Adam Grant

Adam Grant has been recognized as Wharton's toprated teacher for five straight years, and as one of the world's 25 most influential management thinkers and Fortune's 40 under 40. As an organizational psychologist, he studies how we can find motivation and meaning, and lead more generous and creative lives.

Books

Adam is the author of three New York Times bestselling books that have sold over a million copies and been translated into 35 languages. Give and Take, on why helping others drives our success, was named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, the Financial Times, _and the _Wall Street Journal as well as one Oprah's riveting reads and Harvard Business Review's ideas that shaped management. Originals, on how individuals champion new ideas and leaders fight groupthink, was a #1 national bestseller praised by J.J. Abrams, Richard Branson, and Malcolm Gladwell. Option B, coauthored with Sheryl Sandberg, is a #1 bestseller on facing adversity and building resilience.

Teaching, Speaking, Consulting, and Leadership

Adam received a standing ovation for his 2016 TED talkon the surprising habits of original thinkers and was voted the audience's favorite speaker at The Nantucket Project on the success of givers and takers, which was the subject of his most recent TED talk. His speaking and consulting clients include Facebook, Google, the NBA, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Disney Pixar, Johnson & Johnson, BCG, Amex, the U.S. Army and Navy, and the World Economic Forum, where he has been honored as a Young Global Leader. At Wharton, he has received the Excellence in Teaching Award for all of his classes and earned the Goes Above and Beyond the Call of Duty MBA Teaching Award. He is the founder and host of the Authors@Wharton speaker series, and codirector of Wharton People Analytics. He has designed experiential learning activities in which students have raised over $325,000 for the MakeAWish Foundation while developing leadership, influence, networking and collaboration skills. He is a passionate feminist who serves on the Lean In board, as well as the Defense Innovation Advisory Board at the Pentagon.

Media

Adam has been profiled twice on the Today Show and in the New York Times magazine cover story, Is giving the secret to getting ahead? His studies have been highlighted in books such as David and Goliath _by Malcolm Gladwell, _Drive by Daniel Pink, Quiet by Susan Cain, and Thrive _by Arianna Huffington. He is a contributing oped writer on work and psychology for the _New York Times, where his articles on Raising a moral child and How to raise a creative child have each been shared over 300,000 times online. He has more than 1.5 million followers on social media, and features new insights in his free monthly newsletter, GRANTED.

Education

Adam received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of Michigan in organizational psychology, finishing it in less than three years, and his B.A. from Harvard University, magna cum laude with highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa honors, and the John Harvard Scholarship for highest academic achievement.

Research

Adam's research focuses on generosity, motivation and meaningful work, championing new ideas, personality traits like introversionextraversion, and leadership, collaboration, culture, and organizational change. He has earned numerous prestigious awards for distinguished scholarly achievement, including the Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award for earlytomidcareer contributions from the Academy of Management, the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award and the Owens Scholarly Achievement Award for the best publication in the field from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. He has published more than 60 articles in a wide range of leading management and psychology journals, and his pioneering research has introduced evidencebased techniques that increase performance and reduce burnout among engineers and sales professionals, enhance call center productivity, and motivate helping and safety behaviors among doctors, nurses, and lifeguards.

Additional

At Wharton, Adam was granted tenure while still in his twenties. Before graduate school, he worked at Let’s Go Publications, where he set multiple company records for advertising sales and earned the Manager of the Year award. He is a former junior Olympic springboard diver and performed for over a decade as a magician. For more details, see www.adamgrant.net

Adam Grant, Why we should stop grading students on a curve in The New York Times.

Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, The myth of the catty woman in The New York Times.

Adam Grant, Unless you're Oprah, 'be yourself' is terrible advice in The New York Times.

Adam Grant, The real clue that a candidate would make a great president in The Washington Post.

Adam Grant, How to build a culture of originality in Harvard Business Review.

Adam Grant, **ORIGINALS: How NonConformists Move the World

J. I. Menges, Danielle Tussing, A. Wihler, Adam Grant, When Job Performance is All Relative: How Family Motivation Energizes Effort and Compensates for Intrinsic Motivation , Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming.

Adam Grant, Entrepreneurs, don't quit your day jobs in Wired.

Adam Grant, How to raise a creative child. Step one: Back off in The New York Times.

Adam Grant, **Why I taught myself to procrastinate is dedicated to this formative and foundational experience. This course focuses on developing students' knowledge and skill set for teamwork and leadership. It is meant to be an intense immersion experience that draws strongly on the pedagogy of the Wharton Teamwork and Leadership Simulation, a teambased, highly interactive simulation that was customdesigned specifically to allow students to experience the core concepts they learn in this class. The three goals of this course are for students to learn: 1. Leadership behaviors: how to enact the skills that contribute to a team's effective performance. 2. Team dynamics: how to be an effective team member, as well as how to best design work teams; 3. Organizational awareness: understanding organizational culture. ,Format: A customdesigned Whartononly simulation is paired with course sessions to deliver a unique learning experience. Classes will include experiental learning combined with debriefings, lectures, readings, class discussion and personal and group performance feedback. This course reflects the realities that informal leadership occurs in teams on an ongoing basis, that being a good team player is a part of leadership, and that many of one's early experiences with leadership will occur while working on teams. Because of the teambased nature of this course, and time intensive nature of this experience, attendance is mandatory for ALL five sessions of this class. ,NOTE: Creditbearing, core coursework begins with the MGMT610: Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership course.

• HR’s Most Influential International Thinkers, 2014
• Financial Times Books of the Year, 2013
• Amazon best books of 2013, 2013
• Fortune’s five mustread business books, 2013
• Thinkers50 Best Book Award finalist, 2013
• Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year longlist, 2013
• Washington Post bestseller, 2013
• New York Times bestseller, 2013
• San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, 2013
• Wall Street Journal bestseller, 2013
• Publisher’s Weekly bestseller, 2013
• USA Today bestseller, 2013
• IndieBound bestseller, 2013
• Amazon best books of April, 2013
• Apple iBookstore best books of April, 2013
• BusinessWeek’s Favorite Professors](https://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/mbaprogram/awards/excellenceinteaching_awards.cfm), 2012
• Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award, Academy of Management, 2011
• 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40, 2011
• Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award – Science, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2011
• Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award Nomination, 2011
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Wharton Undergraduate Division, 2011
• Owens Scholarly Achievement Award, Best Publication in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2010
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Wharton MBA Elective Curriculum, 2010
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Wharton Undergraduate Division, 2010
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Journal, 2009
• Rensis Likert Prize, Best Paper from a Dissertation in Organization Studies, 2008
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Journal, 2008
• Financial Times Books of the Year 11/29/2013
• Best 2013 Books for Entrepreneurs, Inc. 11/25/2013
• Five MustRead Business Books, Fortune 11/18/2013
• Malcolm Gladwell Names Adam Grant One of His Favorite Social Science Writers, New York Times 10/06/2013
• The Dangers and Rewards of Giving More Than You Get, Penn Gazette 07/03/2013
• Give and Take on the Today Show, The Today Show 04/10/2013
• Givers vs. Takers: The Surprising Truth About Who Gets Ahead, Knowledge@Wharton 04/10/2013
• Professor works to change future of business ethics, Today 04/10/2013
• Ryan Seacrest on Give and Take, OnAir with Ryan Seacrest 04/09/2013
• Give and Take on Diane Rehm, The Diane Rehm Show 04/08/2013
• The Best Lie Detectors in the Workplace, Washington Post 04/05/2013
• How to Give to Others without being a Martyr, Business Insider 04/05/2013
• Give and Take: The Business Case for Being Nice, Bloomberg Businessweek 04/04/2013
• How Being Helpful Can Make You Happier and More Productive, Fast Company 04/02/2013
• Helpful Workplace Hints, New York Times 04/02/2013
• Amazon’s Bestseller List in Business and Management, NPR 04/02/2013
• The Rise of the Superconnector, Fast Company 04/02/2013
• Why Giving Back Helps You Get More Done, Fast Company 04/02/2013
• Behind the Cover Story, New York Times 04/01/2013
• 7 Ways That Generosity Can Lead To Success, Forbes 04/01/2013
• A Skimmer’s Guide to Give and Take, Inc. 04/01/2013
• The Surprising Secret to a Successful and Satisfying Life With Others, Forbes 04/01/2013
• Editors’ Picks for the Best Books of April 2013 in Business & Leadership, Amazon.com 04/01/2013
• Is Service, Not SelfInterest, the Engine of Productivity?, Solutions Journalism 03/31/2013
• Give and Take, ServiceSpace 03/29/2013
• How Silicon Valley Profits From Giving Back, Forbes 03/28/2013
• One Easy Way to Boost Employees’ Productivity, Quartz 03/28/2013
• The Power of Being Helpful, Human Resource Executive Online 03/28/2013
• Does This Man Hold the Secret to Getting Ahead?, Crain's ChicagoBusiness 03/28/2013
• Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?, New York Times 03/27/2013
• In the company of givers and takers, Harvard Business Review 03/20/2013
• The power of ‘thanks’, Harvard Gazette 03/19/2013
• Intrinsic Motivation or Purpose Pursuit: Which matters most?, Positive Psychology News Daily 03/07/2013
• How to Get Your Way, Psychology Today 03/07/2013
• Give and Take, Kirkus Reviews 03/06/2013
• To Sell Is Human, Knowledge@wharton 03/06/2013
• Interview with Mark Shapiro on Cleveland Indians, Leaders@wharton 03/05/2013
• You Gotta Serve Somebody, strategy+business 03/01/2013
• Good staff deserve to be thanked, Financial Review 02/27/2013
• Interview with William Lauder on The Esteé Lauder Companies, Inc., Leaders@wharton 02/27/2013
• How to Give a Meaningful “Thank You”, Harvard Business Review 02/20/2013
• An Insider’s View of The New York Times, Knowledge@wharton 02/19/2013
• Book Buzz, Penguin 02/06/2013
• Blog on Mentoring, Huffington Post 02/01/2013
• Clare Calvet’s Recommended books to read 2013 – Book Review, ABC 01/31/2013
• Why extroverts fail, introverts flounder and you probably succeed, Washington Post 01/28/2013
• Viewing the Workforce in Shades of Pink, Wharton Magazine 01/28/2013
• Give and Take – Book Review, Publishers Weekly 01/21/2013
• Want Motivated Employees? Put Them In Contact With the People They Help, Fast Company 01/11/2013
• Extroverts Are Surprisingly Bad At Sales, Business Insider 12/24/2012
• Thinking About Giving, Not Receiving, Motivates People to Help Others, APS Observer 12/12/2012
• Books you Should Read, Delta Partners 12/11/2012
• Book we Like, Total Leadership News 12/03/2012
• 11 books every leader should read, Bob Sutton's "work matters" blog 11/26/2012
• Let’s hear it for the quiet ones, The Sunday Times 10/28/2012
• The Power of Customer Stories & Testimonials to Engage Employees, TLNT 10/04/2012
• The Gregarious Salesman: Death of a Stereotype?, Association for Psychological Science 09/14/2012
• What Makes Work Worth Doing?, Harvard Business Review 08/31/2012
• Why it’s profitable for takecharge leaders to ease up, The Globe and Mail 08/24/2012
• Favorite Professors, Business Week 08/13/2012
• Want to be really creative? Stop thinking about yourself, The Globe and Mail 08/13/2012
• Can Giving Be a Powerful Tool In Motivating Others To Give Or Volunteer?, Medical Daily 08/10/2012
• The Introverted leader, HRM Asia 08/02/2012
• Are the Best Sales People Introverted or Extroverted?, Customer Think 07/06/2012
• Quietness and Introversion, Positive Psychology News 07/03/2012
• Do Quiet Leaders Make Better Leaders?, Risk Management Monitor 06/26/2012
• To Energize Top Performers, Hit Personal Hot Buttons, Investor's Business Daily 06/22/2012
• Leading Quietly, Wharton Leadership Conference 06/20/2012
• Turning Management Vision into Employee Reality, Business Finance Magazine 06/15/2012
• Quieter women are more competent, The Himalayan Times 05/25/2012
• Charisma: An obsolete leadership quality, CBS Money Watch 05/01/2012
• Evaluating Job Applicants, Financial Times 04/20/2012
• Evaluating Job Applicants, Financial Times 04/20/2012
• How Introverts Can Become Better Innovators, Harvard Business Review 04/20/2012
• Tapping into feds’ desire to serve, FCW 04/05/2012
• ‘Restorative Niches’: Author Susan Cain on the Need for ‘Quiet’, Knowledge@wharton 04/04/2012
• Can Introverts Lead? Three Myths About Personality at Work, Fox Business 04/02/2012
• Seven Practices of a CustomerCentric Organization: The Role of Employees, Business2Community 03/11/2012
• Question of the Day: What’s Hanging in Your Cubicle?, Freakonomics 03/01/2012
• Hi Ho It’s Off With Work As We Know, Forbes 02/23/2012
• Don’t Call Introverted Children ‘Shy’, Time Magazine 01/26/2012
• With The Illusion of Invulnerability in Information Security, Information Security 01/22/2012
• Blog on Hand Washing, Huffington Post 01/05/2012
• Civility matters: The power of “thank you”, Ottawa Business Journal 11/30/2011
• Why Introverts Make Great Leaders—Sometimes, Psychology Today 11/08/2011
• Can changing a single word on a sign motivate doctors and nurses to wash their hands?, Healthcare Purchasing News 10/27/2011
• How to prime feds for better performance, FCW 10/11/2011
• Seven Tips for Leadership Success – for Introverts, The Glass Hammer 10/11/2011
• Why Trying to be Happy can make us Unhappy, TEDx 10/07/2011
• Focus on patients convinces doctors, nurses to wash hands, Newsworks 09/05/2011
• How To Properly Motivate Workers To Wash Their Hands, HealBlog 09/01/2011
• Motivating Doctors and Nurses to wash their hands, Wall Street Journal 08/31/2011
• Hospital workers comply with hand hygiene signs about patients, not themselves, FierceHealthcare 08/31/2011
• Optimize, New Selection and Hiring Solutions Company, Launches With Industry Partnerships, Vision Monday 08/31/2011
• Campaign Aimed at Patient Health Ups Doc Hand Washing, Scientific America 08/31/2011
• Hey, health workers: Washing your hands is good for your patients, Stanford Scope 08/30/2011
• Press Release on Hospital Hand Washing, Association for Psychological Science 08/29/2011
• Managing Multiple Bosses, Harvard Business Review 08/18/2011
• Presentation on teacher burnout, TEDx Philadelphia 07/25/2011
• Honoring Early Career Contributions, Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology 07/20/2011
• Why Creative People are Rarely seen as Leaders, Susan Cain 07/19/2011
• East vs. West: Who Wins in the Office?, Fortune 06/30/2011
• Aligning Motivation with Organizational Goals, Human Resources IQ 06/27/2011
• How Customers Can Energize Your Employees, GovLoop 06/27/2011
• Shyness: Evolutionary Tactic?, New York Times 06/25/2011
• 2011 APA Distinguished Scientific Award recipients, American Psychological Association 06/20/2011
• Patient Connection Increases Nurse Satisfaction and Performance, NurseZone 06/17/2011
• Intrinsic Motivation is More Creative When You Look Outside Yourself, Creativity & Innovation 06/07/2011
• Hidden advantages of a quiet boss, The Economic Times, India Edition 05/15/2011
• Introverted Execs Find Ways to Shine, Wall Street Journal 04/14/2011
• Google’s Future, Fast Company 03/16/2011
• Presentation on outsourcing inspiration, Wharton Biz Talks 03/16/2011
• World’s 40 best business school professors under 40, Fortune 02/17/2011
• World’s 40 best business school professors under 40, Fortune 02/17/2011
• Dominant Leadership, Hardwired Humans 02/02/2011
• Think Tank: Have you ever asked yourself why you’re in business?, The Telegraph 01/29/2011
• The Peril of Excess: Why Moderate Levels of Many Traits Might be Best, I/O at Work 01/25/2011
• Entry Interviews Keep Hires on Track, TheStreet 01/14/2011
• Extravert Pros and Cons: When It Doesn’t Pay to be an Extravert Leader, Wharton@Work 01/05/2011
• Why introverts can be great leaders, CNN 12/09/2010
• Social Science Palooza, New York Times 12/06/2010
• Leadership is Not Just for the Extroverts, Financial Times 11/29/2010
• Five Secrets of Charismatic Leadership, Business Week 11/02/2010
• Down To Business: In Defense Of The IT Introverts, Information Week 10/09/2010
• Introverts: The Best Leaders for Proactive Employees, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge 10/04/2010
• What motivates health care workers is needed to explain health care costs, KevinMD.com 09/21/2010
• Why ‘Thank You’ Is More Than Just Good Manners, World of Psychology 09/15/2010
• Leading Team with Meaning, People & Projects Podcast 06/07/2010
• We Commit When We Give, Stanford Center for Social Innovation 04/13/2010
• Motivate Your Employees: Let Them Meet the People They Help, CBS Money Watch 04/08/2010
• Winners and Losers: Is Your Proactive Behaviour Annoying the Boss?, Knowledge@Australian School of Business 04/07/2010
• Is purpose really an effective motivator?, Dan Pink 03/29/2010
• Small Steps, Big Leaps Briefing: The Science of Getting People to Do the Right Thing, Stanford Center for Social Innovation 03/06/2010
• The Open Secret To Motivating Employees, Forbes 02/18/2010
• Empathy Conducive to Creativity, Pacific Standard Magazine 02/17/2010
• Motivation in Today’s Workplace: The Link to Performance, SHRM India 01/07/2010
• Training yourself to be happy, CNN 12/30/2009
• A LowCost Way to Improve Performance, Business Week 12/29/2009
• Six Months into the Job: How Successful Is the President’s Leadership Style?, Knowledge@wharton 08/05/2009
• Students ‘Make A Wish’ come true, ABC News 03/25/2009

Knowledge @ Wharton

• What to Do When Life Hands You ‘Option B’, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/31/2017
• Why Some Companies Need More Tortoises, Not Hares, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/28/2017
• Five New Authors Share Insights on Personal Growth, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/21/2017
• For Zappos’ Tony Hsieh, ‘Holacracy’ Is the Right Fit, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/07/2016
• ‘Originals’: How Anyone Can Become a Trailblazer, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/02/2016
• Deep Work: The Secret to Achieving Peak Productivity, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/12/2016
• The ‘Magic Strings’ of Mitch Albom, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/10/2015
• Can Google’s Rules Transform Your Workplace?, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/03/2015
• Kiva’s Jessica Jackley: How Entrepreneurs Can Do a Lot with a Little, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/31/2015
• Author Brian Little on Personality and the ‘Art of Wellbeing’, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/27/2015
• Can People Analytics Help Firms Manage People Better?, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/10/2015
• To ‘Think Like a Freak,’ Start with These Three Words, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/02/2015
• What Do Women Need? A Little Bit of Overconfidence, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/29/2014
• Why True Entrepreneurs Go Down ‘and Still Come Back Fighting’, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/17/2014
• Nicholas Kristof’s ‘Path’ to More Effective Giving, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/11/2014
• Want to Build a OneofaKind Company? Ask Peter Thiel, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/03/2014
• Amy Chua on Success and ‘The Triple Package’, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/23/2014
• Arianna Huffington on How to ‘Thrive’, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/11/2014
• Dan Ariely on ‘The Honest Truth About Dishonesty’, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/31/2014
• ‘Work Smarts’: Betty Liu on How to Succeed in Your Career, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/27/2014
• Sallie Krawcheck on the Business Case for Diverse Leadership, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/24/2014
• Leadership Challenges at Johnson & Johnson, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/09/2014
• Malcolm Gladwell on the Advantages of Disadvantages, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/03/2013
• 15 Ways to Solve the Budget Impasse, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/08/2013
• The New Philanthropists: More Sophisticated, More Demanding — and Younger, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/24/2013
• Michael Mauboussin on the ‘Success Equation’, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/06/2013
• Daniel Pink on Why ‘To Sell Is Human’, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/06/2013
• Book Report: Spring Reading for a Fresh Start, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/06/2013
• An Insider’s View of The New York Times, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/19/2013
• Going Bossfree: Utopia or ‘Lord of the Flies’?, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/01/2012
• Hold That Password: The New Reality of Evaluating Job Applicants, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/11/2012
• If Not a Raise, Then What?, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/31/2012
• Shortsighted Frugality? Employers Who Rein in Compensation Too Much Could Pay a Price Later, Knowledge @ Wharton 01/18/2012
• When Your Job Makes You Sick: Employees Find Little Leverage in Today’s Workplace, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/28/2011
• Happy Days Are Not Here Again, Knowledge @ Wharton 07/11/2011
• A Recession for Perks? What Companies Offer and What Employees Want, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/22/2011
• The Problem with Financial Incentives — and What to Do About It, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/30/2011
• Analyzing Effective Leaders: Why Extraverts Are Not Always the Most Successful Bosses, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/23/2010
• Putting a Face to a Name: The Art of Motivating Employees, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/17/2010
• Six Months into the Job: How Successful Is the President’s Leadership Style?, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/05/2009