Radical Candor: what is that?
One of our values at Pipefy is being radically candid in communicating and giving feedback to each other. This shapes our culture into a place that celebrates being honest and frank; always respecting others and raising the bar on how we should behave and execute.
Although the term ‘radically’ may seem exaggerated, it composes a methodology that can improve your work environment.
Do you know what the “Radical Candor” methodology is?
This methodology was designed by Kim Scott, a former leader in many companies such as Google and Facebook, and also a former CEO of her own startups. During her career, Kim has failed and succeeded as a leader in different situations. She had the opportunity to study and understand how amazing leaders could lead their teams to reach success and happiness.
After studying and understanding that, she came up with this methodology. According to Kim Scott’s book, Radical Candor refers to the “idea that you should be honest with the people you work with, practically all the time”. The combination of “challenging directly while caring personally” is the essence of Radical Candor.
How can I challenge my team?
Challenging directly involves telling people in caring and non-judgmental language when their work is falling short. Challenging people generally "pisses them off", but it is the way you can help them to improve, and to show you care.
In this sense, caring personally means demonstrating that you “give a damn” about the people you work with. It’s about acknowledging that we have personal lives and dreams, and getting to know one another based on real conversations. Only when you care about the whole person with your whole self you can have a true relationship.
“Most people do care, but fall short simply because they fail to demonstrate it.”
That’s why the methodology is based on how teams communicate, especially how leaders give feedback to their teams. It is also about how one can nurture an open communication culture in the organization, so everyone can give feedback to their leaders as well. This is considered good guidance.
But how can I do that?
The framework below demonstrates how we communicate ideas. The axes are “care personally” and “challenge directly”.
It’s important to share the critical messages — it can be a praise or a criticism — that will make other professionals grow and the team to improve performance and behavior. It is kind and helpful.
The other quadrants teach us about other types of communication that happen inside organizations. When you are not experiencing radical candor, you can fall into:
- Obnoxious Aggression: It’s praise that doesn’t feel sincere or criticism that isn’t delivered kindly. It is when you ridicule someone, foster divisiveness, are cynic, and have a low level of public dialog.
- Ruinous Empathy: It’s praise that isn’t specific enough to help the person understand what was good or criticism that is unclear. Silence to avoid hurting the other person’s feelings.
- Manipulative Insincerity: It’s praise that is non-specific and insincere or criticism that is neither clear nor kind. Silence to be liked, or as self-defense.
Sometimes it happens that we communicate in a non-radical candor way. However, it is important to keep in mind that we need to work towards this ideal. So we can create a communication culture based on being sincere to colleagues, and we don’t need to be afraid of how people will react or of any retaliation.
Keep in mind
Being radically candid is not an excuse to be a jerk. You can’t communicate in a mean and non-respectful way, or talk about someone’s private life — it is all about work. It is also about working as a team that is respectful and wants to raise the execution bar.
That’s why Radical Candor is one of our values. We care about and value each other. We want us all to succeed and be the best version of ourselves. So it is important to be our true selves at work and having space to give feedback to anyone in the company. It doesn’t matter if it is a colleague, your manager, or the company’s CEO.
By the way, we’re hiring. Take a look at our open positions here.
