Radical Candor

At Kissflow, we have steering committees consisting of core product individuals who take charge of managing key activities for their respective modules, instead of relying solely on the unit head or the People Operations team. During a recent steering committee meeting, I suggested implementing strategies to foster innovation and provide…

Beware! — Ernest Adams and I talked about the dangers of Self-Righteous Shaming, and the different personas it can take. As always, feedback welcome! It’s the responsibility of upstanders to intervene when they notice bias, prejudice or bullying. But attempting to coerce people into changing their attitudes or behavior by indulging in…

We’ve all been there: the lengthy presentation finally ends, and the presenter anxiously greets the silence in the room. “Does anyone have any questions?” they ask eagerly, pausing for 3–5 seconds before shuffling papers and clearing their throat. “Well alrighty then, glad we’re aligned!” But the thing is, you did…

Look, you could waste all your time worrying about these Applicant Tracking Systems, figuring out how to game the system, how to sprinkle the right keywords into your resume like a digital fairy dust. But let me tell you something, it’s not going to land you the job. It’s like…

And what to do about it — One of the most perplexing management dilemmas is when a person who ought to be taking on more and more and performing better every day is instead screwing up or just doing a lousy job. I’ve seen this happen for five different reasons that are worth parsing. 1. The wrong role can lead to poor performance Sometimes you will…

The first step is to listen more and talk less — Certainly part of why Steve Jobs “always got it right” was that he was a genius. You can’t operationalize or imitate genius. But genius was only part of the story; there are plenty of geniuses with brilliant ideas who can’t turn them into anything tangible. More important than genius was…

Luke Skywalker offers valuable lessons for entrepreneurs and VCs in The Last Jedi — Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi, garnered mixed reviews from audiences, but the most powerful reaction may have come from Mark Hamill, the actor who has portrayed Luke Skywalker since the original Star Wars release in 1977. …

Push back on bias — The pressure to be silent comes in a dizzying array of disguises, internal and external. Here are some common excuses or rationalizations I’ve used for remaining silent when it would have been better for me to speak up. My purpose in writing this is not to tell you that you…

Be HIP, or HHIIPP. — A good rule of thumb for guidance is praise in public, criticize in private. Public criticism tends to trigger a defensive reaction and make it much harder for a person to accept they’ve made a mistake and to learn from it. Public praise tends to lend more weight to the…