attitude is bad...so the levers that are so often referenced in here to change the paradigm are broken when applied to public agencies. I enjoyed the read regardless, and it certainly made me wistful for some of the flexibility that exists elsewhere, but ultimately I couldn't really translate this into my workplace.

For the title of my review, I selected a phrase that Richard Tedlow expressed to Kim Scott with reference to Apple’s leadership development program. Steve Jobs’s commitment to anyone and anything “insanely great” is by now well known. I agree with Scott about the importance of establishing and then nourishing what she characterizes as “Radically Candid relationships” within a workplace environment. If mutual respect and mutual trust are the “glue” of relationships, then candor certainly serves as their preservative.

In this book, Scott focuses on two “dimensions”:

“The first dimension is about more than ‘just professional.’ It’s about giving a damn, sharing more than just your work self, and encouraging everyone who reports to you to do the same. It’s not enough to care only about people’s ability to perform a job. To have a good relationship, you have to be your whole self and care about each of the people who work for you as a human being. It’s not just business; it is personal, and [begin] deeply [end] personal. I call this dimension ‘Care Personally.’”

“The second dimension involves telling people when their work isn’t good enough — and when it is; when they are not going to get that new role they wanted, or when you’re going to hire a new boss ‘over’ them; when the results don’t justify further investment in what they’re working on. Delivering hard feedback, making hard calls about who does what on a team, and holding a high bar for results — isn’t that obviously the job of any manager? And yet challenging people is often the best way to show them you care when you’re the boss. This dimension I call ‘Challenge Directly.’”

I wholly agree with Scott about the need to understand the “perilous border” between Obnoxious Aggression and Radical Candor. “Radically Candid criticism is an important part of the culture at both Google and Apple, but it takes very different forms at the two companies. Google emphasizes caring personally more than challenging directly, so I’d describe criticism there as Radical Candid with a twist of Ruinous Empathy. Apple does the opposite, so I’d describe its culture of criticism as Radical Candor with a twist of Obnoxious Aggression.”

Asking the right questions effectively is among the most important, yet least appreciated core competencies, especially with regard to supervisors. It is also noteworthy that according to the results of major research studies of face-to-face interactions, body language and tone of voice determine 80-85% of the impact; what is actually said is only about 15-20%.

These are among the questions Scott recommends to supervisors when seeking feedback from an underperforming direct report:

o “I know you are determined to produce the results we need. What can I do to make that easier for you?
o "What do you need that you don’t have now?”
o “Have there been any unexpected problems?”
o "Any pleasant surprises?”
o “To what extent do you feel limited by someone or something else?”
o “Is there something else you would much rather be doing?”

Jony Ivie once observed, “new ideas are fragile.” The same is true of direct reports when they feel challenged or threatened.

Many supervisors demonstrate a form of “tough love” in their relationships with direct reports by setting ambitious goals and having very high standards when measuring performance. They insist on a best effort, confident their strict supervision indicates how much they care about those entrusted to their care. Other supervisors are enablers, saying or doing whatever is expedient but doing so for the right reasons.

The most effective supervisors have the background, skills, experience, and temperament to know when and how to praise when it has been earned, and, when and how to provide constructive criticism when it is needed. Some of Kim Scott’s most valuable material focuses on the “when” and “how” of each situation.

I agree with her that all supervisors can take a moment to show the people they work with that they care, really care, about what their direct reports care about at a basic human level. “You can warn them if they are making a mistake – not because you hold yourself superior to them, but because you care. You can help others on your team take a step in the direction of their dreams, and even teach them how to help you do the same. You can work together to achieve results that you’re all proud of. And when you do these things, which are absolutely in your power to do so, your Radical Candor will transform your work and your life.”

Throughout our interactions with others -- family members and friends as well as business associates –all of us need to keep in mind this observation by Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

I read a lot of business books, but this is one of those surprising books that change the way you do things forever. It’s that good. It’s very well written—fun to read, and the dialogue and stories kept me coming back to read the next chapters. It’s one of those books that you think about at work and during the day because you can’t wait to see what comes next. Also (and this is rare) the book is transformational. It doesn’t just TELL you things, it also shares principles and skills in a way that I found myself USING them without conscious planning or trying. I read, then I discovered myself applying what I learned. That’s the best kind of improvement book, one that actually results in instinctive, intuitive application.

The author uses enough clear examples that it’s almost as if the reader is practicing the skills in a workshop format. But it’s not tedious, and not fake like some kind of role-playing practice. The message is shared in story form, and it’s fun and engaging at the same time that you’re actually picking up the intended skills. Again, once you’ve read it, the skills just naturally begin showing up in daily life.

The chart in the book about how to “Get Stuff Done Without Telling People What To Do” is excellent. It cuts right to the heart of how to be an effective leader. I recommend it to anyone who is a boss of any kind.

Radical Candor book is refreshing, surprising, and effective. It’s not a typical business book. In fact, I it’s an instant classic. My copy will be on the shelf with Good to Great, 7 Habits, The Cashflow Quadrant, the writings of Peter Drucker, Warren Bennis, etc. Oh, and one of the best sections discusses different types of meetings and what each is good for (and not…). This segment is brilliant! Everyone who attends meetings should read it.

Note that the examples, principles and skills apply to people working in large corporations (e.g. the author worked at Google and Apple), midsize companies and small startups (where the author also has personal experience). Excellent book. 5 Stars.

There's a lot of good content here. But the author's advice isn't always consistent with the stated ideals. For example, there are many suggestions that sound like servant leadership, and many of these are solid and awesome. But there are as many or more pieces of advice advocating for a top-down, hierarchical style of management, including the author's frequent use of constructions such as "soandso reported to me" and "I had 100 people reporting to me," and so on.

I found this inconsistency puzzling. Usually when someone gives lip service to a concept such as servant leadership but behaves another way, my first question is whether they understand the concept well enough. Maybe it's an education problem. But the author appears to be highly educated and widely read, and runs a company that helps companies implement management practices, so I don't think ignorance is the answer to the puzzle.

I don't know the answer. I'll never know it. But I have had the misfortune of working with executives who understand concepts like servant leadership, and use the language fluently, but who have terrible self-awareness blind spots (aided by a lack of listening skills) that keep them from seeing just how hierarchical and non-servant they are. This is the most charitable interpretation. I hope it's the case here. Because the other situation (I've experienced) is that the executive is a sociopath, skilled at appearing to be a culture fit, but ultimately more skilled at using people for their self-enrichment and power fantasy fulfillment.

I wish I hadn't picked up this icky vibe, which other reviewers also noticed and commented on, because it made it difficult to suspend disbelief and judgment and really read with an open mind. The self-aggrandizement is just hard to get over.

Overall, the internal inconsistency of this book makes it a dangerous tome. The sort of "management bible" that can be used to justify many good practices and many bad ones. Already, in the short time it's been out, I've seen the book used by a bullying manager to deliver obnoxiously aggressive feedback labeled as "radical candor." I fear that this book will be a greater friend to legions of sharp-elbowed jerk managers than to the cowardly types who veer into "ruinous empathy" (which, in my experience, is usually a bigger problem with a company culture, and the individual manager isn't the right locus of attention).

My conclusion is that I don't think there's nearly enough attention and thoughtfulness around the "care personally" dimension of the book's core framework. Other writers and thinkers such as Fred Koffman, Thich Nhat Hanh, Frederic Laloux, Diana Chapman, Edgar Schein, and Marshall Rosenberg... to name just a few who are leagues above this book in terms of conscious attention to the human and humane elements of working well with others.

I read this book twice this year, once a few months back when I was lucky enough to get an advance copy, and, again, when my copy came from the store last week. It's on my list of the 10 best leadership and management books of all time, with the Heath's Made to Stick, Adam Grant's Give and Take, Gerstner's astounding story of turning around IBM, Kanter's Men and Women of Corporation, Catmull's Creativity INC, and Orbiting the Giant Hairball, and the few other rare gems. Why? Because the message is so on target and the book is so well-crafted. Scott not only shows the damage done by spineless and ruinous empathy and by being overly hurtful and aggressive; the book is packed with one little thing after another you can do to give (and receive) radical candor. And she not only has great stories from her experience in key roles at places like Apple and Google, my goodness, can she write. The four years she spent on this book.. and the years she spent writing a couple of novels..mean's that her powerful and fun voice, and masterful storytelling too, fills every page. I have used in classes at Stanford and tell every leader I meet that they MUST read it. Some11,000 business books are published a year.. this is the rare one worth your time.

On this book Kim Scott was able to piece together everything she has learned about business into a complete and cohesive model on how to manage based on three pillars: to care personally; to confront directly; to practice all sorts of 1:1s.

I intensively study management practices, but it wasn't until last year that I had management experience with more than five direct reports. In 2016 I started a company in which I had 20 direct reports. I tried what I now know is called a "Ruinous Empathy" approach. I thought that just caring and showing that to employees would bring open conversations to the table. Interesting thing is that people loved me, but soon things started getting out of control. That's when I started an "Obnoxious Agression" approach, fired some of them and stopped caring so much ( now I know I share great part of responsibility for what happened there). As you may have noticed both approaches lack a delicate kind of balance. That is the balance Kim Scott tries so hard to achieve with her method and I can understand perfectly why.

Here you'll find insightful quotations from world's leaders sharing their beliefs.

Moreover, you'll often find phrases on the following format: "you might think you don't have the time to___, but ___" . That means the model here presented requires an intensive focus on people. You'll need skills, time and dedication for it to work out. I can not state if it works, but it is definitely a north to follow and seems to be doing really good to me. It reminded me of the transformative experience it was reading Carol Dweck's Mindset.

Let me help you grasp what this book is really about with more concrete terms. Here, you will read about:
Hiring: getting to know the candidate behind the mask as much as possible in a short period of time.
Firing: doing what is best for the employee, not the company.
Giving/Receiving Feedbacks How to deal with biases, corporate structure, trust, openness, humility.
Putting people on the right jobs: Are the hungry for growth or for improving on what they do now?
Meetings: Establishing structured meetings with clear purposes, facilitating meetings, setting it out on a corporate agenda.

.

Dig further (Some of the books that Radical Candor reminded me)::

On conversation: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High- Kerry Patterson
On meetings: Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change- Chris Ertel ; Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable about Solving the Most Painful; Problem in Business- Patrick Lencioni ; Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days - Jake Knapp
On Productivity: Scrum - Jeff Sutherland
Getting Buy in: Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down
On Change Management: Leading Change -John .P Kotter.
Humble Conversations
Creativity - Ed Catmull

Radical Candor is an ex-Googler's book about management. Kim Scott was the manager for Adsense's sales team, and grew the team for several years before joining Apple and then working with Twitter and Dropbox. That gives her resume great credibility.

She's not afraid to illustrate the number one rule to getting ahead in big corporations: know the senior boss personally (in this case Sheryl Sandberg), and have her support you no matter how you screw up. After she joined Google (immediately as a manager, by the way --- she didn't have to work there as a leaf node), she managed to piss off enough of her team to lose several team members to transfers and departures. She writes:
The great thing about working at Google was that the company gave me a chance to fix my mistake. My boss explained exactly what I’d done wrong—and then let me hire people to replace those I’d lost. I was able to bring several people who’d worked for me at Juice to Google. (Kindle Loc. 1558)
Sounds kinda like she got rewarded for pissing off and demoralizing her existing team, doesn't it? In my experience, that was par for the course at large corporations, so don't hold it against her.

In any case, the book is actually a good one. Her thesis is that everything in management starts from relationships. Fundamentally, you have to have great relations with your team, to the point where when you provide negative feedback, they see it as being helpful, rather than becoming defensive or quitting. The tools she provides in the book to do so are labeled "Radical Candor." Her example is that if you see someone with their fly down, you should call it out instead of ignoring it and not giving them a chance to correct it. The same applies to verbal tics, annoyances, and of course, poor performance on the job. The book covers many such examples.

One of the best points of the book is that you need both "Rock Stars" and "Super Stars." The idea is that "Rock Stars" are high performers who are satisfied with their role, while "Super Stars" are constantly looking for the next challenge who will leave if you don't move them up quickly enough. This initially sounded to me like she was encouraging you to pigeon hole your employees but fortunately she mentions that the whole point of relationship building with your team is that you understand what phase of life she's in, and what she expects out of her work. She points out that because it is human nature to over-worship "Super Stars", you shouldn't actually make a big deal out of promotions:
Announcing promotions breeds unhealthy competition for the wrong things: documentation of status rather than development of skill. (Kindle Loc. 3656)
Note: Google isn't a great example: promotions were always a big deal, at least in engineering. Similarly, I'll note that Twitter had a singularly poor engineering culture, so her constant use of Dick Costolo as being a great manager kinda lost points with me rather than being the great examples she intended. Of course, Costolo himself might or might not have been responsible for Twitter's poor engineering culture, but bear in mind that her book's probably not intended to apply to engineering management.

With all that in mind, I enjoyed the book. Everything she writes about 1:1s, skip reporting, and management by walking around rings true. The emphasis on asking for feedback in order to model desired behavior (you want every employee to be constantly asking for feedback in order to improve) is first rate. The book's readable and full of specific examples and case studies.

My biggest criticism of the book is that Scott's ego-centricism means that she barely references prior work and doesn't even mention classics of management literature (I suspect that this means that she never read them!). But that in itself is not enough for me to avoid recommending this book for every manager, engineer or not.

This book should've been an article or an essay. While the basic premise is fine and the attempt to make it more easy to digest is laudable, I don't see it as revolutionary - similar approaches have been proposed numerous times in the past (although not in this 2-axis / 4 quadrants way) and the concept of giving actionable feedback and empathizing is nothing new.

Bottom line: reading the first 2 chapters should be mostly sufficient.

Holy cannoli. I've read probably 30+ books on leadership and management at this point, and I can confidently say that Radical Candor has truly been the best and most practical one yet. I thought the book would be about having direct conversations with your team, but it took me places I truly did not expect, and I — and my team — are all the better for it. Kim Scott does an INCREDIBLE job of distilling her life experiences in leadership, management and practicing radical candor into an easily digestible handbook that is positively packed with context, examples, practical tools, and most importantly, her subjective and data-backed explanations of WHY what she's suggesting is so important and impactful. After reading her book, I gave it to my team leaders, and have since experienced a powerful ripple effect that's been full of personal breakthroughs on how to have conversations with my colleagues who — prior to now — didn't feel heard, and now effectively do. I would STRONGLY recommend this book to anyone who is trying to take their leadership and management game to the next level. Even more practically, I would make sure you have a pen or pencil in hand from the moment you open the book so you can underline and take notes. It was so thought provoking for me that I had to stop repeatedly as I was reading to make a note about how something I had just read could immediately be applied to my team or something I was doing (or both). If you also have some Post-It notes, they're a great way to turn the book into essentially your tabbed guidebook for reference. Thank you again, Kim Scott, for such a phenomenal book!

A couple of years ago, I stepped into a job taking over from a string of unsuccessful managers on an account. When I looked at the team's quarterly and annual evaluations from my predecessors, they were very generic and the same from employee to employee, review to review, basically boiling down to "You're doing great!" Problem is, there were performance issues that were going unaddressed and the employees had no idea that they existed because their managers were too cowardly to be honest.

I love the concept of this book because it gives managers the tools to give frank and honest feedback without being a jerk. Whether it's dealing with someone who isn't performing or how to avoid putting a good employee on a pedestal, the author does a great job at breaking down the different scenarios a manager may encounter regarding performance and how to deal with them. You do your employees no favors when you withhold constructive criticism, but you have to find a balance between brutal honesty and spineless fluff. This book helps you find that sweet spot.

For everyone who has realized that good communication is the key to successful human relationships and that good communication is often not what we expect it to be. Scott teases out the nuances—it’s not just leadership, it’s guidance; not just when to fire but how to do it; how to be radically candid in public settings versus private ones; how we can kill with kindness in more ways than one. Knowing the how-to’s of communication is so much more valuable than just knowing we need it and getting the right balance of praise and criticism is not intuitive—here are the tactics that augment the functionality of our words. This is the reference book on how to communicate so that people, relationships, teams and businesses not only succeed but thrive.

This has to be one of the best business/management books ever- a must read for everyone who manages people at work. The key message is managers need to get, give, and encourage regular and candid guidance, and that this has to come from a place of genuinely caring about your people.

The author outlines specific steps and actions you can take to improve the level of communication and feedback within a team and create a positive culture of candor. I love how there were both tangible takeaways and steps, along with real life examples. The author uses examples from her own professional experience working in both strong and weak team cultures (including small start-ups and big names such as Google and Apple), as well as her later consultancy work.

So often business books are too heavy one anecdotes and stories without actual tips you can implement. This is a very approachable and practical "how to" guide to being a great manager. I highly recommend this book.

An excellent book that's relevant to today's work environment. I'm not in the tech space, but I am a small business owner and I found the idea very relatable especially through the examples and stories. Well-written and organized, it not only explains "Radical Candor," but is followed by suggestions on how to implement the concept. Kim Scott did a wonderful job articulating how to care personally and at the same time be an effective boss. What once can be through of as a tough juggling act with blurred lines is now clear. Being a boss is difficult but this brings the role into the modern world. Highly recommended.

The material is great and I’m enjoying the stories, but I find this book painful to listen to. The author, who has a southern accent, and just has a horrible voice for this sort of thing. It would have been five stars if she paid a professional to read it. I’m trying to make it through to the end and listen to the material despite the voice reading it.

As a first time manager, the concept of giving feedback can be scary. "Who am I to correct this behavior?" "What will they think of me?" and so on. Of course doing nothing and not managing at all is even worse. But these are the things that go through a manager's head and can block them from acting. I know this was the case for me at my early stage startup.

Luckily, I was able to meet Kim at a workshop and learn the "radical candor" approach to feedback and coaching. How giving corrective feedback didn't have to be scary and how it is actually extremely important to do so. Unblocking my ability to do so saved our sales org, and in turn, our company, by allowing us to react to market realities by changing how we sold our product - and that change came through managing sales people in a radically candid approach. Thanks Kim!

To be radical candor is to care personally and challenge directly. The book expounds on the basic ideas with new concepts (e.g. rock star vs superstar, etc.), anecdotes, tools (e.g., 1:1 meeting, Kanban Board, walk around, etc.) and a suggested plan/action steps to operationalize the radical candor framework.

This book is beneficial to anyone who wants to improve relationships, not just for supervisors/managers.

This book is amazing. As a school administrator, much of the book had lessons that can be translated into our leadership structure. The diagrams and charts make great visual representations for lessons and principles which are taught throughout the book. As an avid reader, I typically get into 30-40 leadership based books per year. While authors and leaders like Maxwell, Whitaker, Ferris, and Sinek continue to permeate the market, I have no doubt that Kim Scott will soon become a name that will be synonymous with successful leadership.

The principle that radical candor or growth is not a character trait, but rather a behavior does an excellent job of framing things as a leader. Many times we have idealistic and sometimes unrealistic expectations for our employees or co-workers and many times these expectations don't align with theirs. Treating them as behaviors rather than characteristics allows us to see the growth and potential in all people at all times.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Radical Candor provides good insight to a number of the inefficiencies that are realized when conflict avoidance is present in a workplace environment. While most workplace environments are not as liberal with free speech as a number of the environments profiled there is much to learn from the philosophy of timely and candid feedback. This book is best realized within a group setting where all members engaged in the communication have been exposed to the underlying philosophy. This book can be an effective read for anyone in a corporate setting that is suffering from ineffective relationships lacking in open and honest conversation.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book and will likely buy copies for some of my colleagues at work. The second half of the book is more prescriptive and detailed. I didn’t agree with all the tactics outlined and at times got bogged down in some meticulously detailed advice. Overall, worth owning a copy.

I've had great bosses, I've had bad bosses, I've been both to my teams at one point or another. This book is awesome at giving you tips and tricks to stay in charge but be level headed and run a team that respects and is happy to work with you. Great book, lots of content, lots of tips and tricks.

Kim Scott’s newest book Radical Candor offers business leaders a powerful guide for handling some of the toughest issues facing management. Contrary to what gets practiced in many work places today, Scott offers scores of stories to show that being candid and building trust with others, we can create teams of energized and effective employees.

Her real-life examples, show how radically candid conversations can be a leader’s most potent weapon.

Addressing her own failure as a boss once, Scott offers a “candid” story of when she avoided giving an employee real and constructive feedback. By the time of his eventual firing, she realized that by not being candid, she failed both herself and him. This experience led Scott on her mission to create workplaces of radical candor.

Radical Candor gives both leaders and employees new perspectives to manage difficult situations empathetically and create conversations that can lead to more innovation, commitment and profitable results.

Loved it

Very prescriptive

Nice framework

Story telling isn't bad

The framework is strongest

Back half is a little all over the place

A bit of a random grab of management and leadership tidbits

The best business book I've ever read. My only complaint is that it wasn't written earlier -- how much pain would that have prevented me! Anyone from a manager of a big organization to an individual contributor will find this extremely useful. Almost any tricky people-situation you will encounter is included with very tactical solutions on how to handle. Buy one for every member of your team.

Radical candor is the best framework for management and feedback in teams I've ever read. The case studies and the frameworks go together beautifully. Kim is picking up where Andy Grove left off: feedback is not optional if you want your teammates to thrive and to improve. Same goes for you as a manager. It's the most leveraged thing you can do for your teams as a colleague -- give them the info they need to be more effective. And pay attention to how the feedback lands at their ear. The concept of feedback as more than what you say -- but also how you say it -- is like gold to anyone in any organization. Pay attention to Kim Scott on this subject. She is a world class coach and mentor.

Haven’t read the book yet but it arrived with a big fat stain on the side and the whole edge is really dirty and can’t be cleaned. It was supposed to be a present and it is not really gift worth like this!

Great read. I've never been great at leadership. Nor, up until the last few years, had much opportunity to get better. It will take me a long time to become self assured enough to not worry about others perception of me (which is unhelpful or useful to leadership). Thankfully I've been a parent for 18 years which lends itself to mandatory training, so hopefully it's not an impossible task. Sadly all the experience written about is far from anything I identify with (Apple, Google, etc); but still worth reading for those without training or experience in leadership roles.

As someone who does my best to consume about 100 business books a year, I have found Radical Candor to be worth reading twice. Any and all leaders, managers and bosses, tenured or aspiring, have as much to gain from Kim Scott's wisdom as do the people with whom they collaborate. Reading (or listening to) this book provides exceptional guidance not just on how to give and receive feedback, but on how to best invest in your teams. The vulnerability of the author in sharing her own growth with real examples makes for a truly authentic and relatable read and will undoubtedly improve your effectiveness and that of your colleagues.

This book and crucial conversations should be on any supervisors reading list! It can be difficult to provide care and candor when working with a staff you really like, but isn't producing. Tis book will help you make that happen.

Kim has some interesting perspectives, and perhaps many people can make good use of her suggestions. But the book is full of unnecessary expletives and garbage language that it's practically unreadable. You don't search for diamonds in a garbage dump, and this book is full of garbage. Perhaps this is the kind of language that is used at Google and silicon valley, but it's not for me. And I cannot recommend this book because of it. The book could have been very well written without the use of such unnecessary verbiage.

Perhaps my company didn't implement it properly, but from what I gathered it is an excuse for managers to be inappropriate jerks to their employees, and to throw traditional kindness and etiquette out the window.

Might be the worst management book I've ever read. Author self agrandizes, might be the most time the word "I" has been used ever. Wish I could get the epic advise on page 143 of deliver coaching in person rather than email, rather than learning it from this book. So many opportunities wasted!

To be candid - this is an amazing read, one that I'll be recommending to my entire team to read. If you care about the people you lead and want to learn to build a culture of trust and collaboration, this is for you. I loved the real-life lessons learned from Kim's years of experience and will continue using her techniques to hone my leadership skills. Grateful for this work...

This book is amazing. It not only discusses problems but gives examples of conversations and why they are effective or ineffective. The concepts in this book are everything I was looking for on how to have effective candor in a organization to create a culture of mutual respect.

Management is an art, and teaching art is hard. It's especially hard to build a management curriculum that simultaneously speaks to first time managers and seasoned veterans. Well Kim has done it. As soon as I read Radical Candor, I knew that we had to roll it out company-wide, and the demand from managers and employees to become better at Radical Candor has been insatiable. Can't recommend highly enough.

I really enjoyed how specific Kim Scott can be with her examples and how the advice makes sense. However I wouldn't always take the right course in any given situation but now that I have these examples to lean on, I will be a better boss.

Love it all. Great read. Great insight and advice on not only the importance of creating a virtuous environment around feedback, but how to be an emotionally engaged leader as well. This isn't just for business people, or organizational leaders, or professionals. This is great insight for EVERYONE! If you have a pulse this is relevant for you!!

This book is not to be missed. The principles of radical candor have affected how I think about everything in my life -- not just career but also relationships and even people I don't know well. Especially if you're a boss in the US where we tend to be "nice" when we really need to be honest to get the right work done, this book is essential.

Anyone who is just getting into management, or who feels that they never received the training they needed on how to be a great manager, should read this book. It will be your handbook for what to do as a manager and how to do it right. And it's a fun read!

I wish that I had been given this book when I first became a manager.

I’ve enjoyed the podcast quite a bit so was extremely happy to take the time to read the book as well. It’s full of fantastic insights and anecdotes that go a long way to proving the fantastic points made in this book. This is like Dale Carnegie’s iconic book but for bosses.

Radical candor is a must read for managers or leaders in any organization. The book is fun to read and filled with tons of invaluable lessons. If you are interested in leveling up as a manager, leader, or organization the lessons provided in Radical Candor will help you setup a continuous improvement machine.

Management is an art, and teaching art is hard. It's especially hard to build a management curriculum that simultaneously speaks to first time managers and seasoned veterans. Well Kim has done it. As soon as I read Radical Candor, I knew that we had to roll it out company-wide, and the demand from managers and employees to become better at Radical Candor has been insatiable. Can't recommend highly enough.

I really enjoyed how specific Kim Scott can be with her examples and how the advice makes sense. However I wouldn't always take the right course in any given situation but now that I have these examples to lean on, I will be a better boss.

Love it all. Great read. Great insight and advice on not only the importance of creating a virtuous environment around feedback, but how to be an emotionally engaged leader as well. This isn't just for business people, or organizational leaders, or professionals. This is great insight for EVERYONE! If you have a pulse this is relevant for you!!

This book is not to be missed. The principles of radical candor have affected how I think about everything in my life -- not just career but also relationships and even people I don't know well. Especially if you're a boss in the US where we tend to be "nice" when we really need to be honest to get the right work done, this book is essential.

Feedback is one of the most difficult things to get right in a company and Kim Scott gives a clear guide of how to approach this subject. A must read for anyone looking to take their business to the next level of transparency.

Anyone who is just getting into management, or who feels that they never received the training they needed on how to be a great manager, should read this book. It will be your handbook for what to do as a manager and how to do it right. And it's a fun read!

I wish that I had been given this book when I first became a manager.

I’ve enjoyed the podcast quite a bit so was extremely happy to take the time to read the book as well. It’s full of fantastic insights and anecdotes that go a long way to proving the fantastic points made in this book. This is like Dale Carnegie’s iconic book but for bosses.

Radical candor is a must read for managers or leaders in any organization. The book is fun to read and filled with tons of invaluable lessons. If you are interested in leveling up as a manager, leader, or organization the lessons provided in Radical Candor will help you setup a continuous improvement machine.

The company where I work uses this book as justification for the leadership's Obnoxious Aggression. The author states in the book on p.25, "I regret to say that if you can't be Radically Candid, being obnoxiously aggressive is the next best thing you can do." Then she points out that most people would rather have an obnoxiously aggressive boss over one that is too nice. My employer actually pointed out this author's theory re: obnoxious aggression to excuse volatile immature behavior from leadership. It has justified / supported a very dysfunctional fearful environment.

What do you get when you mix a Self absorbed narcissist that name drops companies rather than her own ideas while stealing ideas from better authors than her and pretending she came up with them and all the while self aggrandizing? This book. Radical garbage. This seems like someone who is hacking it together metaphorically and literally while falling upwards. Just as she describes some of her other past colleagues in the first chapter.

I read this book cover to cover in two days. Wonderful and timely advice for any manager - not just in Silicon Valley and not just high tech companies. Equally good for law firm managers and farm managers in the South.

Feedback is one of the most difficult things to get right in a company and Kim Scott gives a clear guide of how to approach this subject. A must read for anyone looking to take their business to the next level of transparency.

There is not a better book out there to break down what it means to be a manager, what your responsibilities are to the people in your charge, and how to get there. Immediately after reading this book the first time I sent a copy to every manager in my circle, and then had my team work through it together. This is an absolutely indispensable book. Thank you, Kim, for doing this for us.

This book gave me a framework for implementing what I already believed, with the language I was searching for. I've practiced "Default to transparency" for some time, but Kim's distinction that candor includes BOTH caring personally and challenging directly, was instrumental to several massively transformational conversations we've had with my team since our leadership team read this book together.

I really enjoyed reading this book - it helped me define some troubles I was having as a manager. I've started structuring my 1x1 meetings with team members using some of the techniques from this book. Not only am I learning a ton of stuff about the people I manage (some of whom I've worked with for years), they are really responding positively to it. Several of them have even remarked to my boss how much they're enjoying it!