Radical Candor

Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity

By: Kim Scott

Narrated by: Kim Scott

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Find the fully revised and updated edition of Radical Candor on Audible.

Now a New York Times best seller

This program is read by the author.

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 developed 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 its obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging its ruinous empathy. When you do neither its 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 listener; 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 Kim Scott (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Radical Candor is packed with illuminating truths, insightful advice, and practical suggestions, all illustrated with engaging (and often funny) stories from Kim Scott's own experiences at places like Apple, Google, and various start-ups. Indispensable." (Gretchen Rubin, author of New York Times best seller The Happiness Project)

"Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives. Kim Scott's insights...will help you be a better leader and create a more effective organization." (Sheryl Sandberg, author of the New York Times best seller Lean In)

"Kim Scott has a well-earned reputation as a kick-ass boss and a voice that CEOs take seriously. In this remarkable book, she draws on her extensive experience to provide clear and honest guidance on the fundamentals of leading others: how to give (and receive) feedback, how to make smart decisions, how to keep moving forward, and much more. If you manage people - whether it be 1 person or a 1,000 - you need Radical Candor. Now." (Daniel Pink author of New York Times best seller Drive)

Leadership Practices that Everyone Should Know

As a young leader I was looking for guidance on how to give difficult feedback, so I listened to this book. I have gotten so much more out of it. This is about building a culture of caring and direct feedback that in return acts as the foundation of a strong team. Everyone, not only leaders, should read/listen to this book. While Kim's experiences are in valuable and I am so grateful that she chose to share them with the world, I really had to push past her narration. Specifically, the tone of her voice and cadence of speech was difficult for me enjoy. I increased to 1.5 speed and it helped a lot.

Great Material, Suffers From Author's Narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Radical Candor to be better than the print version?

I've never read the print version but I always have much better retention with listening than reading.

Who was your favorite character and why?

There really were no "characters" per se. It was a business/personal development book.

What didn’t you like about Kim Scott’s performance?

Very grating, monotone delivery. It would have benefited greatly from a professional female narrator because the material was excellent and well organized.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

N/A

Awesome + Applicable

Would you listen to Radical Candor again? Why?

Absolutely. In fact, I'm planning on it. It is packed with great insight backed up by clear examples. Wonderful storytelling and perspective. Kim killed it.

Great insights for the modern manager.

nice fresh new approach two management in the modern era. Lots of great simple easy to understand tips that are very implementable. definitely worth the read.

great book! very insightful perspective

great book! love it. sped up the audio by .25 to make it go by quickly and still sounded natural. I enjoy the many stories the author told and the breakdowns of how to implement. she kept it to the point and got all her ideas across well. I plan to read it again and think it will help me with some blockers I've been feeling at work.

Learned a lot, however, some parts were flat

This was a very helpful book, particularly at the beginning in terms of helping understand your own biases, and avoiding traps in giving feedback. I highly recommend this book for everyone, not just most people. I think what fell flat for me were two things:
1) Some parts of the book felt monotone, it's a pretty dense listen when the reader hardly gives any inflection in their voice. It can become easy to drift off and not listen intently, so I had to force a priority to only listen to this one when it had my full focus
2) This may come across as uninclusive, and I am all about inclusion, I lead a few DEI initiatives across a few organizations, but the section about how to speak to women felt forced and drawn out. While an important topic, I did not feel like it needed so much density

a great study guide for your leadership book case

a great study guide for your leadership book case; leadership I's a journey and the author's stories are very real

Good mgmt advice, terrible reading

This is my 100th audiobook from Audible— I only say that because this is by far the worst reading I’ve come across so far. No offense to Ms Scott, but this book needs a professional reader and a more professional audio editor. The cuts are pretty glaring, and overall it sounds like a grade school kid being forced to read in front of the class. That’s shocking, since usually the authors are the best readers. They know the material and theyre passionate about it! Not here.

Aside from the performance, there’s some great management advice in here. It’s heavily tilted toward tech management and handling small teams you’d encounter in the startup world, but there are definitely good take home concepts for management at every level.

Basically, it boils down to understanding your team’s motivations and helping foster sincere communication to simultaneously advance their goals and those of the organization. No shocker there— when knowledge workers feel heard and appreciated and invested-in, they tend to work better.

The examples are backed up by the authors experiences at Apple and Google, so this is by no means cross-spectrum advice.

good theory

I love the concepts - I in fact naturally adopt most of them. Some of the implementation guidance should be carefully examined.

Should be a management 101 resource

Kim takes you on a journey of learning, a fly on the wall getting insights into how big organizations like Google and Apple creates powerful teams and how you can build the right kind of relationships to bring out the best in your people. I finish this book challenged to challenge more, armed with tools to guide and measure my success and a new excitement to serve those who report to me.