Radical Candour

Question 1

What are the Axis and Quadrants of the Radical Candour Framework?

Answer 1

Axis: Caring Personally and Challenge Directly

Quadrants: Manipulative Insincerity, Ruinous Empathy, Obnoxious Aggression, Compassionate Candour

Question 2

What is relational awareness and how is it different from self-awareness?

Answer 2

Relational awareness is about knowing how your words and actions will affect your relationship with someone, both in the short and long term, how to show people that you care even when you’re saying things that they might not like to hear. Self-awareness which is more about seeing yourself as you really are.

Question 3

What is the order of operations in Radical Candour?

Answer 3

1. Solicit criticism
2. Give praise
3. Give criticism
4. Gauge the criticism
5. Encourage praise and criticism between others

Question 4

What were the 5 key dynamics for successful teams outlined by the research of Google’s People Operations. Which one was most important? And why?

Answer 4

1. Psychological Safety
2. Dependability
3. Structure and Clarity
4. Meaning
5. Impact

Psychological safety is by far the most important, because it lays the foundation for the other 4.

Question 5

What is psychological safety, in a work environment? And how does this relate to the Radical Candour Model

Answer 5

“a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”

When Radical Candour leaders solicit criticism, this helps to create an atmosphere of psychological safety, where people aren’t treading on eggshells the whole time.

Question 6

What are 2 good times to get people’s criticism?

Answer 6

1. On a routine basis at the end of 1:1 meetings

2. When people are angry

Question 7

What are 4 attributes of good go-to question for soliciting criticism?

Answer 7

1. Sincerity - i.e not canned
2. Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no
3. Specific vs open-ended
4. Frequency

Question 8

What are 2 criteria for assessing go-to questions?

Answer 8

1. Did it produce useful feedback?

2. Did it sound natural i.e., like something you’d like to say?

Question 9

Where does counting to 6 come in in Radical Candour?

Answer 9

You do it after asking for feedback - it’s a part of embracing the discomfort

Question 10

Listen with the intent…

Answer 10

to understand, not to reply

Question 11

What is a good team exercise for improving listening?

Answer 11

One person speaks for 3 minutes while the other listens intently, then reverse.

Question 12

What is a practice for making your listening tangible?

Answer 12

Make a list of 3-4 times colleagues have offered you criticism recently. At a team meeting or standup, share it, what you learned from it, your gratitude for it, and what you plan to do about it. Ask your team for help as you try to address the behaviour or problem raised.

Question 13

What is a good analogy for praise and criticism when you’re leading a team?

Answer 13

Criticism is like your brake and praise is like your accelerator

Question 14

What should you do with criticism that you disagree with?

Answer 14

Reward it

Question 15

The role of guidance is to help others succeed…

Answer 15

…not to prove how smart you are

Question 16

How do managers sometimes throw good employees under the bus?

Answer 16

By using public praise of that person to make the others feel like losers.

Question 17

How much time to you spend making sure you have the facts straight…

Answer 17

…before giving a team member praise?

Question 18

What are the 3 guidelines (3, 2, 1) for compassionately candid feedback?

Answer 18

1. Do it humbly, helpfully, immediately.
2. Praise in public; criticize in private
3. Don’t give guidance about personality attributes

Question 19

“Compassionate Candour gets measured not at your mouth…

Answer 19

…but at the other person’s ear.”

Question 20

Why is the way you listen more important than the way you talk?

Answer 20

Because you need to be gauging people’s emotions in order to steer the conversation in the right direction in terms of how much you focus on challenging directly or showing that you care personally.

Question 21

Nothing will move you down the care personally axis more than…

Answer 21

Anger

Question 22

One way to show you care when confronted with negative emotions is to…

Answer 22

…name the emotion your seeing. “It seems like I’ve upset you/pissed you off/frustrated you. That’s not what I intended to do. I’m trying to help you. How can I do this in a better way?” (use own words)

Question 23

What phrase should you eliminate from your vocabulary in terms of people getting upset?

Answer 23

“Don’t take this personally”

Question 24

What should be your mantra when people are defensive or oblivious or hopelessly optimistic or overconfident or whatever. When you’re clearly not getting through to them.

Answer 24

“It’s not mean, it’s clear.”

Question 25

What is a way of framing things when you have to give difficult feedback?

Answer 25

Focus on the long term (in your mind) - if this person is making a mistake that is going to hurt them over time, the only way for them to fix it is if they are aware of it, even if that awareness hurts a bit in the moment.

Question 26

“Just to make sure we’re on the same page…

Answer 26

…can you tell me what you just heard?”

Question 27

What are two statements for people who just don’t seem to be getting what you are saying?

Answer 27

1. I don’t feel like I’m being heard.

2. May I be much more direct with you?

Question 28

If you get interrupted after the first example with excuses, you can say something like:

Answer 28

“Before we go too deep on this, I want to share several other examples with you so you can see the pattern I’m seeing. After I’m done, I’ll listen to your perspective, I promise. I’m open to hearing that I’m wrong. And if it turns out I’m right I am here to help you to fix this.”

Question 29

What is a mistake that people make in terms of making clear the consequences for noncompliance with the feedback?

Answer 29

They do it before people have had an opportunity to disagree with it.

Question 30

What are 4 keys to staying Centered?

Answer 30

1. Work-life integration
2. Figure out your “recipe” so stay centered and stick to it.
3. Put the things you need to do for yourself on the calendar.
4. Show up for yourself

Question 31

What are three importance aspects of establishing trust with your direct reports?

Answer 31

1. Stay centered.
2. Stay on an equal footing with those that report to you.
3. Learn the art (and dangers) of socializing at work.

Question 32

How can you give your team a sense of autonomy and agency so that they, too, can be centered and bring their best selves to work?

Answer 32

1. Relinquish unilateral authority.
2. Look for places where you can let go of some of the traditional sources of a boss’s control, thereby signalling to your reports that you want them to be autonomous.
3. Aim to build relationships based on trust in which people feel free at work.