25 Adam Grant Quotes to Master the Art of Productivity

By Norbert Juma | Published May 11, 2023

If you are inspired by the thoughts and writings of Adam Grant, you will also love reading these Adam Grant quotes.

We have listed the top quotes from Adam Grant that are inspirational and thought-provoking.

We have also discussed Adam Grant and his work.

So, let’s dive in without any delay!

An Introduction to Adam Grant

Adam Grant is a highly acclaimed organizational psychologist and author.

He is a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School.

The focus of his work is on suggesting ways that can help people find motivation in their lives.

This helps improve the overall well-being and productivity of a person.

Life and Education

Born in 1981, Adam Grant grew up in an educated family.

Most of the family members were teachers or associated with academics.

So, his home environment fascinated him to learn and explore new things.

He studied at Harvard University and did his Bachelors in psychology and organizational behavior.

Later, he was admitted to the University of Michigan and completed his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in organizational psychology.

Career

After his Ph.D., Adam Grant became a faculty member at Wharton School.

He soon became one of the most highly respected and influential scholars.

He successfully published over 100 scholarly articles in the world’s top academic journals.

Apart from this, Grant is also a powerful speaker and prolific author.

He is the author of an array of best-selling books.

Not only this, most of his books were translated into 35 languages.

Adam Grant is famous for his insightful and innovative approach when it comes to understanding the following:

Motivation
Creativity
Productivity

Popular Books

Some of his most notable contributions as an author are:

Give and Take
Originals
Option B

Give and Take

This book is about the concept of “Givers” and “Takers” in the workplace.

Grant suggests that people who generously give their time, expertise, and resources are relatively more successful.

Originals

In this book, Grant explores the ways to enhance innovation and creativity in a person’s life.

He also discussed that successful innovators might not be rule-breakers or risk-takers.

On the contrary, they are the people who can create a balance between tradition and novelty.

Option B

Option B is a book Adam Grant wrote in collaboration with Sheryl Sandberg.

This book provides practical advice to readers who are facing loss in their lives.

It talks about the ways which can help people to build resilience, practice gratitude, and focus on their personal growth.

Top 5 Adam Grant Quotes

Here are the top 5 quotes by Adam Grant, the organizational psychologist and best-selling author.

1. “Conformity is dangerous.” — Adam Grant

2. “I’m not a fan of being inauthentic.” — Adam Grant

3. “In life, there’s no such thing as an unmitigated good.” — Adam Grant

4. “Tweeting has taught me the discipline to say more with fewer words.” — Adam Grant

5. “I try to get as close as I can to cleaning out my inbox every night.” — Adam Grant

Mindful Adam Grant Quotes

The most inspiring quotes from the brilliant Adam Grant are here to read and share.

6. “Power frees us from the chains of conformity.” — Adam Grant

7. “Creativity may be hard to nurture, but it’s easy to thwart.” — Adam Grant

8. “Frenemies are worse than enemies, and it’s not just in the workplace.” — Adam Grant

9. “Geniuses don’t have better ideas than the rest of us. They just have more of them.” — Adam Grant

10. “Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity.” — Adam Grant

Adam Grant Quotes About People

Adam Grant is more at ease when discussing human nature. Here are some of his well-known quotes on the subject.

11. “To grow, people need to be challenged.” — Adam Grant

12. “Negative feedback can make people feel inferior.” — Adam Grant

13. “If we want people to vote, we need to make it a larger part of their self-image.” — Adam Grant

14. “Some people are selfish in all of their relationships. Those people are called sociopaths.” — Adam Grant

15. “If you don’t hire originals, you run the risk of people disagreeing but not voicing their dissent.” — Adam Grant

Adam Grant Quotes About Leaders & Leadership

These are a few of the most profound and provocative quotes about leadership by one of the most influential business thinkers.

16. “In the conversation about women in leadership, male voices are noticeably absent.” — Adam Grant

17. “For women to achieve equal representation in leadership roles, it’s important that they have the backing of men as well as women.” — Adam Grant

18. “If an organization values innovation, you can assume it’s safe to speak up with new ideas, leaders will listen, and your voice matters.” — Adam Grant

19. “Leaders who master emotions can rob us of our capacities to reason. If their values are out of step with our own, the results can be devastating.” — Adam Grant

20. “It’s true that every leader needs followers. We can’t all be nonconformists at every moment, but conformity is dangerous – especially for an entity in formation.” — Adam Grant

Adam Grant Quotes about Givers and Takers

In the quotes below, Adam Grant illuminates the two personality types, the givers and the takers.

21. “If you want to be a generous giver, you have to watch out for selfish takers.” — Adam Grant

22. “I spend a lot of my time trying to help leaders build cultures of productive givers.” — Adam Grant

23. “Takers are self-serving in their interactions. It’s all about what you can do for me.” — Adam Grant

24. “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.” — Adam Grant

25. “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 the timely help.” — Adam Grant