Balancing Care and Challenge
Balancing Care and Challenge helps you provide honest feedback in a way that is more likely to be heard and acted on. Based on Kim Scott’s Radical Candour model, it highlights the importance of showing genuine care for the person while being willing to address the issue clearly and constructively.
What you will learn
Effective feedback requires both care and challenge. This model helps you understand how your approach to feedback can shape whether a conversation feels supportive, defensive, avoidant or genuinely constructive.
This animation describes:
- The two key dimensions of the model: care for the person and willingness to confront the issue.
- The four types of conversations that can occur when care and challenge are balanced or unbalanced.
- Why demonstrating care before offering challenge can make feedback easier to hear.
- How to provide necessary feedback in a respectful, clear and useful way.
Related resources
- Balancing Care and Challenge - User Guide.pdf (PDF • 148 kb)
- Supporting Others - Action Learning Guide (PDF • 148 kb)
- Learn more