Employee – DaneCobain.com

Title: Radical Candor

Author: Kim Scott

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 250

Rating: 3/5

This is another one of the business books that I picked up and read because I had to write a spark notes style summary for a client. I actually listened to it on audio book first because that was what delivered to me, and then I had to buy another copy in paperback for my library.

The main issue that I had with this is that it felt as though there wasn’t enough here to fill the book. It’s the first book that I’ve read for this client so far where I’ve struggled to stretch the summary out to 2,000 words, although I do think that what Scott has to say is worth reading. I just think this could have been half the size and still communicated the core message.

The idea of radical candor is that people respect you more as a leader if you’re open and honest with them. One example of this in action is when Scott had an employee who was underperforming but who she also liked as a person. Instead of risking their friendship by confronting the employee, she kept on putting it off until eventually, his performance dropped to such a point that she had to let him go. Then, when she fired him, he was upset because he had no idea that he was doing anything wrong. It’s certainly food for thought.

Click here to buy Radical Candor.

Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride – The Employee Experience

Title: The Employee Experience

Author: Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 222

Rating: 3/5

This is another of the non-fiction books that I’ve been reading so that I can write a spark notes style summary for one of my clients. The issue here is that this is the first one that I’ve actually struggled to stretch out to fill the word count.

The reason for that is that a lot of the information here is repetitive, and I feel like there was only enough material to fill half the book. That material itself was pretty good though, even if at times it does seem a little basic. The central tenet is that if you want to thrill your customers, you must first concentrate on the employee experience and making sure that the people who work for you are happy in the jobs that they’re doing.

The main highlights for me were the idea of employee contracts, which don’t always have to be written out and signed. Verbal contracts count, and we also often arrive at assumptions that we then judge the company on. If you want to retain staff for as long as possible and to promote from within, you need to provide an employee experience to be proud of.