As a boss, should you tell it straight or break the news gently? 

It's a tough decision. Several variables are in play: Your natural tendencies, the employee's personality and openness, and the topic at hand all factor into your approach. 

What many leaders don't know is that available research on leader-employee relationships can also influence your choice of approach. Here's what experts have to say on the value of candor versus kindness in employer-employee communications. 

Benefits (and Challenges) of Candor

Candor, or "the unvarnished truth," appeals to many leaders for several reasons. It's straightforward. It's efficient. It gets straight to the heart of the matter. 

For many employees, "hearing it like it is" is preferable. Some, however, struggle with feeling personally minimized by the onslaught of information-heavy, issue-focused information. Some can even take it as a personal slight. 

Candor comes with challenges. One of these is that candor can often be influenced by the power differential between leaders and their workers.

Candor comes more easily to bosses, who don't have to worry about significant repercussions from their teams. It's harder for workers, who may fear that if they speak up, they'll lose a promotion, lose their jobs or lose the respect of their colleagues and bosses. 

If your leadership style leans toward candor, you'll need to build an environment in which your teams have the courage to be candid as well. According to research published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, teams are more likely to embrace a candid style if:

• Employees see the results of their feedback to management: Work improves, tasks are streamlined, problems are solved.
• Peers are allowed to hold one another accountable and to support one another's growth in direct, tangible ways.
• "Stretch" assignments and bold approaches are supported, even if they result in mistakes or dead ends. 

Building a candor-first approach is a two-way street. Done well, however, it can result in a workplace culture where leaders and employees are straightforward in their communication and committed to forward movement. 

Benefits (and Challenges) of Kindness

Kindness, or "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," prioritizes relationship-building. For many employees, feeling valued within the boss-employee relationship increases the worker's willingness to accept criticism and feedback. Workers find it easier to make changes, knowing the information comes from a place of caring. 

For some workers, however, kindness is grating or too cloying. Some people find themselves rolling their eyes, wishing their boss would stop praising them and get to the point. Others hear too much of the praise and walk away unaware of the importance of changing their behavior. 

If your leadership style leans toward kindness, your teams may love you – but they may also struggle to make meaningful changes or show significant improvement in their daily work. To build a team that demonstrates kindness while still performing their best work: 

• Regulate your emotions and build an expectation that others will do the same. Don't try to be devoid of emotion, but make sure your emotions are in check first. Otherwise, you risk trying to soothe others' feelings when you should be helping them resolve the issue. 
• Communicate to understand, then to be understood. Start by listening to a worker's perspective and information. Use this feedback to shape how you provide guidance. 
• Show that you understand a worker's feelings, but don't cave to those feelings. Resist the urge to "make things okay." Instead, collaborate with the employee on a plan that will address the issue. 

Teams that care about one another as people often feel safe taking risks and offering innovative solutions. 

Tact: The Best of Both Worlds

Candor, Inc. founder Kim Scott emphasizes the importance of providing rounded guidance – feedback that incorporates both praise and constructive criticism. Scott's method focuses on what she calls "radical candor." 

Radical candor incorporates both personal care (kindness) and direct challenge (candidness). It gives straightforward responses, but it comes from a place of caring about the employee – as a person whom you want to see rise to the occasion with their best self. 

To exercise radical candor, leaders need to balance caring about their employees as people with a willingness to have potentially uncomfortable conversations. To do this, leaders will need to build a culture of open communication and honest feedback – one that goes both ways. In other words, the best leaders are the ones who can dish it out and take it, because the entire team understands that honesty comes from a place of caring. 

What does this look like? Scott provides five guidelines. Radical candor is:

• Humble – it's about the employee's work, never the boss's achievements.
• Helpful – it provides actionable feedback zeroed in on a key issue.
• Immediate – it happens as soon as possible after the event that needs addressing.
• In Person – privately, if it's criticism, and publicly if it's praise. 
• Depersonalized – it focuses on the issue, never on the person. 

By incorporating these guidelines into your employee communication, you can balance candor and kindness. Show your employees that your straightforward feedback comes from a place of caring about their personal and professional success, and you build a caring, communicative, transparent team that can reach new heights.