Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition

Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity

By: Kim Scott

Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt

Featuring a new preface, afterword, and Radically Candid performance-review bonus chapter, the fully revised and updated edition of Radical Candor is packed with even more guidance to help you improve your relationships at work.

Radical Candor has been embraced around the world by leaders of every stripe at companies of all sizes. Now a cultural touchstone, the concept has come to be applied to a wide range of human relationships.

The idea is simple: You don't have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor - avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy - you can be kind and clear at the same time.

Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Since the original publication of Radical Candor in 2017, Scott has earned international fame with her vital approach to effective leadership and co-founded the Radical Candor executive education company, which helps companies put the book's philosophy into practice.

Radical Candor is about caring personally and challenging directly, about soliciting criticism to improve your leadership and also providing guidance that helps others grow. It focuses on praise but doesn't shy away from criticism - to help you love your work and the people you work with.

Radically Candid relationships with team members enable bosses to fulfill their three core responsibilities:

1. Create a culture of Compassionate Candor.
2. Build a cohesive team.
3. Achieve results collaboratively.

Required listening for the most successful organizations, Radical Candor has raised the bar for management practices worldwide.

©2019 Kim Scott (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Couldn’t stand the tone the Narrator Used

While I don’t agree with all the principles in the book, there were some good points. Overall, it was a painful listen. The tone of the narrator came across as ice like and in your face. I don’t recommend listening to her at all.

Realistic and Relatable

I loved this manager toolkit in a book. The stories, examples, practical how to put the lessons into practice put this at the top of my recommendation list for all people leaders and HR professionals.

It was great until…

I’m sure I’ll be accused of “mansplaining” or because I am white, but we could deal without all the privilege talk and making George Floyd sound like a saint.

Good points made, but problematic people praised, hence the lower rating (would have been 5 stars until chapter 4)

I was soooooo happy to learn from this book and I do appreciate the information shared and agree with a lot of the principles. However, it was a big shock to hear the praise for problematic leaders-though, I don’t know if she knows they’re problematic, but it puts her advice in perspective. I like to imagine she would hear someone who would raise flags about the person she was praising. The sad reality is, as women in technology, it’s hard to know who to trust, and it’s common to be fooled by problematic people. Point is, being a good boss is complicated and I agree that being radically candid is helpful to find solutions and address problems. Also, it’s important to be selective with who you trust, and advocating for someone harmful, will radically evisorate your credibility as a good boss. All of which is a very challenging dynamic to create a safe place for people to show up as their best selves and feel safe and happy and produce results.
-your millennial friend

Insightful

It’s all about sincerely communicating not gender or race. But the concepts are valid and helpful

Great read but needs a pdf companion

Great book and interesting insights I found highly relevant to my current role. Lots of actionable advice I can immediately put into practice. Only negative was there were several tables or diagrams that were read aloud instead of being in an accompanying pdf. Reading a table aloud was totally useless and disengaging. I would have preferred a pdf to go look at as the associated section was read.

Excellent content; better as physical text

The content was incredible, and I'll be returning to this text over and over in my career and personal life. As an audiobook, it's dense and long, and definitely better to read physically and jot notes in.

A Book of Apologies and Bad Ideas

To write a book that spends so much time apologizing for previous version’s information while simply reinforcing the negativism is not what I was expecting. There are some good pointers one might use in one’s own family life, at home, in private, but in a business setting in the 2020’s this book suggests many ideas that could lead to lawsuits. Candor of this nature is on the sharp edge of the modern view of attackism in the work place. Don’t follow these guidelines in the office unless you have a strong legal team. These ideas would’ve been great in the 1950’s.

Quick read, quick results

Great stories and usable information that can be implemented today. Recommend to even the smallest of teams.

Radically candid and real

Great tools and thought provoking experiential advice for people improvement in all types of industries. Great to listen to - loaded with info.