What does rewarding the candor look like? This story always comes up in our workshops: When we worked together at Google, my colleague Russ Laraway once complained that I interrupted him. It was true; I am an inveterate interrupter. I knew I...
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A Story A banker who led a high-stakes tech IPO ran an important meeting with the COO of the company that was going public. The meeting had been a home run. So he was surprised when the COO asked, “What could I have done better?”
The idea Get it. Don’t just be open to it.
A Story People often focus on feedback they get from their bosses. But the best feedback comes from the people who work for you. It can be difficult to get it—unless you create a culture where you solicit it regularly. I made a habit of it with my...
A story I’ll never forget my first meeting with the AdSense team in Tokyo. Everywhere else I’d worked, if I asked, “What could I do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me?” and then counted to six in my head, somebody would say...
Relationships Transcend Hierarchy This week I’m focused on how you can build a more Radically Candid relationship with your boss. Radical Candor is about strengthening relationships “up,” “down,” and “sideways” – not reinforcing hierarchy. It works...
Newsflash: training increases employee engagement, customer happiness, and revenue growth When I led the AdSense team at Google, we had a large customer support team. To make sure I understood the work they were doing, I made a point of answering...
Early in my career, I co-founded Juice Software. Despite raising plenty of money, it failed, and looking back, a lot of that had to do with feedback: I didn't know how to get it, how to give praise that didn't feel patronizing or criticism that...
I once led a workshop with the CEOs of several fast-growing tech companies. These were all leaders I respect enormously. Every single one of them had a story about having to fire an employee they really cared about but saying it so gently that the...
The gravitational pull of Ruinous Empathy is driven by the fact that our society has become polarized, making it harder for people on a team to trust one another. They quit talking to each other, sometimes for fear of retribution, sometimes for fear...