{"id":21898,"date":"2020-12-29T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=21898"},"modified":"2021-01-04T19:20:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T23:20:11","slug":"radical-candor-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/radical-candor-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Radical Candor Principles for Hiring, Firing, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the key principles of Radical Candor<\/em>? Do you know how to apply Radical Candor<\/em> principles to key managerial decisions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are Radical Candor<\/em> principles for each part of your role as a manager. Here, the principles apply to hiring, firing, and promoting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading for Radical Candor<\/em> principles for hiring, firing, and promoting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Radical Candor<\/em> Principles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a boss, you\u2019ll be heavily involved in making major decisions about the growth of your team and its members such as hiring onto your team, firing low performers<\/a>, and promoting your reports into new roles. It\u2019s essential to approach these decisions with radical candor to achieve positive outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiring<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Above all, hire with the needs of the entire team<\/em> in mind. Do you have too many superstars, and not enough rock stars? Do you need a dose of innovation from a superstar? When you\u2019re hiring, keep in mind that hiring is a subjective process\u2014subjectivity can\u2019t be fully eliminated, but there are a few ways that it can be managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Define your team\u2019s culture. <\/strong>Come up with 3-4 words that describe your team\u2019s culture, such as ambitious, straightforward, polite, blunt, big-picture, and so on. Interview specifically for that<\/em> fit\u2014this reduces personal bias in cases where you don\u2019t love the person, but they\u2019d be a great fit for your team. You could also include the growth trajectory you\u2019d ideally like the person to have, so you interview toward that, rather than interviewing with your own <\/em>goals and trajectory in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prescreen candidates blindly. <\/strong>To make sure you\u2019re not unconsciously biased against certain applicants, set up a prescreening system where candidates can show you the work they\u2019re capable of before you see who they are. For example, you could ask candidates to perform a task relevant to the work they\u2019d be doing for you. This eliminates people who have a nice r\u00e9sum\u00e9 but can\u2019t back it up, and it gives opportunity to people with a mediocre r\u00e9sum\u00e9 but great skill set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Read our summary of Blink<\/em><\/a> to find out more about how unconscious bias affects hiring decisions, and how to get around it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create a hiring committee. <\/strong>Having <\/strong>multiple perspectives on a candidate ensures that you\u2019re not letting your bias get in the way of a good hiring decision. A good hiring committee has about four people, and it should be diverse. It might be off-putting for a woman to be interviewed by all men, or a person of color to be interviewed by an all-white committee. Additionally, at least one person should be from a different team than the one being hired onto. This prevents the committee from being tempted to make a decision<\/a> just to fill an empty role on the team as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should have just one committee, which speaks to all candidates.<\/em> It\u2019s not helpful if one committee liked Candidate A, and a different committee liked Candidate B\u2014they have no common point to make comparisons from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take casual moments into account. <\/strong>People are likely to reveal who they really are outside of the interview room. Take them out for lunch and observe how they talk to the waiter, or ask your receptionist for their opinion on the candidate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Write down your thoughts<\/a>. <\/strong>Write down your impressions immediately after the interview\u2014this allows you to later recall the specifics of your discussion, or small signals that they would or wouldn\u2019t be a good fit for your team. Your hiring committee can make better decisions<\/a> when they rely on true impressions, not recalled impressions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make the decision together. <\/strong>Bring your hiring committee together to discuss candidates. Share everyone\u2019s feedback about each candidate at the beginning of the meeting, and debate until you come to a mutual decision. If you, as the boss, put forth a preferred choice and no one objects, that should be your choice.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As with hiring, there will likely be a time in your career that you\u2019re tasked with letting an employee go. This shouldn\u2019t be an easy process, but neither should it be impossible<\/strong>. If your organization fires people easily, it\u2019s likely that bad firing decisions are being made\u2014which carries the risk of causing anxiety among your team members, who worry that they\u2019re next. This will create a culture of fear<\/a>, where people don\u2019t try new ideas or take risks because a failure might get them booted. If your organization never<\/em> fires anyone, it\u2019s likely that there are underperformers dragging their whole team down\u2014which carries the risk of high performers quitting out of frustration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three Radical Candor<\/em> principles for your firing process: don\u2019t delay, ask for peer opinions, and demonstrate that you care personally. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t delay. <\/strong>Too many bosses put off firing conversations to avoid the risk of discomfort and negative emotions. Sometimes, they put it off long enough to talk themselves out of the decision. Common excuses to put off firing include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n