Radical Candor

Publisher's Summary

Now a New York Times bestseller 

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 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. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section 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 bestseller 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 bestseller 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 bestseller Drive)

Very good content, rough narration

The book is largely a collection of very good common sense practices for modern managers. Insightful with many examples. Not every author has the voice, pace, and tone for narration... hers become noticeable after an hour and detract from the content.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Awesome

I listened to this via audio and then bought the hard copy for reference. Kim does an awesome job of iterating and reiterating key points to managing people, work relationships and yourself to achieve success. Her frank style with lots of examples were clear and easy to comprehend. There are new concepts woven in with more classic ones and ones that are probably in your head as common sense, but in a way that feels very actionable. I will listen to this again.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Good content - bad narration

For a book about direct feedback, I am surprised that nobody was radically candid with Kim Scott about her narration abilities. This book has some good lessons but I had to stop listening after a few chapters of this monotone, nasally narration. She should have used a professional narrator!

15 of 16 people found this review helpful

Good book but hard to listen to.

Great content but I found the authors voice very hard to listen to for long. I think it was a bad call to have the author read the book. The quality of the content was overshadowed by the voice.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

So helpful!

As a newer manager who wants to be "nice," I found the advice in Radical Candor to be especially helpful. Hearing it in Kim Scott's voice was like having her there to coach me through it.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

Great content. Delivery?

I love everything about the content in this book, and generally prefer the author reading, but it was a bit choppy. In fairness, mine would be decidedly worse in delivery...she’s clearly brilliant, she’s just not a professional voice actor.

Great stories and lessons though. Will likely buy the book and go through it again.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

A must read for all managers, leaders and entrepreneurs

Addresses the problems of how to generate a culture of being candid. This commonsense approach along with the actionable "how to" is sorely needed in today's extremely over dramatic culture of political correctness. A field manual on how to navigate the rules and the relationships of your direct reports. A how-to guide in developing your entire workforce.

Beyond that it was an interesting story that compares how radical candor can work in two extremely different organizational cultures. As in the do it now and then "ask for forgiveness" culture of Google and the precise and design "Measure twice cut once " orientated culture of Apple.

A must read.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Excellent First Half

Any additional comments?

The first half of this book offers great recommendations that could apply to any workplace, but the second half is dedicated to specific recommendations for large corporate workplaces. This might cause you to lose engagement if you don't work in that type of environment, but it was still fairly interesting. The quality of the first half of the book alone makes this one worthwhile.

I think this audiobook would have benefited from a professional reader or from more editing, as the reader (the author) stumbled over her own words at times and was a little unclear at times.

21 of 25 people found this review helpful

Solid advice. Way too long/repetitive. Soul crushing narration.

I wish the author would have received some radical candor from her publisher and editor.

33 of 40 people found this review helpful

Mostly Amazing

I read this book before bed, and listened during my commute, so I was able to blaze through it very quickly, and loved it. Much of what Kim Scott had to say about Radical Candor felt a lot like common sense to me (fortunately, I'm already doing a lot of what she suggests), which was great, as it reinforced those actions. I also learned a lot about a handful of things I was doing wrong (such as holding on to my criticism or praise until the next 1 on 1) and taught me several new tricks. Overall, a fantastic read.

This is, however, more proof that authors shouldn't read their own work. Kim Scott is a marvelous speaker. I've enjoyed several videos featuring her. And there are shining moments within this audiobook where she is talking to us, not reading. However, the majority of the book it sounds very much like she's reading to us. Very halting and unnatural. Not unpalatable by any means, but this great book would have been much better served with a professional voice actor.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Brilliantly relevant and effective

I own hundreds of business books, from those rooted in economics and science, classics like Napoleon Hill/7xHabits/BlueOcean strategy, magazines like the economist/HBR/Forbes and a host of other interesting and thought provoking titles covering teams, strategy and management. As a relatively young CEO I'm always on the lookout for new knowledge, models and innovative strategies.

It's fair to say that a when I read many books I find myself thinking "yep" "obvious" "fine" a and the obvious question - how? How do I do this? How is his relevant?

Without going into the details, this is one of very few books where rather than answer with implausible scenarios or motivational ideals (e.g. Realize your dreams) - this book kind of serves as a literary mentor. It's real world and *convincing* examples - because they're real - do far more to help you learn and improve than any reference material or evangelistic title ever would.

Overall - this book is excellent. Evidenced by the fact that I rarely offer reviews but this was truly excellent. If mentoring is possible through an audiobook, this is it.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great read for any manager

Wether in tech, design, development... or not at all, you should find something useful from this book, especially if you manage people. Even if you don't manage directly, radical candor is something anyone could apply and benefit from!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Crisp, clear, to the point, no nonsense

Finished it in 2 straight sittings, now going to buy the physical copy too. It lives up to its expectation, nowhere did I feel that I don't know something it (the book) talks about, Kim's case studies are bang on, they lend so much support to an experimenter like me, I drew a lot of reassurance about my methods of bringing a sea change in the team's culture and thereby projecting it as a template for others - that it works. Every leader ( even the ICs) should have it in their bookshelf, it's so worth your time. Congrats and thanks to Kim for bringing it out for larger audience. Wonderful and gripping performance in all.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great how to manage guide

I definitely enjoyed this book and I will purchasing a hard copy to have it as reference. The downside of the audiobook is that you miss out on the diagrams, but the narrator does a good job of describing them. There are many practical tips that can be quickly implemented to your team throughout the book. In addition, anecdotes are harmoniously mixed into the tips to provide color to the book.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great practical advice. Simple tools and honest personal examples.

I really enjoyed this book. Full of great advice in that it feels right and reflects what I have probably learned the hard way but presents it in a well structured and codified way. The examples include honest reflections of the author’s previous mistakes.

The only downside for me was the quality of the narration. It might grate a little (particularly for British ears) but don’t let this put you off. Compared to the quality of the content this is only a minor point.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Some useful leadership insights. Grating narration

Some interesting and useful theories. Not overly long like most business books. More applicable to those in corporate roles but I did find a number of takeaways for smaller companies too.

I found Kim Scott's voice pretty grating, so check out the sample before deciding if you want to listen to her for 9 hours. It would really benefit from a professional narrator

great book, but overbearing delivery

really great book. but the reading is rather like being shouted at, worth it tho

Decent book brutal narrator

Why do authors think they should read their own books? Sorry but the narration is brutal....