Adam Grant

speaker

346 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 24 Jul

Adam Grant’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The Rest Is Politics: US · The Leadership Mistake Almost Everyone Makes (Adam Grant) · 24 Jul 2026 podcast

I think there's a case to be made that Amazon has done something right here that the rest of us should pay a lot of attention to, which is the person who's driving the decision or framing the meeting has actually written a six-page structured memo that is sent out in advance, but no one is expected to read it because we're all too busy.

So we show up for the meeting and we will spend the first 15 or 20 minutes just reading the memo to make sure that we're all up to speed and we're on the same page about what the goals of the decision are, what the options on the table are.

And then we're going to go around and make sure we hear from every single person.

Ideally, we don't let the leader share their opinion until the end.

So, yeah, I think sometimes people say the leadership should speak last.

I wouldn't go that far.

I think the leader's job is to facilitate and to make sure that everybody's voice is heard.

But as a leader, you are vulnerable to what's been called the hippo effect.

which, Katty, has become my favorite acronym.

HIPPO stands for the highest paid person's opinion.

As soon as that is known, people are going to start conforming to you.

Goodbye, diversity of thought.

Hello, groupthink.

And so you actually want to withhold your opinion so that people don't know what your preference is, what direction you're most excited about, so that you can go around and say, okay, I'd love to hear everybody's views.

And then let's make sure we're all challenging each other and questioning each other as opposed to looking for consensus and kumbaya.

And at that point, we're a little bit more informed and then the leader can begin to weigh in.

I think a lot of people fixate on the message, and we need to think about the messenger first.

It is surprisingly easy to hear a hard truth from somebody who believes in your potential and cares about your success and well-being.

And too often, managers are busy.

They have a lot of other things on their plate.

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