Radical Candor — The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss

The single most important thing a boss can do, Scott has learned, is focus on guidance : giving it, receiving it, and encouraging it. Guidance, which is fundamentally just praise and criticism, is usually called “feedback,” but feedback is screechy and makes us want to put our hands over our ears. Guidance is something most of us long for.

If the vertical axis is caring personally and the horizontal axis is challenging directly , you want your feedback to fall in the upper right-hand quadrant. That’s where radical candor lies.

“Radical candor is humble, it’s helpful, it’s immediate, it’s in person — in private if it’s criticism and in public if it’s praise — and it doesn’t personalize.”