Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition

The next time you spend two hours helping somebody edit an email until it’s just two sentences, don’t feel you are wasting your time. You are getting to the essence of the idea, which allows the recipient to absorb it quickly and easily. And you are teaching an invaluable skill.

Make sure that individual egos and self-interest don’t get in the way of an objective quest for the best answer.

Another way to help people search for the best answer instead of seeking ego validation is to make them switch roles. If a person has been arguing for A, ask them to start

Another way to help people search for the best answer instead of seeking ego validation is to make them switch roles.

boss’s job is often to keep the debate going rather than to resolve it with a decision. It’s the debates at work that help individuals grow and help the team work better collectively to come up with the best answer.

have a “decide by” date next to each item being debated. Then at least they know when the debate will end and the decision will be made.

Push decisions into the facts, or pull the facts into the decisions, but keep ego out

“garbage can decision-making” occurs when the people who happen to be around the table are the deciders rather than the people with the best information.

kick-ass bosses often do not decide themselves, but rather create a clear decision-making process that empowers people closest to the facts to make as many decisions as possible. Not only does that result in better decisions, it results in better morale.

The decider should get facts, not recommendations

a way that can lead to politics, and thus worse decisions. So she recommended seeking “facts, not recommendations.”

people tend to put their egos into recommendations in a way that can lead to politics, and thus worse decisions. So she recommended seeking “facts, not recommendations.”

As the boss, you do have the right to delve into any details that seem interesting or important to you. You don’t have to stay “high level” all the time. Sometimes you will be the decider.

when you are the decider, it’s really important to go to the source of the facts. This is especially true when you’re a “manager of managers.” You don’t want the “facts” to come to you through layers of management.

If you’re working efficiently, not everybody on your team is involved in every step of the listen-clarify-debate-decide process for everything—just the relevant people. Now that a decision has been reached, it’s time to get more people on board. This isn’t easy, and it’s vital to get it right.

explaining the decision is not enough, because that addresses only the logic; you have to address your listener’s emotions as well.

Be humble and invoke a “we” not an “I” whenever possible. Bragging doesn’t work, but neither does false humility.

When you know something deeply, it’s hard to remember that others don’t.

AS THE BOSS, part of your job is to take a lot of the “collaboration tax” on yourself so that your team can spend more time executing.

She was never late to a meeting with me, and she wouldn’t tolerate anyone being late to one of her meetings.