Adam Grant

Adam Grant is an American organizational psychologist at Wharton whose bestselling books challenge conventional wisdom about work, creativity, and human potential.

Adam Grant is the Wharton School’s top-rated professor and one of the most widely read popular psychologists writing today. His work sits at the intersection of organizational behavior and practical self-improvement, translating academic research into accessible advice without losing too much nuance in the process. His books consistently challenge comfortable assumptions: in Give and Take he argues that generosity is a sustainable competitive advantage; in Originals he examines how non-conformists drive change; in Think Again he makes the case for intellectual humility and the skill of reconsidering what you believe.

Hidden Potential extends that thread, pushing back against the notion that talent is fixed or that high achievers were simply born capable. Grant draws on research about learning and character development to argue that growth matters more than starting ability — a message that is both genuinely useful and, at times, a little too optimistic about the tractability of human change.

Grant writes with clarity and enthusiasm, and his use of stories and studies is engaging. The criticism leveled at his work — fairly — is that it can be selective in its use of evidence, and some of his central findings rest on studies that have not replicated cleanly. Readers should engage critically rather than accept each claim wholesale. Still, as thinkers in the popular business and psychology space go, Grant is among the more careful and the more rewarding.