Embracing Radical Candor (or Carefrontation)

John Boney

I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about Radical Candor, the concept popularized by Kim Scott. If you’re not familiar, it’s about caring personally while challenging directly, creating an environment where feedback is both kind and straightforward. There’s a real balancing act that we need to consider when delivering information, because being too abrupt can erode trust. But not getting to the point or sidestepping areas of growth doesn’t help anyone.

Radical Candor is something I’ve really leaned into around conversations like this and it’s incredibly powerful. I’ll be sharing a little series in the Ascender Community around my learnings and how you’ll be able to borrow these concepts, as well.

During my years of experience, I ran into a different name for it, though. “Carefrontation”. This concept of Carefrontation was born under the premise of the overall mission of "Strive for Excellence through Serving Others." I’ll be using that terminology because it’s just what I’m more comfortable with.

We’re going to start with understanding the concept:

Carefrontation is built on two key dimensions:

1. Care Personally: Show genuine concern for your team members as individuals.

2. Challenge Directly: Provide honest, straightforward feedback that helps them grow.

Balancing these dimensions fosters a culture of trust and continuous improvement.

Do you work these dimensions into your conversations? How are you bringing clear communications into your sales calls? Let me know in the comments!

I plan on sharing more thoughts in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back for more thoughts and learnings about Carefrontation!