Radical Candor and Visibility

Are you looking for a Third Growth Option ℠ ?

We explore two tools that make growth faster and cleaner: visibility and radical candor. Together, they align teams, shorten loops, and turn feedback into progress.

• Use shared KPIs and reports to improve alignment
 • Balance leading and lagging indicators
 • Reduce silos through open work
 • Pair clear expectations with direct feedback
 • Combine data and candor to speed decisions

Have thoughts on this topic? Share them—we may feature them in a future Toolbox episode.

Always growing.

Benno Duenkelsbuehler

CEO & Chief Sherpa of (re)ALIGN

reALIGNforResults.com

[e-mail]

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
So there are two universal growth tools that are
worth thinking about.
One is radical candor, and theother is visibility.
So starting with the visibility,that's really anything
data-related, reporting, KPIs,and in making sure that what we

(00:24):
do and both the inputs and theoutputs are visible.
What's so important about thatis if there if we don't work out
in the open and our and otherpeople, other silos, other
departments don't know what eachof us is working on, what

(00:45):
activities we are working on nowand planning next week, next
year, it's hard to coordinate.
If we don't measure the outputs,the results, and if we don't
share those up and down andacross the company and with
clients oftentimes, it'sdifficult to understand if what

(01:10):
we're doing works or not, right?
So visibility, data, KPIs,reports, both lagging data and
leading data, activity reportingand results reporting are a
super important part or tool tohelp us grow, by the way, both

(01:35):
as companies and as people.
And then the radical candor isanother growth tool that's also
sort of the same as visibility,but in terms of how we interact
with each other, right?
And the importance of radicalcandor, obviously, brutal

(01:55):
honesty, is that we don't wastetime beating around the bush,
uh, that we don't uh keep eachother in the dark.
Uh if I do something that Ishould not be doing, please tell
me.
If you are doing something thatI wish you would be doing, I
have to tell you.
Otherwise, I can't, you know, Ihave to set expectations.

(02:17):
We all have to set expectations.
Radical candor is about that.
One of the tricky parts aboutradical candor is form and
style, right?
Um there are some people thatrub us the wrong way.
I rub some people the wrong way,uh, and that's just sort of the
way the wall bounces, right?

(02:38):
So we have to be mindful ofthat.
Uh style and function uh matter,uh, but radical candor um is
hugely important in terms of usbeing most effective with each
other, uh, really um get to knoweach other, call each other out,
keep each other honest.

(03:00):
Um and and that includes uh, ifyou know, not just, you know, uh
there's form and there'sfunction, right?
The function of radical candoris sort of what we say.
Sorry, Lil.
Oops.
Uh the audio went out on thatbeautiful day in Amsterdam when
I was recording on visibilityand radical candor.

(03:22):
Uh so let me just wrap it uphere from the uh office a little
bit later.
Um we were talking about radicalcandor, there's form or there's
function.
The function is what we say.
We obviously got to get thatright, uh, but the form, how we
say it, uh we're not alwaysgonna get it right.
So I try to encourage others tocorrect me.

(03:46):
Uh I try to uh be asapproachable as I possibly can
about uh receiving feedback whenit's not, you know, so uh
pleasant for me to hear.
Uh, but I can tell you that whenyou are when you practice
radical candor, uh both givingit and taking it, um, it really

(04:09):
helps uh in your growth journey.
And um let me know if you haveother thoughts on this topic,
and I would love to hear it, andmaybe we can address it in a
future um toolbox episode.
Take care, guys.