8 Keys to Being an Amazing Boss

Kim Scott’s ideas about how to treat employees to inspire their best work were forged in the trenches. She saw enough bad bosses and lackluster managers during her time at big tech companies and small startups to know that if she ever had a chance to lead a team, she would do it differently.

Scott got that chance and now we can benefit from her approach to leadership, which she details in the new book “Radical Candor.” She preaches neither tough love nor excessive praise but something deeper, a path to making a workplace that fosters hard-won honesty and trust.

Her experiences toiling under less than ideal supervisors motivated her to branch out, start her own company — becoming co-founder and CEO of Juice Software — and try to be a kick-ass boss herself. She has since worked as a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, managed sales teams at Google and been on faculty at Apple University. She used the lessons she learned at her own company and many others to write this book.

Of course, she didn’t become a super-boss overnight. In relating her transformation, Scott doesn’t shy away from sharing the errors she made. We learn from hearing about her own blunders as much as her stories about the shortcomings of others issuing edicts from the corner office.

No matter if you’ve managed employees for a long time, or you just hope to sit in the boss’ seat one day, “Radical Candor” can help you reach your potential. Here’s how…

You can’t control other people’s emotions or their lives, but you can help to mold them into successful team members. As a manager, it’s your job to make sure the people on your team are as effective as they can be.

To do that, get to know the people who report to you. Gain their trust, build a strong rapport with them. It’s not as simple as it sounds, but the rewards can be astounding.

Scott emphasizes the need for honesty, or as she call it “radical candor,” in a workplace. Laying the groundwork for this culture to take hold takes care and deliberate steps that Scott details in her book. This is the true work of a great boss.

To have a good relationship, you have to be your whole self and care about each of the people you work for as a human being. Scott refers to this as “caring personally.” But, what exactly does this mean … to be your whole self?

It means you need to tell the people who report to you when you are pleased with their work or performance, as well as when you’re not.

It’s also important to be honest with yourself, to be able to recognize when there is something amiss, to listen for those warning bells. It’s just as important to do this as it is to recognize and reward good work.

When you deliver honest feedback, you cement trust in your work relationships.

Care Personally

We are all human beings just trying to live our best lives in this crazy world. Sometimes, we have good days, sometimes bad. Be caring when you ask your subordinates about themselves. Really listen to them, and don’t be afraid to open up.

No, you don’t want to take on their hardships or become a burden yourself, but you should care about the people who work for you as human beings.

What’s the best way to show you care personally? Scott says it’s all about challenging directly.

Challenge Directly

We’re taught to be careful not to challenge others, especially if those people sit above you in your company or have more status in some other way. As a kid, you’re taught not to question your parents’ command to leave that cookie in the jar — you just have to obey them (or maybe sneak one when they’re not looking). In business, we don’t tell our bosses, coworkers, and employees everything they did wrong, because that would be rude, right?

“Challenging people generally pisses them off, and at first that doesn’t seem like a good way to build a relationship or to show that you ‘care personally,” Scott writes. However, she explains, you’ll find that most people will move past the annoyance or anger, especially if you indicate an openness to being challenged yourself.

It may seem foreign to most workplace cultures to challenge others and encourage them to challenge you, but it’s necessary for building the kinds of trusting relationships that Smith is after here. It shows you care enough to call out the good and the bad, and that you’re able to admit when you’re wrong. This candidness also shows you’re committed to finding real solutions.

It’s not about insults. Calling someone “a jerk” is not “radical candor.” If the feedback doesn’t exhibit that you ‘care personally’ it’s not going to work.

This brings us to open communication.

Scott stresses a culture of open communication in her workplace. She writes, “There are two dimensions to good guidance: care personally and challenge directly …. When you do both at the same time, it’s Radical Candor.”

Yes, it’s important to establish trust, and that may mean criticizing more than praising. Smith says, always be open in your communication, come from a place of truth and you’ll know that you’ve not only been true to yourself, but also to your subordinates.

Giving criticism sprinkled with praise encourages people to keep trying and keep improving. As Scott writes, “The best praise does a lot more than just make people feel good. It can actually challenge them directly.”