Adam Grant

Organizational psychologist and expert on workplace dynamics, leadership, and innovation.

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Key positions and views

The most effective managers are not the top individual performers but rather those who are the most collaborative and focused on creating opportunities for others.

Future career success will depend more on agility and the ability to synthesize information ('dot connectors') than on innate talent or simple knowledge accumulation.

Structured idea generation techniques like 'brainwriting,' where individuals work alone first, are superior in both quantity and quality to traditional group brainstorming.

Hiring processes can be significantly improved by giving candidates a 'do-over' interview, which enhances an organization's ability to predict future success.

The psychological traits of a CEO, particularly narcissism, have a direct and measurable impact on a company's financial performance, risk profile, and recovery from crises.

Podcast consensus on Grant

Points of consensus

▶Grant consistently argues that collaborative and enabling behaviors are better predictors of leadership success than individual performance metrics, as seen in his analysis of sales managers and Corning's 'Fellows' program.

▶He repeatedly emphasizes the superiority of structured, evidence-based processes over traditional corporate practices, such as favoring 'brainwriting' over brainstorming and 'do-over' interviews in hiring.

▶A core tenet of Grant's perspective is that psychological traits have tangible business outcomes, exemplified by his detailed claims linking CEO narcissism to financial volatility and slower crisis recovery.

Points of debate

▶Grant highlights a central conflict in business strategy: while soft skills like agility are becoming paramount for future success, corporate investment in their development is the first to be cut during economic downturns.Apr 2026

▶He presents a debate on idea generation, contrasting the ineffectiveness of traditional group brainstorming with the superior output of individuals working alone before collaborating.Apr 2026

▶Grant's claims create a tension between promotion criteria and actual effectiveness, noting that while the 'babble effect' promotes dominant speakers, the best managers are often the quiet enablers.

▶He points to a paradox in innovation culture, contrasting the typical corporate structure where one 'no' kills an idea with W.L. Gore's model where one 'yes' is enough to launch an experiment.Apr 2026

Key themes

▶Redefining Leadership and ManagementApr 2026

Grant argues that effective leadership is often counter-intuitive, favoring collaborative enablers over individual superstars. He uses research on sales managers who made referrals and the 'babble effect' to show that traditional promotion paths often reward the wrong traits, such as talkativeness over competence.

Investors should scrutinize leadership pipelines that over-index on individual performance metrics, as this may indicate a future deficit in effective, team-oriented management that fosters broader organizational success.

▶The Future of Work and Essential SkillsApr 2026

Grant predicts a significant shift in the skills required for career success, where adaptability ('agility') and synthesis ('dot connectors') will surpass innate ability and information recall. He emphasizes that while soft skills are crucial, they are paradoxically the first to be de-funded in downturns, creating a critical skills gap.

Companies that maintain investment in soft skills development during economic downturns may gain a significant long-term competitive advantage in human capital and adaptability.

▶Fostering Systemic InnovationApr 2026

Grant advocates for structured processes over unstructured ones to generate better ideas, citing 'brainwriting' as superior to brainstorming. He highlights corporate systems like W.L. Gore's 'corporate lattice' and Corning's 'Fellows' program that empower experimentation and reward both individual and collaborative innovation.

Analysts should view companies with rigid, top-down approval processes for new ideas as having a higher risk of disruption, as they are likely stifling the internal innovation needed to adapt.

▶The Psychology of Corporate Performance

Grant explores how psychological traits of leaders have tangible financial consequences, particularly the impact of CEO narcissism. He links this trait to riskier policies, slower recovery from crises, extreme financial volatility, and disproportionate executive compensation.

Non-financial metrics, such as a CEO's prominence in annual reports, can serve as potential red flags for investors, signaling a leadership style prone to high-risk, self-serving decisions.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

1960s

Grant notes the origin of the term 'soft skills' by the United States Army, which used it to classify any skill not involving the operation of 'hard' machines.

2008 Financial Crisis

Cites research from this period indicating that banks with narcissistic CEOs recovered more slowly due to riskier policies and a reluctance to admit mistakes.

Post-2011

References Larry Page's return as Google CEO and his expressed fear that the company would become a 'cultural museum,' highlighting the ongoing threat of corporate stagnation.

Present Day

Grant delivers a 'C-' grade to workplaces for their ability to teach collaborative skills and discusses contemporary trends like the four-day workweek and the use of AI for practicing difficult conversations.

2025

Predicts the biggest challenge for organizations will be a failure to experiment sufficiently with AI, leaving them unprepared for its transformative impact.

Suggested prompts

How can organizations reconcile Grant's claim that soft skills budgets are cut first in downturns with his prediction that agility will become the most important career skill? &nearr;What are the potential downsides of W.L. Gore's 'one yes' innovation model, and how might they be mitigated to prevent resource misallocation? &nearr;If the 'babble effect' leads to incompetent promotions, what specific, scalable interventions can companies implement to counteract this bias in leadership selection? &nearr;Given Grant's warning about a lack of AI experimentation, what frameworks can be used to measure the ROI of early-stage AI pilots that may not have immediate financial returns? &nearr;

Key concepts

Leadership & Management 7 ep Innovation & Creativity 5 ep Soft & Collaborative Skills 4 ep CEO Psychology 4 ep Future of Work 3 ep Artificial Intelligence (AI) 2 ep Hiring & Promotion 2 ep Corporate Culture 1 ep

Notable quotes

“The biggest challenge for 2025 is everyone knows that AI is going to turn the world upside down, and no one is doing enough experimentation to figure out how.”

Adam Grant · Adam Grant: Future leaders won't succeed without this key trait

“Research on the 'babble effect' demonstrates that the individual who speaks the most during a meeting is the most likely to be promoted into a leadership position, regardless of competence.”

Adam Grant · Adam Grant: Future leaders won't succeed without this key trait

“Research indicates that the most effective sales managers are typically not the top individual revenue generators from their time as salespeople.”

Adam Grant · Adam Grant: Future leaders won't succeed without this key trait

“Corporate investment in soft skills development is one of the first budgets to be cut during an economic downturn.”

Adam Grant · Adam Grant: Future leaders won't succeed without this key trait

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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