Feedback is the backbone of any high-performing team culture and one of the most powerful tools of effective leadership. But for many, it’s also one of the hardest parts to get right. When done well, it drives growth, builds trust, and keeps your team focused on what truly matters. But too often, feedback falls into one of three ineffective extremes: either it’s avoided altogether, delivered too late to have the right impact, or it’s delivered without care – leaving people feeling blindsided.
I’ve worked across multiple ventures, including Digivizer, to build a culture that encourages open, honest, and constructive real-time conversations. The key? Creating an environment where feedback becomes a tool for growth, alignment and motivation – not confusion, misgivings or demotivation.
Radical Candor starts with Leadership
Radical candor, the concept popularized by Kim Scott in her book of the same name, offers an effective approach: direct, honest feedback paired with genuine personal care. It’s about telling people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. Importantly, it’s also not about being harsh; it’s about being real, setting clear expectations, and supporting personal growth.
Throughout my leadership, I’ve learnt that culture isn’t just words on a page – it’s how we show up every day. If I expect my team to give and embrace feedback, I need to demonstrate it myself. Whether at Digivizer, goto.game, or in my personal life, I am committed to delivering radical candor with care. It also means receiving feedback graciously in real-time – and acting upon it.
For example, when I see a leader avoiding tough conversations,we tackle it directly in their development plan. They receive support to frame and navigate difficult discussions, but they don’t get to sidestep them. Feedback might be uncomfortable, but when it’s embedded in leadership and business success, it’s far more effective.
Self-evaluation as a Tool for Growth
Continuous self-evaluation is something I’ve practiced throughout my career – not just at Digivizer. Whether it’s through 360 (or total) reviews, one-on-ones, or employee surveys, the goal is always the same: seek continuous feedback for reflection and improvement.
As part of this, I invite my entire team to evaluate my performance anonymously and share the results in their complete rawness. Then, I reflect on and share where I will spend my time, energy and development, as well as how I will work to close any gaps.
This is the secret: it’s not about identifying gaps. To really improve, it’s about closing them.
People often rate themselves higher than their peers do. That doesn’t mean they lack ability – it’s about understanding the perception gaps. If your team doesn’t see the same strengths you see in yourself, the challenge is making your impact clearer and changing those perceptions through demonstrated action. This may involve improving communication, setting expectations, and leading with measurable outcomes and data.
Playing to Strengths for Greater Business Impact
Rather than fixating on weakness, high-performers thrive when they know where they excel and can focus their energy there – rather than dwelling on their lesser-used strengths. When there are performance gaps, guiding individuals to leverage their strengths and close the gaps is often the fastest and most powerful path to success.
In this way, feedback provides a roadmap for self-reflective growth; harnessing and amplifying strengths and giving tools to fix current growth areas to turn good into great.
The difference between good and great
I often refer back to Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. The biggest message from that book still resonates strongly: the enemy of great is good. It’s easy to settle for good enough – especially when you have a team full of smart, well-intentioned people. But good intentions and hard work aren’t enough. Results are the ultimate measure of success. And you never want to hold a seat for an average performer when it could be kept open and held by a great performer.
At Digivizer and goto.game, we hire smart, talented, driven people, who get things done, are infinite learners and are not arseholes. This mandate creates the best environment for people who want to come to work and learn how to be better every day. The true mark of a high-performing team isn’t just about working hard; it’s about working smart. It’s about knowing where to focus, what to prioritize, how to measure impact, how to reflect upon it, and then act on it.
That’s why Radical Candor is so important. It’s not about criticizing effort, it’s about aligning that effort with meaningful results. It’s about helping people identify the way to get there, which is what you want to reward so it becomes a self-fulfilling culture taking you to great.
Building a high-performing feedback culture based on Radical Candor
So how do you start embedding Radical Candor in your business? These are my top 5 pointers on how to get started:
- Model it: If you want an open feedback culture, you must model it yourself. Ask for and provide honest feedback in real-time, use examples and acknowledge results
- Make it part of everyday conversations: Feedback shouldn’t be a once-a-year event. Build it into your daily interactions with your direct reports and wider team – whether it’s in 1:1s, team meetings, quick catch-ups, or performance reviews.It must be addressed as it happens and then captured within a development if part of a bigger need.
- Focus on closing the gaps, not assigning blame: If someone isn’t meeting expectations, don’t just tell them that they’re falling short. Support them to understand how to bridge the gap. Encourage reflection, understanding, strategies to address, commitment, timeframes and agreed feedback loops.
- Separate effort from results: Acknowledge passion, but stay focused on impact. What needs to change to get the desired outcome? Make sure that outcome and result is clear and measurable.
- Encourage solutions, not complaints: It’s easy to point out problems. The real value comes from those who bring solutions. Ask for the solution, focus on prevention not correction. This helps demonstrate that everything is open to change if it delivers a greater result.
Final Thoughts on Radical Candor
Radical Candor isn’t about being harsh. It’s about being clear, direct and challenging – simply because you care personally. It’s about creating a culture where feedback helps people grow and take ownership of their growth, rather than making them feel defensive, belittled or blindsided.
I’ve seen firsthand how feedback when done right, and in real-time, fuels growth and leads to better outcomes. At Digivizer, we don’t reward effort alone; we reward results. Saying that, we also equip our teams with the tools, the support, a love of continuous development and the feedback they need to succeed.
That’s how you build a team that’s not just good, they’re great.