Radical Candor

At a 1:1 in his office, Rick says to John, “You’re terrific and I really liked how you managed that conflict between two of your team members. But the follow up email you sent to the two team members read like a malfunctioning chatbot. Moving forward, I need you to be more precise in your emails to team members or you risk undermining yourself and not being clear

• Criticize the work, not the person

• Provide guidance in person.

• Balance praise with criticism

• All answers are correct

If following the principles of Radical Candor, John’s best response to Rick’s feedback about his email reading like a malfunctioning robot would be:

• Rick, I think you need to work a little more work on giving feedback.

• Rick, can we go over my email so I can do better than a malfunctioning chatbot?

• Rick, tell me how you would have written that email.

• All answers are correct

After Kurt’s issues management workshop, Rick took him aside, told him he did a great job then told him that his frequent use of the word “like” devalued his presentation and people’s confidence in his presentation. What did Rick do right?

• Criticize in private

• Avoid saving up guidance for 1:1s or performance review and provide immediate feedback

• Balance praise with criticism

• All answers are correct

Kurt doesn’t completely agree with Rick’s feedback about his frequent use of “like” in his presentation. How should he respond?

• Through gritted teeth say, “Thanks for the feedback … Rick.” And then stomp off in a huff.

• Rick, your feedback is very hurtful and I take it personally.

• Rick, thanks for the feedback. I didn’t notice how using like a bunch of times could come off this way. Do you have some suggested solutions and if not, let me try to come up with some.

• All answers are correct.

Kate says to her team, “Let’s have a pre-meeting before our meeting tomorrow.” Which response best exemplifies the principles of Radical Candor?

• Should we jump into a pre-meeting without planning it?

• Let’s get a preliminary pre-meeting meeting going!

• What do we hope to accomplish with this pre-meeting?

• All answers are correct

Kurt and John are frustrated with their boss Rick because he keeps cutting them off in meetings. It makes them feel undermined and embarrasses them in front of colleagues. What should John and Kurt do?

• Ignore Rick’s constant interruptions and chalk it up to him being a bad boss

• Give him a taste of his own medicine at an upcoming full team meeting by interrupting him and then announcing to the team that “it serves him right for constantly cutting us all off.”

• Gossiping to each other about how annoying it is when Rick interrupts you but never directly mention anything to Rick

• Write a long email where they passive aggressively outline their complaints, then avoid having a conversation about it with Rick

• Have a 1:1 with Rick, explain what they have noticed (focusing on the facts) and outline how it makes them feel along with a suggestion and request whether Rick minds if they text him privately in the meeting if they see him doing it again so he can get direct and immediate feedback