Most managers I have worked with are good at one of two things.
Some are warm. Reps love them. Nobody ever hears what is wrong with their calls.
Some are direct. Every weakness gets named. Reps stop listening after the first sentence.
Kim Scott's Radical Candor puts feedback on two lines: how much you care personally, and how directly you challenge. You need both at the same time.
What the other three look like in a field team:
Ruinous empathy. "Good effort today." It was not. The rep never learns what to fix, and finds out at appraisal time.
Obnoxious aggression. The truth, delivered in a way that makes the rep defend instead of think.
Manipulative insincerity. Polite in the debrief, critical in the district meeting. Reps always find out.
Two habits that help me stay in the right box.
Praise with the same precision as criticism. "Good call" is not candour. "Your question about her elderly patients changed the call" is.
Ask for it back. "What should I do differently on our field days?" If I cannot take candour, I have no right to give it.
“Being nice is not the same as being kind. Kind tells the rep the truth.”
Lesson 17 of 19 in Step 5: Motivating and building the team, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.