Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor, discusses with Lenny Rachitsky how leaders can overcome the fear of giving critical feedback and the need to be liked.
Insight
Scott: Phone calls provide better feedback signal than video calls
“There's a lot of evidence coming out of University of Chicago and probably other places, but that's the article I've read it, that we, there's more noise than signal in facial expressions and body language, especially if somebody is just a little Square on a c…”
Opinion
Scott: Isaacson's Musk biography pushes a false dichotomy about successful leadership
“There's this false dichotomy. In fact, the new biography of Elon Musk falls into this category. I like Walter Isaacson's work a lot, but he falls prey to this in his biography of Elon Musk, which is there's this notion that we have to choose between being a to…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Scott: Likability bias makes it harder for women to challenge directly
“The sort of likability competence bias that a lot of women face pushed me, especially early in my career, in the wrong direction on challenge directly, and it made it much harder for me to, because often I would say something, and I would say it even more gent…”
Disclosure
Scott: Immediate two-minute feedback is more important than being on time
“But if you don't, if it's not possible, and often it was not possible for me in my career to sort of schedule my time that way, I just decided that these moments of management were more important than being on time to my next meeting. And so I was just late so…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Scott: Ray Dalio's 400-page 'Principles' has only five pages on caring
“In fact, I did an analysis of Dalio's book, Principles, and there, it's like a, I don't know, three or 400 page book, and there were, I think, four or five pages about caring about people. It's, there's very low care, personally.”
Insight
Kim Scott: Radical Candor Is Measured at the Listener's Ear
“Radical candor gets measured not at, you know, not at the speaker's mouth, but at the listener's ear, and I think that Steve had built a team around him of people who didn't mind rather what other people would consider obnoxious aggression, but I think in the …”