Feedback! It’s essential in business and especially in a communications agency.  

Our value stream is often influenced by feedback cycles – a lot of our time and energy is spent in managing feedback and keeping things moving: Waiting for responses on contract wins, comments on creative work, sharing content internally to share ideas…  

We need feedback to be timely, constructive and clear. 

I’ve been reminded of the concept of Radical Candor, which I first came across whilst delivering an Agile training day with the CIPR. One of the delegate’s organisations uses Radical Candor in their feedback cycle, and I was intrigued… 

So I read up about it, and to be (radically) candid, I forgot about it!  

But in a year that in some ways I have found more challenging than 2020, I’ve revisited this concept by Kim Scott. I’m feeling a need to step more deeply into my own personal leadership style, and stand up for our organisation values, my team and what we’re worth. 

Radical Candor is about focusing on the balance between caring personally and challenging directly when giving feedback. It promotes open communication that is clear and constructive. There are four key points: 

Care Personally

This means genuinely caring about the people you work with, beyond just professional interactions. It’s about building trust and showing empathy, so when you offer feedback, it’s clear that it comes from a place of respect and consideration for the individual. 

I find this element relatively easy – I know I am a deeply empathetic person in business and in life. So even when projects get crunchy, I largely empathise with clients and colleagues and the challenges they are facing. 

Challenge Directly

Offering clear, specific feedback that addresses issues head-on is crucial. Avoid beating around the bush or softening important points. Radical Candor encourages being direct, even if the message might be hard to hear, but doing so with respect. 

I used this last year when I declined a brief to renew a contract with an existing client – I was frustrated that it wasn’t as profitable as I would like, nor playing to our greatest strengths. So I gave the client what is now known as the “Hug and Roll” – a kind but firm “thanks but no thanks” with specifics as to why we wouldn’t be responding, and what we are now looking for in future projects. 

The result: A hugely productive follow-up meeting which led to us responding in our own way. This has developed into an incredible client relationship and fruitful project for us. 

Avoid Ruinous Empathy

I find this the hardest part! This happens when you care personally but fail to challenge directly. It’s the tendency to avoid difficult conversations to spare someone’s feelings, which can lead to underperformance and confusion. It’s well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful. 

So I am stepping into my leadership space and creating time to have those difficult conversations with clients and colleagues. When it’s done, it feels like a weight hast lifted! 

Avoid Obnoxious Aggression

The opposite of Ruinous Empathy: this happens when someone challenges directly without caring personally. While this may involve delivering honest feedback, it can come across as harsh or hurtful, damaging relationships and team morale. 

I’ve actually been on the receiving end of this in recent years. It’s incredibly unpleasant and can be both damaging and paralysing.  

I can find this comes through as written feedback electronically – emails, notes on a Trello card or comments on a deck. This is where the Agile Manifesto point of “Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools” kicks in – wrap your written feedback with an opportunity for a conversation and be human about it. 

At Agile, we are embracing our Radical Candor era – we’re working to balance caring personally and challenging directly.  

Get in touch if you’d like to talk more about feedback, Radical Candor and all things psychological safety!