Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity

All in all, “Radical Candor” is easy and entertaining to read and requires no particular background to use and comprehend. Most importantly, the key methodological part of Scott’s thought – the 4 distinct types of behavior – is quite solid and easily applicable in a wide variety of business and personal situations. Using the Radical Candor approach, one can assert themselves as proactive and helpful boss, colleague, and person. 

The book’s description of modern contemporary culture at top-performing companies such as Google and Apple is also very accurate — to no surprise, as the author was actively involved at both corporations.

While many of the concepts depicted in “Radical Candor” are intuitively understandable, Scott, in our opinion, relies too much on personal anecdotes and “common sense” approach – which constitute the vast majority of evidence and examples. We would have liked to see more proof from various sciences (such as economy, theory of management, and especially psychology), history, as well as from experience of other businesses. While the author uses examples from Apple and Google, they too line more with her personal experience at these companies, and not from outside observations. 

Moreover, the book also focuses on the bigger picture, and does not go into enough details regarding more nuanced situations. For example – how to behave yourself, if your boss does not believe in employees challenging them? Such situations can be quite perilous, especially to those without significant positions of power within the organization.  

Finally, while the advice given by the author can be quite useful for predominantly white-collar industries and companies (such as Google and Apple, which Scott uses so frequently for demonstration), it cannot be realistically applied in many other spheres — whether it be due to the need of more traditional hierarchy, reliance on low-skilled labor, or in less-developed markets. 

From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it and your obligation. 

Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor. 

Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring it’s obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging – it’s ruinous empathy. When you do neither it’s manipulative insincerity. 

This simple framework can help you build better relationships at work, and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader: creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism), building a cohesive team, and achieving results you’re all proud of. 

Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues. 

The book is directed, by the author’s own confession, almost exclusively towards bosses and higher-ups. However, other managers and employees can benefit from this book and apply Scott’s methodology in their professional and personal lives. If you want to learn more about corporate culture at Google, check out our review of Laszlo Bock’s excellent “Work Rules!”.