Page 385 - Ray Dalio - Principles

Most training comes from doing and getting in sync about performance. Feedback should reflect
what is succeeding and what is not in proportion to the actual situation, rather than in an attempt to
balance compliments and criticisms. Remember that you are responsible for achieving your goals,
and you want your machine to function as intended. For it to do so, the employees you supervise
must meet expectations, and only you can help them understand whether they are stacking up. As
their strengths and weaknesses become clearer, responsibilities can be more appropriately tailored to
make the machine work better and to facilitate personal evolution.

9.3 Evaluate accurately, not kindly.

Nobody ever said radical honesty was easy. Sometimes, especially with new employees who have
not yet gotten used to it, an honest assessment feels like an attack. Rise to a higher level and keep
your eye on the bigger picture and counsel the person you are evaluating to do the same.
a. In the end, accuracy and kindness are the same thing. What might seem kind but isn’t accurate is harmful to
the person and often to others in the organization as well.

b. Put your compliments and criticisms in perspective. It helps to clarify whether the weakness or mistake
under discussion is indicative of a trainee’s total evaluation. One day I told one of our new research
people what a good job I thought he was doing and how strong his thinking was. It was a very
positive initial evaluation. A few days later I heard him chatting away at length about stuff that
wasn’t related to work, so I warned him about the cost to his and our development if he regularly
wasted time. Afterward I learned that he thought he was on the brink of being fired. My comment
about his need for focus had nothing to do with my overall evaluation. Had I explained myself
better when we sat down that second time, he could have put my comment into perspective.
c. Think about accuracy, not implications. It’s often the case that someone receiving critical feedback gets
preoccupied with the implications of that feedback instead of whether it’s true. This is a mistake. As
I’ll explain later, conflating the “what is” with the “what to do about it” typically leads to bad
decision making. Help others through this by giving feedback in a way that makes it clear that
you’re just trying to understand what’s true. Figuring out what to do about it is a separate
discussion.
d. Make accurate assessments. People are your most important resource and truth is the foundation of
excellence, so make your personnel evaluations as precise and accurate as possible. This takes time
and considerable back-and-forth. Your assessment of how Responsible Parties are performing
should be based not on whether they’re doing it your way but on whether they’re doing it in a good
way. Speak frankly, listen with an open mind, consider the views of other believable and honest
people, and try to get in sync about what’s going on with the person and why. Remember not to be
overconfident in your assessments, as it’s possible you are wrong.
e. Learn from success as well as from failure. Radical truth doesn’t require you to be negative all the time.
Point out examples of jobs done well and the causes of their success. This reinforces the actions that
led to the results and creates role models for those who are learning.
f. Know that most everyone thinks that what they did, and what they are doing, is much more important than it really is. If
you ask everybody in an organization what percentage of the organization’s success they’re
personally responsible for, you’ll wind up with a total of about 300 percent. That’s just the reality,
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and it shows why you must be precise in attributing specific results to specific people’s actions.
Otherwise, you’ll never know who is responsible for what—and even worse, you may make the
mistake of believing people who wrongly claim to be behind great accomplishments.

9.4 Recognize that tough love is both the hardest and the most
important type of love to give (because it is so rarely

welcomed).

The greatest gift you can give someone is the power to be successful. Giving people the opportunity
to struggle rather than giving them the things they are struggling for will make them stronger.
Compliments are easy to give but they don’t help people stretch. Pointing out someone’s
mistakes and weaknesses (so they learn what they need to deal with) is harder and less appreciated,