I presented Give and Take:  A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant at the June 5 First Friday Book Synopsis.  The point of the book is clear – the more you give, the more you do not approach your life, or your career, as a “Taker” — the better it is, for you, and for others.

Here are my five takeaways from this book:

1)  This may be another salvo in the “soft skills, emotional intelligence – these really matter” messages that we keep hearing. And, it is a message worth repeating.
2)  I think that we come by our “taker” tendencies rather naturally. We may progress to the “matcher” tendencies out of some level of simple human decency. But I suspect that we have to work at developing our “giver” tendencies.
3)  If we could be successful at developing the “giver” tendencies, and create “workplace altruism,” and “societal altruism,” everyone would move ahead.
4)  I think it would be good to embrace the concept of, and spread the word about, the “expanding pie” as superior to the “fixed pie.”
5)  Of the 10 Actions for Impact, we could all start with #5 (“embrace the five-minute favor”), and then adopt #2 (“Run a Reciprocity Ring”).

So – how are you doing on your own road to becoming a (better) Giver?

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You can purchase my synopsis of Give and Take, with comprehensive handout + audio, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.