E100: Rooting Culture in Kind Candor

In today's episode, we delve into the concept of "kind candor" and its pivotal role in fostering a positive organizational culture. It’s an innovative approach that combines honesty with kindness when giving feedback to employees. By providing clear, specific, current, and actionable feedback, we enable employees to improve without feeling undermined. 

The ultimate objective of kind candor is to cultivate an environment of trust where employees are receptive to feedback, seeing it as an opportunity for growth and betterment in their roles. Tune in to learn more about how this strategy can revolutionize your workplace dynamics.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

• Background on moving to a culture of "kind candor" 

• Five principles of kind candor: kind, clear, specific, current, actionable

• Examples of giving feedback using kind candor approach

• The goal of kind candor

Episode Highlights:

[00:01] Moving from a Kind Culture to a Culture of Kind Candor

Our company's culture has focused on being kind for the past 14 years. This longstanding emphasis on kindness is something employees can rely on and feel they will be treated well. On the other hand, kind candor builds upon this existing kind culture by allowing for honest truths, or feedback, to be given to employees in order to help them improve. However, this feedback is done in a kind manner since the culture already emphasizes kindness.

[01:16] The Five Principles of Kind Candor

The five principles of kind candor are: Be kind. Be clear. Be specific. Be current. Be actionable. For example, an employee made multiple mistakes.  Point out the specific errors. Offer to work with the employee for free for the next 30 days to ensure the issue does not happen again. This offers clear, specific, current feedback on the mistakes, while taking an actionable approach to helping the employee improve through additional support, all delivered kindly.

[02:09] The Goal of Kind Candor

The purpose of kind candor is to help employees grow in their roles, not to punish them for mistakes. The feedback process is intended to build people up by giving guidance, rather than tearing them down or putting them on the defensive. When employees feel supported rather than attacked, they will be more open to feedback and improve based on the guidance. By implementing those five principles, you’re able to cultivate an environment where employees feel safe improving through honest discussions, rather than avoiding feedback out of fear.