Good stuff on what to do the moment after you’ve been Radically Candid, and, guess what, the other person didn’t agree!  Ask questions, carefully.  Don’t back off.

A terrific set of slides from Lazlo Block on what worked in building Google culture and people ops.  Pretty much every slide has useful, practical, direct advice on managing people.   Highly recommended.

Very cool.  Some simple techniques for better, more empathetic communication, couched in clear language.  “Assume best intentions”, “Stay genuinely curious”, “Prepare to be surprised” - and a bunch of others.   This is great stuff.

Listening doesn’t come for free: you can learn how to be a good listener.  This is a good place to start.

Some of this is great, and mirrors the post above.  Some of it (trying to create accountability in the conversation to get to the end), less so, for me.  Check it out - form your own opinion!

“The moment that a human being hears hard news they stop listening. It’s a normal and healthy fight or flight instinct”

A great, simple primer for going in, and surviving, hard conversations.

We (humans) have a strong tendency to form groups of “us” and “them”, and then only listen to facts and opinions that strengthen the differences between the groups.  This happens across companies all the time (“those sales people”, “the folks in Seattle”).  Are you guilty of this?   Probably, at least a bit.  Here are some things you can do.

Just a cheerful reminder that the thing most of us do all day is The Worst Thing Ever.  Fortunately, it does have a list of things we can do to live a little bit longer at the end of the post.

We love asking “why?”.  It feels like the fundamental question. But it has an oppositional quality and can lead to a directive instead of inclusive leadership style.  This is an easy read, and a useful introduction to other approaches (the short video at the end is pretty good, too).

You can apply the same trick to debugging you own behavior.  Asking yourself “why did I…?” can feel harsh and judgemental, which moves you away from real learning.  An interesting, short, post about how to move forward when you want to learn from your mistakes.

I loved this.  It’s a little long (in internet terms), but a good read, discussing ways we can talk about each other rather than past each other.  One of the hardest leaps in Radical Candor is breaking the taboo of talking about emotions and relationships at work (“you seem angry about this…”).  It’s also one of the most powerful things you can do to improve working relationships and therefore your organization overall.

We get angry, frustrated, irritated.  Often we try and stuff it, or ignore it (if we don’t express it, usually badly).  Judy Ringer makes the case for experiencing it, sitting in it, being with it.  A hard practice, but an incredibly valuable one - in Radical Candor terms, a way of moving away from Obnoxious Aggression.

A super outline for implementing culture change.  Exactly right (IMHO), for any group from five to five thousand.

I’m a little leery of models that divide the human race into two groups, but this is a useful set of techniques for moving yourself, or your coworkers, to being more open to new ideas and approaches.

Actually is more about applying the Growth mindset to yourself.  Useful tips and techniques explained through real experience as a PM.

My reading of this, apart from being a great set of stories, is that AirBnB is a poster-child for audacity in leadership.  There were multiple times when they could have failed, and in each case they took big, often startling, risks to move forward. When have you, or your company, taken such steps?  When might you need to in the future?

Less drama than AirBnB, but a useful, short, composed look at lessons learned so far in growing Sift Science.  “Appreciate Sales and Marketing” - words to live by for technical founders.

Ever thought about what it means to be a new mom working in a startup?  This post lays it out.  There’s a lot to know, none of it easy.

Itamar Turner-Trauring breaks down a loony startup engineering job post.  Yes, you have to work hard building a startup.  No, advertising “seventy hour weeks” isn’t smart, clever or admirable.

Super-helpful: a set of tools from Google covering manager feedback, career conversations, meeting agendas and one on ones.  Want to put some light-weight, proven processes in place?  Here they are.