GRANTED: My new TED talk and your thoughts on languishing

May 2021

What we need in leaders is not confidence, but confident humility. It's being secure enough in your strengths to acknowledge your weaknesses—and so determined to get it right that you're willing to admit you were wrong.

1. To watch
I'm excited to share my new TED talk on rethinking our goals, identities, and habits, where confident humility is a key theme:

Speaking without a live audience required some rethinking, but it also gave me a chance to work in some magic, feature some diving, and bring in colleagues to model confident humility.

2. To read

My NYT article on languishing gives a name—and some science—to the void of emptiness and stagnation that many us are feeling.
In my favorite counterpoint so far, Austin Klein makes a compelling case that some of us are dormant, like a volcano waiting to be activated. I agree that we shouldn't expect to flourish in bad conditions, but I still think it's worth trying.
3. To listen

New WorkLife episodes on having productive conflict and building an anti-racist workplace.

In solidarity,

Adam Grant, Ph.D.
Organizational psychologist at Wharton, author of THINK AGAIN, ORIGINALS, GIVE AND TAKE, and OPTION B, and host of WorkLife, a TED original podcast