Radical Candor: Fully Revised and Updated Edition: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean

This is one of those business books that stays useful long after you’ve finished it. It’s direct without being harsh, and practical without turning people into problems to manage. The idea that stayed with me most is the distinction between “rock stars” and “superstars”. Not everyone wants to climb endlessly or be the loudest voice in the room. Some people want to do excellent work, grow steadily, and be valued for consistency and judgement. That reframed how I think about performance, ambition, and fairness at work. The strength of the book is how grounded it is in real conversations. Feedback feels less like a performance and more like something you do because you respect people and want working relationships to hold up under pressure. It’s especially useful if you care about being honest without being careless, and supportive without avoiding difficult truths. I found myself reflecting on my own habits as much as on how I lead or work with others. A thoughtful, practical read that manages to be both challenging and kind.

Bought this as it was part of a work course I was signed up for. Interesting and some good thinking points but also felt a little repetitive and I didn’t identify with all the examples.

As soon as I opened this book, the idea exploded in my head. I quickly realised what type I was and discovered my failings. Fortunately, this book tells you how to put things right. I wish I had read this at the start of my career.

I recommend this book to all the managers, it is so good! It helps you and your teams become stronger

I was recommended Radical Candor as a more contemporary take on Marshall B. Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, but I think it also works as a more up‑to‑date reference for much of the material covered in What Did You Say? The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback by Charles N. Seashore, Edith Whitfield Seashore, and Gerald M. Weinberg. It even overlaps with, and offers a different angle on the One Minute Manager series by Ken Blanchard. I learnt a few new things which I think will be really useful. I especially liked “Care personally, challenge directly”, encouraging feedback from your team early on, the discussion of why boss is the proper term and the three questions you should ask your team to understand them and where they want to be. I’m already using the terms Rock Star and Super Stars as a result of reading Radical Candour. I didn’t like the strong emphasis on 121s, especially the frequency and the perceived importance. To me this is plain wrong and should be replaced with building strong, high communication relationships. Interestingly, these are also encouraged by the book. The afterward and extra chapter in the edition I read were sloppy. They rehashed or expanded what was already in the previous chapters and, I suspect, was a way of adding more material without having to revisit the entire book. It would be good to see a future edition completely revised. At the same time, it could be shortened as there is more of it than there needs to be. I originally bought the paperback, but the text is so small I had to revert to the kindle version, which meant I didn’t get the best versions of the diagrams. Everyone should read this book, but it could be a lot better.

Gentle parenting. But for adults.

Let me start by saying that if you work for a company the contents of this book are invaluable. But it's also highly useful for everyone to use in any aspect of life. It gives a useful and easy to apply quadrant framework on how to approach communication of feedback. This quadrant diagram alone is earth shatteringly useful, particularly if you work in an organisation which has developed a blame culture. The edition I read also has bonus chapters with additional information on performance management Vs developmental chats which again was incredibly useful. However, in the spirit of caring personally and challenging directly, it loses a star because I felt that the contents of the book could have been better organised to allow busy managers to refer back to it more easily. It felt like I was listening to myself speaking about how to improve things where I work, and one of the things I'm working on is trying to be more concise and focussed with my guidance and make the resources I share able to be more easily used for reference. I genuinely believe that Radical Candor is the solution to so many problems where I work, and my passion for what I can clearly see leads me off on tangents when I talk about it in ways which, although highly relevant to me sometimes leave others a bit lost and confused. The challenge will be getting those in power in my company to see the benefits of Radical Candor instead of being ruinously empathetic or worse, manipulatively insincere. The reason I love reading self development books is I find they live on longer after the back cover has been closed through the application of the ideas they contain, but sometimes that can be difficult. A more logical structure would make sure this book will be used as a living success manual and won't be consigned to the shelves to gather dust. I've highlighted the hell out of my copy to make sure I can keep it alive. Life changing stuff.

Great book would definitely recommend.

Lo compré para un regalo. A la persona le ha encantado. Vale la pena comprar pasta dura, viene de gran calidad

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Llego súper rápido y el libro es una pasada

I like the author's way of thinking. A very relaxing but at the same time useful book.

Really interesting insights into managing teams. Some of the examples are a little specific to be scalable to all situations, but very helpful all the same. First time in a while I've highlighted sections in a book to revisit!