Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition

Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity

By: Kim Scott

Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

The most frustrating part of Israeli culture

I lived in Israel for three months in college. The painful bluntness of some things people said to me there still stings to this day. For example, while checking out at the grocery store, the clerk looked with disgust at my selections and said, "no wonder you're so fat." When I have brought this up with Israeli friends, they emphasized that this was part of the familial nature of Israeli culture. Fair enough, but I hated it. As I listened to the first parts of this book, I began to get a suspicion that this book was encouraging me to emulate these very same behaviors. And then there it was: she got the idea for this in Israel, listening to a boss eviscerate someone. This book is not good advice--even, and especially, if you like your colleagues. There are many tools in a leader's toolbox. For most people, the strategy in this book should not be one of them.

Great business communication book

Good, solid communication book. Novel framework, timeless advice, relevant & entertaining anecdotes.

In response to some other reviews, I didn't think the intro was whiny or that there was excessive name-dropping.

I took off a star because there really should be an accompanying PDF accessable from the ToC. That might seem petty, but this book has several charts that the narrator had to describe instead of reference. Not a big deal for ones that don't have many elements, but not all fall into that category.

The narrator reminds me of Kitty from Dharma & Greg.

Odd Beginning in Revised Ed but Stick with it

The beginning was a little off-putting because the author was just complaining about ignorant/ill reception or demonstration of the intent of her book. For those of us that hadn’t read the first one, it felt like an awkward place to start.

Once the book began outright, it held a lot of great information. I suppose I can understand how some wouldn’t catch on, but I felt it was very articulate and that it’s practicable guidance for anyone...even for those just working alone on themselves.

Bleghhhh

Rubbed me the wrong way. Only made it halfway through the first chapter. Maybe I’ll try again later.

Stopped listening after the author tried to justify verbal abuse

It was going well until the author defended an angry outburst by an Israeli boss towards their engineer. She says she tried to “understand the culture” better. I have been at a receiving end of such outbursts and it is just PLAINLY wrong. There is no nuance to it.

Given how popular this book is, it will just add fuel to the fire of toxic management in Silicon Valley!

We need better authors for the younger generation of managers who have higher standards.

Candid, Empathetic and Clear

This is a real 'How To' from someone who's done it at different levels and in varying settings.
Kim's experience is tangible and prescriptive while at the same highly humanized.
Her experience at Google, Apple and Juice touts the best of each of these bastions of modern day management excellence, which often present as infallible, however she provides a bird's eye view of some of their limitations and where their philosophical tenets start to falter as organizations scale.
Kim shows a great deal of ownership and vulnerability in her candor and gives clear step by step instructions on how to implement radical candor.
I have only read the revised version. However, from the introduction, I think her revisions address some key misinterpretations of the original book. For that reason, I recommend the revised version of the book.
This is another invaluable read for any leader (whether in management or an individual contributor) who wants to gro themselves and their organization in an honest and caring way founded on FAIRNESS.
Great book.
Regards,
DG

Good fundamental concept - terrible execution

The concept of the book is simple and powerful - folks who are avoiding conflict because they care about their relationships would benefit from being more direct; folks who are direct and blunt need to be sure they actually care about the people they are direct with.

The tools, examples, and anecidtes in this book were terrible examples of what the model is trying to explain, and are more likely to encourage toxic behavior than prevent it (especially the bonus chapter on performance management). The narration felt very self assured and borderline condescending, and lacked the emotional vulnerability needed to be able to relate to Kim's personal stories.

Overall, I think Kim has created a useful tool that can generate exceptional performance breakthroughs - but only when coupled with her consulting practice to personalize it to a specific person's needs and environment. As narrated, I believe this book could simply be re-titled "Confessions of a barely reformed jerk - how to justify and systematize toxic behavior".

Middle manager mediocrity

I’m a middle manager with direct reports only sometimes but not always. I learned more about what my supervisors can do differently than what I can do. Wish there’d been more about followers and team members, and not just leaders.

Painful stories of the entitled

Sounds like Kim Scott is a hard worker, good for her. Her advice and stories are out of touch with reality. Glad she is not my neighbor, this is hard to listen to.

Radical candor done well. narrated well.

I recommend this for all people managers.. especially those just getting started. The silicon valley company cultures quoted in the book make the book interesting 🙂