Candour without care is laziness

Direct feedback is often defended as honesty. Honesty is not enough.

If the other person leaves with no clear understanding of how to improve, the leader has released frustration rather than provided guidance. Candour requires precision, timing, and evidence that you remain invested in the person’s success.

I have had to learn that high standards can be communicated in ways that inspire people or diminish them. The standard may be identical. The effect is not.

Care does not mean avoiding a difficult truth. It means doing the harder work of making the truth useful.