Adam M. Grant was born in the township of West Bloomfield, Michigan on August 13, 1981 to a lawyer father and a teacher mother. He grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Grant participated in springboarddiving and aspired to be a professional basketball player growing up. During high school, he was named an All-American in 1999 in diving. He received a B.A. from Harvard College, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in organizational psychology. He worked as a professional magician during college. While in graduate school, he married his wife Allison; the couple have three children.
Academic career
Grant was hired by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to serve as an assistant professor for organizational behavior in 2007. After publishing several papers in academic journals, he was hired as an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, becoming the school's youngest tenured professor at age 28. He was ranked by students the best professor at the university from 2011 to 2017. In 2013, he wrote his first book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. As his first published book on organizational psychology, it explored the dynamics behind collaboration, negotiation, and networking in business. The book went on to be translated in twenty-seven languages. Susan Dominus of The New York Times states that his book "incorporated scores of studies and personal case histories that suggest the benefits of an attitude of extreme giving at work." In recognition for his work, Grant was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Thinkers50 Most Influential Global Management Thinker in 2015. A year later his second book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, was published. This study looked at the benefits for pursuing artistic avocations, constantly improving rather than constantly innovating business practices, and the benefits of procrastination. The book became a New York Times bestseller and inspired a TED talk on the habits of original thinkers. Reviews of the book were mixed. While Scientific American praised Grant's work, The Guardian was more critical, commenting: "At times, Grant could be accused of straying off-topic, especially when he is dispensing advice. Children taught how their bad behaviour affects others develop a moral sensibility lacking in those who are merely admonished, he writes, without providing a clear link to the concept of originality." He was named to Fortune's 40 under 40 the same year. In 2017, he co-authored his third book with Facebook Chief Operating OfficerSheryl Sandberg, Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy. The book focused on Grant's close relationship with his co-author and her resilience after her husband's sudden death at a Mexican resort. On August 8, 2017, a software engineer from Google, James Damore, published his controversial 10-page manifesto that argued that there were a range of reasons why men were the majority demographic at Google. Grant published a rebuff on LinkedIn which was featured on CNBC. In his rebuff, he outlined modern consensus among social scientists that believe there is "little to no" differences between the sexes in technical abilities.
Business
Adam Grant is the host of the WorkLife podcast. In 2017 Grant co-founded Give and Take, Inc., a company that makes a software called Givitas, a web-based SaaS platform designed to help organizations implement the principles from his book Give and Take. Grant serves on the board of Lean In and chairs the Creative Advisory board of EXILE Content.
Published work
Books
Grant, Adam. 2013. Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success
Grant, Adam. 2016. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World.
Grant, Adam; Sandberg, Sheryl. 2017. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy.
Grant has written hundreds of research papers, journal articles, newspaper articles, and blog posts. Since 2015, he has been a Contributing Writer for the New York Times Opinion Section and World Economic ForumYoung Global Leader.
Awards
Grant has won numerous awards for research, speaking, writing, and teaching. He won the Class of 1984 Teaching Award, acknowledging him as the highest rated Wharton MBA professor, in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. He has won over a dozen other teaching awards at the Wharton School.
