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The cover of Hidden Potential

Hidden Potential

Adam Grant, 2023

Adam Grant shows how character skills, useful discomfort, and support from others help people develop abilities that early tests may miss.

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4 parts, about 17 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • See why potential is better judged by how far someone can travel than by their first visible performance
  • Treat character as learned skills, separate from personality, built by practicing before you feel ready, absorbing information and filtering advice by its source
  • See how schools, teams and hiring can spot hidden ability, using brainwriting, work samples and judging a trajectory rather than a first score

Who it is for

  • Teachers and coaches deciding how to spot and support learners
  • Managers who hire or promote and want to judge trajectory, not pedigree
  • People stuck on a plateau in a skill they care about

What the summary covers

  1. Measure the Climb2 min
  2. Character Skills Are Learned4 min
  3. Build Support Around the Obstacle5 min
  4. Design Systems That See Growth6 min

Recommended by

  • Malcolm GladwellAuthor of Outliers and host of Revisionist History
    I read Hidden Potential in one sitting, loved it, and have been thinking about it ever since. Which is the highest praise I can give a book. This is Adam Grant’s finest work—it will inspire you to bigger dreams.
  • Oprah WinfreyMedia executive and talk show host
    You walk away from reading [Hidden Potential] feeling like, ‘There’s more in me than I knew.’
  • Serena Williams23 time Grand Slam singles tennis champion
    This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would’ve helped me find a more joyful path to progress.
  • Yo Yo Ma19 time Grammy winning cellist
    Hidden Potential teaches us to reach new levels of mastery and unlock our greatest resource: our humanity. We would all be better off if we took Adam Grant’s wise counsel seriously!
  • Mark CubanEntrepreneur and investor
    This is a book that should be read by parents, leaders, coaches, and every school board member in America. Adam Grant reveals that everything you think about developing potential is wrong.
  • James ClearAuthor of Atomic Habits
    This remarkable book reveals what it takes to become a better version of yourself. Adam Grant lights the way to developing talents that once seemed beyond your abilities and achieving goals that once seemed out of reach.

About the author

  • Adam GrantProfessor of organizational psychology at the Wharton School and popular science author
    • Born 13 August 1981 in West Bloomfield, Michigan
    • Harvard BA; Michigan MS and PhD in organizational psychology
    • Hired at Wharton in 2009, the school's youngest tenured professor at 28
    • Former Junior Olympic springboard diver and magician
    • Wharton's top rated professor seven years running; hosts the Re:Thinking podcast
    • 2011 APA early career award

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