Adam Grant

No one wants to hear everything that's in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.

In the eyes of many people, giving doesn't count unless it's completely selfless. In reality, though, giving isn't sustainable when it's completely selfless.

When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.

We have many identities, and we can't be authentic to them all. The best we can do is be sincere in our efforts to earn the values we claim.

We all have thoughts and feelings that we believe are fundamental to our lives but that are better left unspoken.

You want people who choose to follow because they genuinely believe in ideas, not because they're afraid to be punished if they don't. For startups, there's so much pivoting that's required that if you have a bunch of sheep, you're in bad shape.

Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity.

The great thing about a culture of givers is that's not a delusion - it's reality.

If we want girls to receive positive reinforcement for early acts of leadership, let's discourage bossy behavior along with banning bossy labels. That means teaching girls to engage in behaviors that earn admiration before they assert their authority.

To get real diversity of thought, you need to find the people who genuinely hold different views and invite them into the conversation.

People often believe that character causes action, but when it comes to producing moral children, we need to remember that action also shapes character.

I have two rules for a great book: make me think and make me smile.

The opposite of an underminer is a supporter. When colleagues are supportive, they go out of their way to be givers rather than takers, working to enhance our productivity, make us look good, share ideas, and provide timely help.

A resilient culture has a certain amount of resistance embedded in it. Not so much to capsize it, but enough so that it doesn't atrophy.

Successful givers secure their oxygen masks before coming to the assistance of others. Although their motives may be less purely altruistic, their actions prove more altruistic, because they give more.

Most people believe that great leaders are distinguished by their ability to give compelling answers. This profound book shatters that assumption, showing that the more vital skill is asking the right questions…. Berger poses many fascinating questions, including this one: What if companies had mission questions rather than mission statements? This is a book everyone ought to read—without question.

Instead of assuming that emotional intelligence is always useful, we need to think more carefully about where and when it matters.

As more women 'lean in' and we collectively continue to fight sexism, there's another barrier to progress that hasn't been addressed: Many men who would like to see more women leaders are afraid to speak up about it.

Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.

Authenticity means erasing the gap between what you firmly believe inside and what you reveal to the outside world.

This is what I find most magnetic about successful givers: they get to the top without cutting others down, finding ways of expanding the pie that benefit themselves and the people around them. Whereas success is zero-sum in a group of takers, in groups of givers, it may be true that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.