Kim Scott ’90 on How to Be a Kick-Ass Boss

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The Book: Radical Candor (St. Martin's Press) is written for anyone who is a boss or has a boss. Kim Scott ’90's book delves into the Radical Candor method she created to help managers get things done. Her three principles — make it personal; “get (s*)it done”; and understand why it matters — allow managers to be nice, while still being effective. Radical Candor is packed with advice and insight that Scott has gained through years of experience at companies like Google and Apple. 

The Author: Kim Scott ’90 is the founder and CEO of Candor Inc., a company that aims to develop software to help managers develop a culture of radical candor in the workplace. Her method has received attention from The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and The New York Times, among others. Scott has coached the CEOs of many Silicon Valley tech companies, including Dropbox, Twitter, and Qualtrics.

Opening Lines: “Like most of us, I once had a terrible boss — a person who thought that humiliating people was a good way to motivate them. At one point a colleague mistakenly copied me on an email chain in which my boss had ridiculed me repeatedly to my peers. When I confront my boss, he told me not to worry my ‘pretty little head’ about it. Really.”

Reviews: “With Radical Candor, Kim has bottled up some of Google’s magic and shared it with the word,” says Shona Brown, former SVP Business Operations at Google.