Building Trust and Empowering Teams for Success
How to combat an environment of psychological insecurity and build an open and collaborative atmosphere to get your team to work at their best
Over the weekend I was listening to a great podcast about Jiaona Zhang built her career and the concept of Radical Candor came up because she got to work with Kim Scott at Dropbox for a bit. In today’s work place, especially now with a lot of organizations not hitting their goals and pressure being turned up, there is an atmosphere of growing psychological insecurity and battening down the hatches going on. In order to really combat this, Kim Scott provides the right recipe to bring back openness and collaboration.
Radical Candor is a communication approach that encourages open and honest conversations in the workplace. It was developed by Kim Scott, who wanted to help people improve their relationships and achieve better results by finding the right balance between being caring and challenging.
"Caring Personally" means that you genuinely care about the people you work with. You want them to be happy and successful. It's like when you have a good friend and you want the best for them. In the workplace, caring personally means building trust, showing empathy, and taking the time to understand your colleagues' thoughts, feelings, and goals.
On the other hand, "Challenging Directly" means giving honest feedback and having open conversations about performance and work-related matters. It's about being clear and specific when you talk about what's going well and what needs improvement. This helps your colleagues understand how they can grow and do their best work.
Radical Candor is about finding the right balance between caring personally and challenging directly. It's like a scale: if you only care and don't challenge, it's like being too nice and not helping your friends or colleagues improve. But if you only challenge without showing care, it can be harsh and hurtful.
Implementing Radical Candor is not a one-time effort but an ongoing commitment to building a culture of open communication. Encourage your team members to embrace Radical Candor by leading by example. Foster an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas. Implement regular feedback sessions or check-ins to ensure continuous improvement and growth. Recognize and celebrate instances where Radical Candor has positively impacted the team, reinforcing the value of open and honest communication.
What about the other quadrants?
Ruinous empathy:
It refers to a communication style where individuals prioritize being kind and avoiding any form of criticism or confrontation, often at the expense of giving honest feedback. In ruinous empathy, people hold back from providing necessary feedback or challenging others because they fear that it might hurt their feelings or damage the relationship.
While empathy itself is a valuable trait, when it becomes "ruinous," it can have negative consequences in the workplace. With ruinous empathy, important feedback or constructive criticism is withheld, which prevents individuals from recognizing areas for improvement or addressing performance issues. This lack of honest feedback can hinder personal and professional growth, negatively impact results, and create a culture of complacency.
Manipulative Insecurity:
Without direct challenges or open conversations, individuals may resort to manipulative tactics to get their way or advance their own interests. This can involve using deception, manipulation, or political maneuvering instead of honest and transparent communication.
The absence of caring personally and providing constructive feedback can leave individuals feeling insecure about their roles, performance, or standing within the team. They may lack clarity on their strengths, weaknesses, or areas for improvement, hindering their growth and confidence.
This builds a lack of trust. When people do not receive direct feedback or feel that their colleagues are not invested in their success, trust erodes. This can lead to a culture of skepticism, where individuals are hesitant to rely on others or openly collaborate due to a lack of transparency and genuine care.
Obnoxious Aggression:
A communication style that is high on challenging directly but lacks the necessary balance of caring personally. When individuals exhibit obnoxious aggression, they prioritize delivering feedback or criticism in a blunt, harsh, or disrespectful manner, often without considering the impact on others' emotions or well-being.
In the workplace, obnoxious aggression can create a hostile and toxic environment, hindering collaboration, trust, and productivity. Instead of fostering growth and improvement, this communication style often demoralizes and alienates individuals, leading to disengagement and decreased motivation.
It's important to note that obnoxious aggression is not an effective application of Radical Candor. While Radical Candor encourages directness and honest feedback, it emphasizes the significance of pairing it with genuine care and empathy. Without the element of caring personally, feedback loses its constructive nature and can become a means of exerting power or belittling others.
That being said we’re not perfect, and we’re all on a continuum when it comes to caring personally and challenging directly. Here are some tools to help you get there with your teams:
Show Empathy and Support: Put yourself in the shoes of others and try to understand their perspectives and emotions. When someone is going through a tough time or facing challenges, offer your support and lend a listening ear. Show compassion and kindness, and be willing to help when needed. Small acts of kindness, such as offering encouragement or providing assistance, can go a long way in showing that you care personally.
Recognize and Acknowledge Individuality: Everyone is unique and has their own strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations. Take the time to recognize and appreciate the individual qualities and contributions of your colleagues or classmates. Celebrate their achievements and milestones, and offer praise or recognition when they do great work. By valuing and respecting each person's individuality, you demonstrate that you care personally about their growth and success.
Provide Specific Feedback: When giving feedback, be specific about what you observed or experienced. Focus on behaviors, actions, or results rather than making generalizations or assumptions. Clearly communicate what went well and what could be improved, offering concrete examples to support your feedback. This specificity helps the person understand what they need to work on and provides a clear path for growth.
Encourage Open Dialogue: Create an environment where open dialogue is welcomed and encouraged. Foster a culture where people feel comfortable expressing their opinions, ideas, and concerns. Be open to receiving feedback yourself, demonstrating that you value and respect the perspectives of others. Encouraging open dialogue allows for constructive conversations where challenges can be addressed and resolved effectively.
Offer Support and Resources: Challenging directly doesn't mean just pointing out problems; it also involves providing support and resources to help others overcome challenges and improve their performance. Offer guidance, share knowledge, or suggest training opportunities that can help individuals develop the skills or competencies they need. Show that you're invested in their success by offering assistance and being a source of support.
Set Clear Expectations: Challenging directly often involves setting clear expectations and holding people accountable. Ensure that everyone understands their roles, responsibilities, and the standards of performance. Clearly communicate goals and objectives, providing clarity on what success looks like. By setting clear expectations, you create a framework for individuals to measure their progress and make improvements.
Foster a Growth Mindset: Emphasize the importance of continuous learning and growth. Encourage individuals to see challenges as opportunities for development rather than failures. Help them understand that feedback and constructive criticism are essential for personal and professional growth. Foster a growth mindset by praising effort, resilience, and the willingness to learn from mistakes.
As always, keep learning and growing!