Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential | Big Think+

The “compliment sandwich” technique doesn’t actually work. Wharton professor Adam Grant on how to give feedback that will actually help others reach their full potential.

Wharton School of Business professor Adam Grant believes it’s time to stop focusing on “natural talent.” He shares his experience growing up not feeling good at anything in particular, and how he surpassed that to achieve his highest potential.

He also shares a key phrase for inspiring others as a leader and maximizing their performance.

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0:00 A world obsessed with raw talent
0:20 Meet Adam Grant
2:05 Squandered potential
2:33 Two problematic kinds of leaders
3:35 The best kind of leader
4:20 How to deliver feedback
6:50 The 19 words for most effective feedback

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About Adam Grant:

Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years. As an organizational psychologist, he is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world’s 10 most influential management thinkers and Fortune’s 40 under 40.

Grant is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of five books that have sold millions of copies and been translated into 45 languages: Think Again, Give and Take, Originals, Option B, and Power Moves. His books have been named among the year’s best by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. His viral piece on languishing was the most-read New York Times article of 2021 and the most-saved article across all platforms.

Grant hosts WorkLife, a chart-topping TED original podcast. His speaking and consulting clients include Google, the NBA, Bridgewater, and the Gates Foundation. He writes on work and psychology for The New York Times, has served on the Defense Innovation Board at the Pentagon, has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has appeared on Billions. He has more than 6 million followers on social media and features new insights in GRANTED, his free monthly newsletter.

[DonaldAMisc]

"Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

[fluentinoverthinking]

I used to train dogs and there was a popular mistake people made all the time - instead of praising their dogs when they were doing right things they were waiting for them to do something they didn’t like and punish😢 This is a cruel approach, both towards animals and towards people. If someone is interested you can read about positive reinforcement methods. It helps a lot in life. I feel like I can connect to anyone and talk to anyone, whether the person is angry or upset, they always respond well if you now how to approach them.

[electricjellyfish]

"As long as I learn I will make mistakes"

Failure can be a good thing. And in fact it's natural! It can often times be part of the process towards achieving something.
Kids don't start as walking prodigies, they fall all over the place!
But eventually they can become professional dancers.

[oddlots-xyz]

4:50 “If you give feedback at review time that comes as a surprise, you have failed as a leader” - wholly agree with this. If you can’t give constructive feedback in the moment, you may be deploying the wrong kind of empathy to be helpful to that person.

[ReflectionOcean]

- Recognize potential beyond initial talent (0:00)

- Embrace the role of a coach to develop people (2:31)

- Avoid cheerleader or critic extremes (2:36)

- Give feedback that promotes growth, not just judgment (4:14)

- Separate praise from criticism and invite two-way dialogue (5:43)

- Frame feedback with positive expectations (6:49)

- Encourage mutual growth and collaboration (7:16)

[karweng]

It's been a while since we have such an unbiased, constructive presenter with solid content on Big Think! Enjoyed this episode very much and looking forward to implement the feedback style when it comes to effective leadership.

[willv]

For those that are thinking about positive reinforcement, it's not that simple. Highly recommend Huberman's episode on Growth Mindset where he mentions we should focus on praising effort vs. ability. Traditional reinforcement turns into what Adam Grant is referring to here as a cheerleader.

[hwway]

As a 10-13 year old I was making third place in vaulting consistently. By that age I was anticipated to not grow tall enough to ever compete seriously and was sent to a high school with no sport extracurriculars that focused on mathematics with classes until evening. I never had an aptitude for drawing since I had spent most of my childhood playing outside being active, not inside learning to draw shapes. It turned out that I had no aptitude mathematics either after all. I now spend my time writing online mediocrely, occasionally translating technical into comprehensive and sometimes explaining social topics ranging from casual interpersonal topics to in-depth academic topics. It may not matter if we have a particular aptitude for something if we work hard and have the right guidance, coaching and training available to us, but having the wrong kind, or lack of any, can waste potential that we could never have known or imagined where it could lead.

[ashaide]

Eight minutes of good, practical advice on leadership and coaching. Very nice.

As someone who's led and had to train/coach young people, many of what Adam Grant says are familiar - so I know what works and what doesn't, and he gets a good deal of them - but also learned a lot.

[CD_RN_Independent_Voter]

It’s helpful guidance to tell someone in real time what behaviors they did well so they have a sense of being on the right track and a sense of having stability & growth with the company.

[Haffun]

My Heart goes out to people who keep trying in the face of failure. I wonder why fate isn't ashamed.

[t_n_t_o]

Mr. Grant you seem very kind and also you understand that the world isn‘t black and white which was necessary to understand for you to unlock your potential. It shows that you know that you have/had flaws and are accepting them. Only by accepting them you can start growing. A lot of people fail to accept them.. so great work and thank you for sharing your journey and knowledge!

[kiltedpiper]

I needed to hear this, especially the compliment sandwich part. Thanks Adam.

[HominidPetro]

Yay a video that actually gives me hope and helps me feel good!

[LimitedWard]

This is actually all really great advice. I think for me the thing I struggle with the most when delivering feedback is figuring out what feedback I want to give in the first place. Perhaps I keep my head down on my work too much to notice what others are doing well and what they can improve upon? IDK how to start actually spotting good/bad behavior in others.

[behnamrajabali]

I have read his books
Think Again
Originals
Give and Take
And I am shocked by the information and thought behind each one of them.
He is excellent at bringing new innovative ideas to have a work-life balance.
Thank you, man.

[mchauhan]

Excellent video. Adam Grant is so articulate. Succint yet comprehensive at the same time. Cheers!

[garrybrown]

Coaches/mentors walk a tightrope. The best can teach us and motivate us to move forward. We need more of the best coaches/mentors to commit to training coaches/mentors to expand the process and each of us need to seek out coaches/mentors. Thank you for perseverance.

[davidhaynes]

We had a teacher like that in grade 7 and 8.
He was brutal, intimidating, and one could hear him screaming at students from any location of the middle school.
He never assaulted anyone I know of, but even the toughest country kids would shake in there boots around him.
I don’t know if he taught us much. They ended up making him the librarian.
That’s where my love of books took a hiatus.

[MrOwen-xshd]

We all have limitless Energy. To paraphrase Herbert Kohl; the word potential imposes a limit, something reachable. However, I like the idea that our energy is limitless and we can never know what the floor or celling is.
This is a great topic, thanks for your insight.