Making Hard Conversations Easier with Radical Candor

Having hard conversations is so scary. And that's why last month in our book club we read Radical Candor by Kim Scott. It is one of my absolute favorite books and it's something that, as you'll hear, I'm very passionate about and I've reread several times. I think it gives such an incredible framework for having hard discussions and to make them feel a little bit more approachable. So we had an interactive book club. What I've done is just taken small excerpts of the book club where I introduced a topic that we then had a discussion on and I put those into the podcast just so you could get a little peek behind the scenes at what we are doing in the community when it comes to career development and helping to really equip people with the tools they need to go be successful in their jobs, which is just not something that scientists are often taught to do.

I've separated out each little mini topic.

That I discuss with a little whoosh noise so you'll know I've moved on to a new topic and it's not too confusing. But I tried to give you a good overview of the discussion about the book with some actionable things that you can take from the book even if you haven't read it. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's a fantastic must read in my opinion. If you're a human being, it does not matter if you're managing people or not. It will set you up to be.

A great leader, but it will also.

Set you up to be a great.

Colleague, partner, friend and mentor. So let's jump into the discussion.

I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO of a talent strategy consulting firm.

I've helped over 85 biotechs hire and.

Develop thousands of amazing employees.

So I know what works and what doesn't work when it comes to land.

A job and then excelling in it.

I created the Biotech Career Coach Podcast.

To give you simple, actionable, step by.

Step strategies to help you land your dream biotech job, then move up the career ladder.

If you are exploring career paths, looking.

To learn about biotech, or simply striving to be the type of person who makes an impact and gets promoted, you're.

In the right place. This book is something that I consider a bit of a handbook. I have reread it now, counting last week when I reread it to prepare for our book club. That was probably my fourth or fifth time through and what I have found is that this book speaks to me differently each time. And it's just because our lives change, our situations change, and what we may be doing for both work and outside of work changes. And I really like this book because while it's written as a leadership or a management book, there are a lot of tools to be used throughout your life, whether it's even in your personal life. I find myself using some of the. The things I've learned in this book to speak with my husband. Sometimes we have to give our families some feedback, right? And that's important. And how I receive feedback as well, how I ask to be given feedback. All of these things are applicable, but they'll hit you differently depending on what's going on in your life. So my advice is to periodically, as you change jobs every few years, maybe.

Come back to the book.

Maybe it's not a full deep read, but maybe it is thinking about what your life stage is, what your career stage is, and how you might be able to apply the principles in here and some of the frameworks. When I reread this last week, I actually read the updated version. And so she has updated the book, and it was really funny. If you listen to the audiobook, there's a little bit more of the. Of her personality, I think, that comes through in the book. But there was an interesting forward and an afterward, and the book was updated just slightly. But essentially there was a really funny TV show, Silicon Valley, I think it was an HBO show. It's hilarious. First of all, I highly recommend it. 10 out of 10. Very funny. And I actually did not catch this at the time, which is funny that I didn't. They parodied her book and it was a real jerk of a boss. He didn't call it radical candor, but it was similar enough that people got it. He was basically saying, I'm just being radically candid, but it was really just that he was an asshole. And that is not okay. So she wanted to really clarify. This book is not licensed to be a jerk. That's not what this book means. But there is a fine line, right? Because if you're going to give candid feedback, it's not always nice, but it is kind of. And there is a difference between nice and kind. And what I would challenge everybody to acknowledge is that sometimes the best mentors, the best bosses that we've ever had, are not the nicest ones, but they are the ones that helped us to grow the most because their feedback was actionable. Maybe it wasn't what we wanted to hear, but it's what we needed to hear, and there's a big difference there. And. And so I think back to my bosses in the past, my mentors, and sometimes in order to help you grow, you have to give you hard feedback. And so this is a framework to do that. And she just wanted to make that really clear in the updated version that, no, she didn't mean. You can just go be a jerk to everybody. That's not the book at all. The opposite of radical candor or compassionate candor. She wants to recoin it is manipulative insincerity, which is when you don't say anything, you just stew in silence, right? So that you don't have to say anything. Being political about how you're looking at things, being passive aggressive, all of that is really detrimental to the ability to work with your colleagues and your friends.

Hey, I just want to cut in to say that if you are enjoying this podcast, you may enjoy the Building Biotechs podcast from our sister company, Recruitomics Consulting, which is a talent acquisition strategy firm that specializes in helping small biotechs hire exceptional talent. In that podcast, we interview amazing people who are building biotechs. They are industry leaders in all different verticals, and it will allow you to explore career paths in biotech and to get to know companies that maybe you've never heard about. So if you are a biotech fan, you are exploring careers in biotech, I highly recommend the Building Biotechs podcast. We'll link that in the show notes or you can search for it on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

All right, back to our show.

There was a really poignant story that Kim shared about getting feedback from her manager that her presentation was fine, but she used the word a lot, and Kim was not hearing that feedback properly. So Kim was saying, oh, well, I'll work on it. Da, da, da. And her manager said, no, I need you to really hear this. If you say that much, it makes you sound stupid. Now, that sounds harsh, right? On the face of it, that's harsh criticism. However, the way it was phrased is not, you are stupid. It makes you sound stupid. Therefore, her manager is saying, I know you're not, but this is how you will be perceived by the higher ups, by the people who matter. I want to hire a coach for.

You so that we fix that.

So on the face of it, it's, oh, that stings. That's really harsh feedback. We are not born knowing how to manage people. So depending on the level of skill that your individual manager may or may not have at managing people. It is within your power. Knowing what you like out of a manager, which is a manager who is aligned with your goals, understands you understand what they want, they understand your needs. There's a really nice back and forth and open communication knowing that's what you want to create. You can set out to create that even if you have a manager that doesn't really have those tools yet in their tool belt. So you can actually help your manager become a better manager using these tools in reverse. And here's how.

So I talk a lot about the.

Importance of regular meetings with your manager. Not every manager goes about setting up those regular meetings, but you can saying.

I've really thought about my career development.

And I think it would be helpful.

To me to be able to sit.

Down with you for 15 minutes a week. I'd like to set goals. I'd like to understand what success looks like in those goals so that we're both measuring that. And I'd like to set both short and long term goals that align with the company's goals as well. What are they going to do? Say no? That's a fantastic request. I would be thrilled if an employee took that initiative. So then the onus is again on you because it's your career to make sure those meetings happen and to protect that time and if your manager is not protecting that time on their calendar, to again have a candid conversation that says, hey, this is really important to me. This is what I need. How can we facilitate this? Would a different time work for you better?

Would you rather do it over coffee?

We could have a walking meeting.

We could go to the park and walk. There's all different types of ways you can facilitate this meeting, but it has to happen. That's the biggest thing. And then that will allow you to make sure you're aligned in the future. And there is no misunderstanding because there can't be if you're meeting weekly and you have some goals set and allow them to set some goals for you too. So maybe one of your manager's goals is, hey, I really need a partner here who can step up in high stakes situations and be able to do X, Y, Z to take that off my plate. And then that could be a goal that they're setting for you and that's important to them. So you would take steps to understand how you can succeed in that. One mistake that I see even organizations making is setting goals that are too long term. So this is why most New Year's resolutions fail. Because you think I have a whole year to do this thing right and then not too long into it, maybe you stop going to the gym as much or whatever. But it's hard to maintain momentum for that long. It just is. So the way I set goals are I have yearly goals, but I break those into quarterly chunks and those are sprints that are three months and I break those into three. So when I have now I have one month goals and I break those into four. So now I have weekly little mini goals. So it depends on what you're doing. Sometimes that's doable in a corporate setting, sometimes that's a bit too granular.

But at the most they should be quarterly goals.

But you can have multiple goals that go out for a longer time horizon. So you could have a quarterly goal, a six month goal, and a year goal and then you can see those and and each one should layer onto the next. That way you feel like you're making progress and you have little measurable bites.

Toward that that you can talk about.

With your manager on that weekly basis. If you're talking about, oh well, this is our year long goal, it kind of feels silly to check in on that every week because it's just the time horizon is just too far.

I hope you enjoyed that little sneak peek into our Radical Candor book club. It was a lot of fun and obviously I cut out a lot of the chit chat and back and forth, but I wanted to let you know what types of conversations we have in the community around these types of topics that are so incredibly impactful for your career. These are totally free to participate in. All you have to do is join our community and you can do that using the link in the show notes below.

So I really hope to see you.

In there for our next book club.

We usually do these on the last Thursday of every month so you can.

Look forward to those on a monthly basis. If you've read Radical Candor, I would.

Love your thoughts as well.

Feel free to reach out at any point or join our community and let us know what you thought. Thanks for tuning in and bye for now. Thanks so much for listening to the.

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