Resetting Expectations With Resistant Direct Reports 7 | 8

Radical Candor: Communication at Work

Radical Candor

Business, Management, Careers

4.7 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Undermining, defiant and disengaged direct report—coach them or cut them loose?

Dealing with a direct report who questions everything, isolates their team, and actively undermines leadership? YIKES. That’s not just frustrating—it’s a full-blown leadership headache. When radical candor turns into outright defiance, how do you respond without losing your mind (or your team’s trust)? In this episode, Kim and Amy tackle the tricky reality of managing someone who refuses to engage, blames leadership for team turnover, and resists every attempt at coaching. From figuring out whether this is a communication breakdown or a serious performance issue, to deciding if a PIP is the right move, they walk through strategies to reset expectations, shut down toxicity, and lead with confidence. Because at the end of the day, if you’ve ever thought, I literally don’t know what to do with this person, keeping a toxic presence around does more damage than having a tough talk.

Get all of the show notes at RadicalCandor.com/podcast.

Episode Links:

Connect:

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction
Kim and Amy introduce a manager’s challenge: a disengaged, undermining direct report.

(00:04:46) Generational Gap or Performance Problem?
Whether this is a workplace culture clash or a deeper issue.

(00:06:28) Red Flags: Undermining & Resistance
Signs of bad-faith questioning, team isolation, and leadership defiance.

(00:14:18) The Tough Feedback Conversation
Role-playing a direct, no-nonsense conversation to reset expectations.

(00:23:49) Handling Pushback & Defiance
When a direct report resists leadership—what’s your next move?

(00:26:38) PIP or Part Ways?
How to decide if coaching, a PIP, or letting them go is the right call.

(00:34:03) Emotions in Leadership
Handling a direct report who dismisses the emotional impact of their behavior.

(00:38:06) Accountability Without Micromanaging
Creating clear expectations and consequences without constant oversight.

(00:42:53) Next Steps: Coach, Challenge, or Cut Ties?
How to assess whether a direct report can grow—or if it’s time to move on.

(00:53:22) Radical Candor Tips
Balancing Caring Personally with Challenging Directly to lead effectively.

(00:55:43) Conclusion

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Radical Canter podcast. I'm Kim Scott. I'm Amy Sandler. And before we
0:09.6	jump into today's episode, I do want to remind you all, if you are not aware, we now have an ad-free
0:16.7	podcast as part of our new Radical Candor community. So go on over to radicalcander.com slash community.
0:25.6	Join now.
0:26.9	When you join the community, you'll get a seven-day free trial to the Radical
0:31.5	Candor community.
0:32.9	And you'll also get access to Radical Candor courses, including a new 12 months of radical candor course.
0:39.8	This all comes free with your membership, including this podcast that you're listening to right
0:46.1	now. You'll get it early and ad-free. You'll also get real-time learning opportunities,
0:52.5	interaction with radical candor experts, including you,
0:56.4	Kim Scott, and so much more. So if you have ever struggled with communication at work,
1:03.1	this is your community. For today, Kim and I are going to explore a listener question about how to challenge someone who's actively
1:14.5	undermining their boss and bullying others. So I'm going to read the question and I start now.
1:23.2	Quote, I love your book and podcast. I always recommend it when people need a little management help.
1:29.9	I've got a team of 40 people and I've done all the usual things to engage my team.
1:35.2	Weekly one-on-ones, praise publicly, challenge privately. I've been approachable, arranged team events,
1:42.3	given people opportunities to step up, provide feedback,
1:46.6	and I encourage the team to give me feedback, and most of the team love it. I get fantastic
1:51.7	engagement scores. But one of my managers is a young manager in their early 30s, and they will
1:58.9	just not engage. And as a result, their team is siloed.
2:03.5	I have tried talking to this person, providing gentle coaching, and very direct feedback,
2:09.5	and they will not listen. And they actively undermine me and other members of the management team.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Radical Candor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Radical Candor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.