Episode #236: Adam Grant on Making Work Suck Less

Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated teacher for four straight years. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 25 most influential management thinkers and the world's top 40 business professors under 40.

Adam is the author of three New York Times bestselling books translated into 34 languages, including Originals, Give and Take and Option B which he co-wrote with Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Lean In fame.

As a contributing writer on work and psychology for the New York Times, Adam’s op-eds on raising a moral child and a creative child have each been shared over 300,000 times on social media. His research focuses on generosity, motivation and meaningful work, championing new ideas, personality traits like introversion, and leadership, collaboration, culture, and organizational change. His studies have been highlighted in David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, Drive by Dan Pink, Quiet by Susan Cain, and Thrive by Arianna Huffington.

Adam is a member of the Lean In board, the founder of the Authors@Wharton series, and the co-director of Wharton People Analytics. He has received the Excellence in Teaching award for every class he has taught.

He is also a former magician and junior Olympic springboard diver!

We unpacked as many insights as we could in our 30 minute conversation.

Expect to learn a number of things, including:

1. How to deliver radically transparent feedback without coming across like an asshole
2. The value of maintaining humility, even before you’ve made it to the top; and
3. How to 10X your organisation’s brainstorming efforts.

We explored these topics and more in my conversation with the one and only, Adam Grant.

Topics Discussed:

• Radical transparency: what it is, why it matters and how to become more transparent
• Ghosting
• What a confident leader really looks like
• Humility in the workplace
• Kobe and Shaq
• How to use objections in your favour
• Why considering yourself an expert is a precursor to stagnating
• Burstiness
• How ‘ego threat’ shows up in the workplace
• How long it takes for teams to gel, then fall behind

Show Notes:

AdamGrant.net

A=WorkLife podcast (Apple Podcasts, Google Play etc.) - no, not on fax machines

TED.com

@AdamMGrant

Get Adam's books:

• Option B: https://amzn.to/2PDi2XS
• Originals: https://amzn.to/2NoW1uc
• Give and Take: https://amzn.to/2PENXar

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