Radical Candor looks at what the book describes as the “atomic building block” of management: praise and criticism conversations. It provides a really useful mental model to moderate how you give and receive feedback at work.
The Radical Candor website has great content describing the basics, but I highly recommend investing in the book for a full understanding. The latest revised edition also includes a bonus chapter on performance reviews.
Pages for reference
For my own reference, and that of others who own the book, some useful page numbers:
- 36 - Border between “obnoxious aggression” and radical candor. Kim look at examples from Google and Apple to explain how there are different ways to achieve radical candor, but in particular looks at how it can be easy to fall into obnoxious agression.
- 136 - Practical techniques and tips for giving guidance - the “situation, behaviour, impact” technique is particuarly useful for actually putting together a sentence
- 161 - Handling performance reviews
- 200 - Running one to ones
- 204 - Example questions to get the conversation going in one to ones
- 228 - How to get started - a good summary of the key points to get you started
- 243 - Example “go to” questions for soliciting criticism from others
- 259 - Bonus chapter on performance reviews, with analysis of topics such as ratings and distribution curves