Vulnerability and authenticity build stronger influence than authority

I actually think that a leader who is willing to be appropriately vulnerable is a stronger leader.

Real confidence is often conveyed by being willing to ask the question or to say, 'I don't know what you mean by that. Can you say that again?'

Kim Scott is the author of Radical Candor and leadership coach known for her direct communication style.

Do not write down my question because if you sound like Kim Scott and not like yourself, then other people are not going to believe you want the answer. It needs to sound authentic to you.

You're doing it as a corporation instead of a person. This is another super common mistake is you're letting yourself speak like a faceless corporation because it feels like that's what you should do now. Okay, now you're a real company and now you got to do real company stuff, that means you have to issue decrees on behalf of the C corp and you don't. And it doesn't work because people don't trust institutions. People don't like corporations or at least are not passionate about them. People care about people and trust and like people.

Going direct means that the founder or executive for some very senior person has to be speaking from themselves. First person, may be first person plural, and speaking in a human voice authentically. You see them make mistakes, you see them be vulnerable, and they have to become an ambassador to the community. If you don't have that, then you don't have a direct channel even if you have a Twitter or a Substack or whatever, it's not direct if not connected to a person because if the other side of it is a corporation there's no direct connection.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of confidence. It both requires confidence and strengthens it.

If you go the other direction and you're humble and you say, 'I know I can't make you do anything, it's not my call to make. But man, this is really what I want. I'm just going to put it out there and ask.' That I think it feels really vulnerable and uncomfortable to not lean on data as a sort of way of saying, 'No, no, I'm right, so you should believe what I believe.'