Episode 439 — How to Remove Disrespect and Bias From Your Team Culture with Kim Scott
Radical respect is the prequel to radical candor. Without it, you won’t bother challenging anyone.
In this encore episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, Michael Mogill sits down with Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor and Radical Respect, to tackle the workplace dynamics that quietly destroy firm culture. Kim shares how a colleague’s feedback on her own book exposed the blind spots she had around bias, prejudice, and bullying in the workplace, ultimately leading her to write Radical Respect. This conversation reveals how leaders accidentally exclude top talent through “oblivious” promotion processes, and why the brilliant jerk who delivers results will ultimately cost you more than they’re worth. Kim gives you the exact language to use when things get uncomfortable, so you stop defaulting to silence.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- The difference between bias, prejudice, and bullying, and how to respond to each
- The “I/It/You” framework for course-correcting conversations that lack respect
- How to create a shared vocabulary for disrupting bias on your team
It’s better to have a hole in your team than an asshole on your team.
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Show Notes:
Simple physical repositioning can disrupt unconscious bias in real time. “My friend sat in the center because she had the expertise that was going to win her team the deal. When the other side had questions, they directed them at her two male colleagues. Finally, one of her colleagues stood up and said, I think we should switch seats. That was all he had to do to totally change the dynamic in the room.”
Physical proximity changes the power dynamic when someone is being aggressive. “If you’re standing up and someone is yelling, walk towards them. It’s your temptation to walk away. If you walk towards them, they tend to speak more quietly. It’s your job to deplatform bullying behavior in a meeting.”
Teamwork is a non-negotiable when it comes to evaluating performance. “At one tech company where I worked, if you got a bad rating on teamwork, you got a bad rating overall. It wasn’t an average. That was the floor. So it’s really important to take it very seriously in your rating system and then your bonus system.”
Removing toxic high performers actually boosts team results. “There is a moment in almost every team’s history where the assholes begin to win. And that is the moment when the culture begins to lose. Research found that the moment you eliminate someone on a team who bullies others, the performance of the team improves.”
Feedback on harm you’ve caused requires adjusting your approach, not your standards. “Me being authentic and bringing my authentic self to work does not mean that I get to ignore the impact that my authentic self has on you. If I get feedback that I’m being hurtful, I don’t need to back off on challenging directly, but I do need to move up on caring personally.”
The numbers reveal patterns that good intentions miss. “It’s really important as leaders that we begin to quantify bias at every stage of the employee life cycle. Who you’re inviting to interview, who you’re extending offers to, how much you pay, who you’re promoting, who gets mentored, and so on.”
Teams need a pre-agreed language to call out bias without derailing meetings. “Come up with a shared vocabulary for the people on your team. What’s the word or phrase that you all are going to use when you notice somebody saying or doing something biased in a meeting? Give people words or let them give you the words.”
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