Beyond Efficiency: Creating Organizations That Respect Human Dignity
I remember the moment I decided management was interesting.
I was at a startup that nobody had ever heard of, and they had to do layoffs. I agreed there was a good business case for layoffs — they were necessary — but they did it in the worst possible way.
They hired this guy who I can only describe as a paid asshole. The CEO did not have the courage to come and have these conversations himself with everyone. This paid asshole didn’t know who anyone was, and he told people they were being laid off because they were no good.
When he gathered everyone together, he didn’t even realize half the people he’d just fired were still in the room. He asked, “Why are you all looking so depressed?” Telling people how to feel is just obnoxious.
At that moment, I realized that how one does something makes all the difference. Management actually does matter. How you do things matters. Radical Candor is built on the principle that caring personally while challenging directly creates the best outcomes for both individuals and teams.
The Case for Common Human Decency
Some managers believe they can come in and tell people what to do without getting to know them as human beings. However, showing compassion for the individuals who work for you benefits the entire organization in several important ways.
First, compassion in the workplace isn’t just a “nice to have” — it’s a business imperative. Research from Stanford University challenges the stereotype that compassion is “too soft and squishy for the work environment.”
In reality, as my friend Bob Sutton recently explained on the Radical Candor podcast, workplace compassion is a superpower that strengthens leadership effectiveness. When people feel understood and valued, they experience less stress-related illness, lower burnout rates, better morale, and enhanced connection with teammates.
Second, there’s a critical distinction between compassion and what we call “Ruinous Empathy.” Compassion means caring about someone personally, while Ruinous Empathy is when that care prevents you from giving direct feedback and challenge. Ruinous Empathy happens when we avoid necessary conversations because we don’t want to create tension. This harms both the individual and the collective by preventing growth and improvement.
Efficiency is sometimes ruinously inefficient in the long run. — Bob Sutton
Third, compassion and results aren’t opposing forces — they’re complementary. As leadership expert Muriel Wilkins said on a previous episode of the podcast, “You can’t get people to do more if you don’t approach them with empathy.” Compassion is crucial for achieving business objectives. When people feel cared for as human beings, they bring their best work forward.
Finally, compassion creates psychological safety, which research shows is the foundation of high-performing teams. When team members feel safe to express ideas, take risks, and be themselves, innovation flourishes and the collective benefits.
The key is combining compassion with direct challenge — caring enough about people to tell them what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. This combination is what drives both individual growth and collective success.
The Importance of Organizational Design
However, this kind of culture doesn’t just happen. It demands a conscious design. When leaders don’t consciously design their management systems for justice, they inevitably get systemic injustice — and hurt their ability to achieve results. A leader’s job is to ensure that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It seems it should go without saying that belittling each part is not a good way to achieve that goal.
The traditional approach to management gives bosses unchecked authority to make decisions that profoundly affect their employees — who gets hired, fired, promoted, given resources, or assigned to important projects. This creates several problems:
First, it makes it too risky for employees to speak truth to power. When your manager has complete control over your career, speaking up becomes dangerous.
Second, it robs employees of their agency. Rather than “empowering” employees (which implies they lack the capacity that leaders must bestow), good organizational design prevents disempowerment by creating systems that unleash people’s innate abilities.
Third, it leads to poorer decisions. Research consistently shows that cohesive, diverse teams make better decisions than individuals, even highly capable ones. When one person holds all the power, the organization loses the benefit of multiple perspectives.
The alternative is to design a collaboration hierarchy instead of a dominance hierarchy. This doesn’t mean eliminating all hierarchy — structure is necessary for coordination — but it means creating checks and balances on power.
By designing systems that limit coercion and respect individuality, leaders create environments where Radical Candor can flourish — where people can speak truth to power, where diverse perspectives are valued, and where both individuals and the organization can achieve their full potential.
Radical Respect is a weekly newsletter I am publishing on LinkedIn to highlight some of the things that get in the way of creating a collaborative, respectful working environment. A healthy organization is not merely an absence of unpleasant symptoms. Creating a just working environment is about eliminating bad behavior and reinforcing collaborative, respectful behavior. Each week I’ll offer tips on how to do that so you can create a workplace where everyone feels supported and respected. Learn more in my new book Radical Respect, available wherever books are sold! You can also follow Radical Candor® and the Radical Candor Podcast more tips about building better relationships at work.
