Kim Scott, the bestselling author of Radical Candor, argues that organizations that optimize for collaboration and honor everyone’s individuality are more successful, joyful places to work. Previously published as Just Work and now substantially revised and updated in paperback, Radical Respect: How to Work Together Better offers a simple framework that helps us identify what gets in the way of that —and practical, tactical tips for how to get back on track. Read an excerpt below.
The word respect has two very different meanings. The first has to do with admiration for someone’s abilities, qualities, or achievements. That kind of admiration has to be earned. But that’s not what I’m talking about in this book.
The definition of respect I’m using here is a regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, and traditions of others. This kind of respect is something we owe to everyone; it is not something that needs to be “earned.”
The kind of respect that is the birthright of every human being is crucial to a healthy culture. We don’t have to respect a person’s opinion on a particular topic—we can disagree, vehemently. We don’t have to respect a particular action a person took—we can still disapprove and hold them accountable. But we do have to respect that person as a human being if we want to be able to work together productively while also leaving space to disagree and hold each other accountable when necessary.
Radical Respect happens in workplaces that do two things at the same time:
- 1. Optimize for collaboration, not coercion.
- 2. Honor individuality, don’t demand conformity.
What makes it radical is that it is so fundamental, and yet it rarely occurs.
- 1. OPTIMIZE FOR COLLABORATION, NOT COERCION
Collaboration is essential to any great human accomplishment. Designing organizations that promote healthy collaboration requires proactive efforts to combat coercive behaviors from individuals and groups, such as arbitrary, ego-driven, fact-ignoring biased decision-making, bullying, harassment, and physical violations or violence. When we build management systems that put checks and balances on the power of leaders, they can be held accountable for their behavior and their results. Employees contribute ideas rather than being silenced. We help each other improve, and we achieve more than we could ever dream of achieving alone.
There is growing consensus that coercion, even by otherwise visionary leaders, neither gets the best results out of people nor generates the innovation necessary to thrive in the modern economy. Yes, most of us have the impulse to coerce when we can get away with it, and leaders often can get away with it unless checks and balances constrain them. When we design management systems carefully, we can mitigate the damage this can do.
2. HONOR INDIVIDUALITY, DON’T DEMAND CONFORMITY
If we want each person we’re working with to bring their full potential to our collaborative efforts, we need to honor one another’s individuality rather than demanding conformity. None of us (except actors) can do their best work while pretending to be somebody they aren’t. Telling people to bring their best to work while discouraging them from being their true selves seems obviously doomed to fail. But we do that all the time, usually unconsciously. Too often, we look for “culture fit” rather than “culture add” when we hire, forcing employees to pretend to be someone they are not, making it difficult for our organizations to evolve, and excluding people who could make important contributions. Often we advertise that we admire people who “think different,” but then we punish or ostracize outliers.
Successful collaboration requires diversity of thought and experience. Part of the benefit of collaboration is that “many hands make a light load.” But the more important benefit is that diversity allows us to challenge each other because each of us has a different point of view, different life experiences. One person easily notices something that another person is oblivious to. But if that person is punished for speaking up, they will go silent and nobody will get the benefit of their observations in the future. When we challenge one another, we improve one another’s work. That is why feedback at work is so vital to our individual and collective growth and success.
If we were all exact clones, we’d lose much of the benefit we get from working together. What is impossible for one person is simple for another. What is tedious drudgery for one person is a pleasure for another. We need one another.
Copyright © 2024 by Kim Scott
