Greg McKeown

I teach and write on interpersonal communication, prioritization and team effectiveness. 

In this pursuit, I've written two New York Times bestsellers, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, and “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most”. Together they have sold more than three million copies and been published into 45+ languages. 

I've spoken to hundreds of audiences as I've traveled to 45 countries around the world. Clients include Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, X and Nike as well as TED Fellows, SXSW, and the Navy Seals.

I host The Greg McKeown Podcast which is consistently ranked as a top business podcast. Guests have included Brad Smith (President of Microsoft),  Ed Catmull (cofounder of Pixar), Ron Jonson (creator of Apple Stores and the Genius Bar) Arthur Brooks (Harvard Professor) and Matthew McConaughey (Academy Award Winning Actor).

My work has been covered in print media including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Fast Company, Fortune, Politico, Inc., and Harvard Business Review. It’s been covered on NPR, NBC, FOX, and many times on The Steve Harvey Show.

I'm an active Social Innovator. I served for 7 years as a Board Member for Washington D.C. policy group Resolve and as a mentor with 2 Seeds, a non-profit incubator for agricultural projects in Africa. I've spoken at non-profit groups including The Kauffman Fellows, Net Impact, and Stanford University (where I also co-created the popular class, Designing Life, Essentially).

Prior to this, I collaborated in the research and writing of "Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter" and worked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Practice assessing senior executives.

I did my MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, my Global Leadership and Public Policy certificate at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and I'm currently doing doctoral research on Interpersonal Communication at the University of Cambridge.

Author, "Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most"

Reading a book is among the most high-leverage activities on earth. For an investment more or less equivalent to the length of a single workday (and a few dollars), you can gain access to what the smartest people have already figured out. 

Reading, that is, reading to really understand, delivers residual results by any estimate. 

Unfortunately, many people are not taking advantage of this. The typical American reads only two book a year (2025). 40 percent didn't read even one book all year.

I've dedicated my professional life to teach people how to negotiate what's essential.

In this pursuit, I've written two New York Times bestsellers, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, and “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most”. Together they have sold three million copies and been published into 40 languages. 

I've spoken to more than 500 audiences as I've traveled to 45 countries around the world. Clients include Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Nike as well as TED Fellows, and SXSW.

I host The Greg McKeown Podcast which is consistently ranked as a top business podcast. Recent guests include Brad Smith (President of Microsoft),  Ed Catmull (cofounder of Pixar), Ron Jonson (creator of Apple Stores and the Genius Bar) Arthur Brooks (Harvard professor) and Matthew McConaughey (Academy Award Winning Actor).

His work has been covered in print media including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time, Fast Company, Fortune, Politico, Inc., and Harvard Business Review. It’s been covered on NPR, NBC, FOX, and many times on The Steve Harvey Show.

I'm an active Social Innovator. I served for 7 years as a Board Member for Washington D.C. policy group Resolve and as a mentor with 2 Seeds, a non-profit incubator for agricultural projects in Africa. I've spoken at non-profit groups including The Kauffman Fellows, Net Impact, and Stanford University (where I also co-created the popular class, Designing Life, Essentially).

Prior to this, I collaborated in the research and writing of "Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter" and worked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Practice assessing senior executives.

I did my MBA at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, my Global Leadership and Public Policy certificate at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and I'm currently doing doctoral research on negotiation and peacemaking at the University of Cambridge.

2X NYTs Bestselling Author

MULTITASKING DOES NOT WORK.

Most of us think we know how it works.
Research suggests most of us are wrong.

Modern life quietly rewards juggling—emails open during meetings, Slack pinging while you “focus,” podcasts playing while you plan your day. 

Multitasking starts to feel like a prerequisite for relevance.

But dividing attention always has a cost: lower productivity, weaker decision-making, and declining mental health.

I once worked with a highly driven executive who had been rewarded his entire career for learning quickly and saying yes. 

Opportunity followed opportunity. Curiosity turned into obsession. 

Soon, he was trying to do everything.

When I met him, he was making progress—but only a millimeter at a time, in a million directions.

He was overworked and underutilized.

In one conversation, I drew two simple figures.

One showed arrows pointing everywhere.

The other showed a single arrow pointing in one direction.

I asked him, “What would happen if we identified the one thing you could do that would make the highest contribution?”

He paused. Then said, quietly and sincerely,
“That is the question.”

It’s the question for all of us.

Will we keep filling our schedules with many good things—while slowly crowding out the truly great ones?

Or will we focus on what matters most and eliminate, as best we can, what doesn’t?

One path reliably leads to burnout and frustration.

The other leads to clarity, fulfillment, and better work.

A 1-minute strategy for greater fulfillment:

✅Do fewer things.
✅Do them better.
✅You will be happier.

Learn how to live an Essential life by joining my newsletter with 199,000+ leaders by clicking the link here: https://lnkd.in/g9i9J_da

We don’t misunderstand people because we’re bad listeners.
We misunderstand them because we’re too confident we already understand.👇🏼

We spend a lot of energy worrying about whether we’re being understood.

We spend almost no energy questioning whether we’re actually understanding others.

That imbalance quietly breaks conversations, relationships, teams, and decisions.

Here’s a little experiment that exposes it.

At Stanford, researchers ran what’s called the “tapper study.”

One person taps the rhythm of a familiar song.
Another person tries to guess the song from the tapping alone.

Before tapping, the tappers predicted the listeners would get it right about 50% of the time.

In reality, almost nobody guessed correctly.

The melody that felt obvious in the tapper’s head was almost invisible to the listener.

But here’s the part that fascinates me even more:

The original study never measured how confident the listeners were before they heard anything.

So I started testing it in keynotes and leadership sessions.

Before the tapping starts, I ask the audience:
“How confident are you that you’ll recognize the song?”

Hands go up. Smiles everywhere. Total certainty.

Then the tapping begins.

And just like the Stanford study... almost no one gets it right.

The most interesting part isn’t how hard the task is.

It’s how confident people were before they had any real information.

Here’s the uncomfortable takeaway:

When we’re confident we’ll understand, we stop listening carefully.

✅We fill in the gaps ourselves.
✅We hear what we expect to hear.
✅We move on too fast.

Assumed understanding is fragile.
It collapses the moment reality doesn’t match the story in our heads.

That’s why so many conversations go sideways, even when everyone has good intentions.

So here’s a simple experiment for your next important conversation:

• Lower your confidence.
• Assume you’re missing something essential.
• Ask one clarifying question before you respond.
• Listen like the answer might surprise you.

Understanding doesn’t come from being certain.

It comes from staying curious.

Curiosity, unlike confidence, actually keeps you awake in the conversation. 🧠

If you want to learn how to live an Essential life, join my newsletter with 199,000+ leaders by clicking the link here: https://lnkd.in/g9i9J_da

Most people avoid failure.
My friend teaches people to collect it. 👇

He’s a Spanish teacher with a refreshingly strange way of thinking about mistakes.

He asks his students to imagine they’re carrying a bag with 1,000 beads.

Every time they make a mistake while speaking Spanish, they remove one bead.

Grammar slip? Bead gone.
Wrong word? Another bead.
Awkward sentence? Pop — bead out.

When the bag is empty, they’ve reached Level 1 mastery.

Suddenly, mistakes stop feeling like embarrassment.

They become progress.

Most people say they want to learn a new language.
Very few ever become fluent.

Not because they’re incapable — but because they’re terrified of sounding foolish.

So they wait until they “feel ready.”

✅They practice silently.
✅They avoid real conversations.
✅They protect their ego instead of training their skill.

And progress quietly stalls.

Giving yourself permission to fail takes courage.
It feels vulnerable. Exposed. Messy.

But effortless progress doesn’t come from perfection.
It comes from repetition, feedback, and a willingness to look a little ridiculous in public.

There is no mastery without mistakes.
There is no learning without the courage to be rubbish.

Maybe the question isn’t:
“How do I avoid messing up?”

Maybe it’s:
“How quickly can I empty my bag of beads?”

HARSH TRUTH: You are not a good listener. 

One study found that 96% of professionals believe they listen well.

That number should give us pause.

In my experience, many of us significantly overestimate our listening ability. 

Even more concerning, some research suggests our capacity to truly listen may decline as we get older.

So how do we become better listeners in a world saturated with distractions, notifications, and noise?

The answer may be unexpected: play.

Play demands creativity. 

Creativity requires attention—especially to other people. 

To build on someone else’s idea, you have to hear it first. 

To respond well, you have to notice what’s actually being offered.

Play drops us into unfamiliar territory, where cues matter and presence is required. 

You can’t fake it. You either listen—or the game breaks.

Practiced often enough, these skills don’t stay in play.

They transfer to conversations, leadership, relationships, and work.

In a distracted world, better listening may start with something we stopped taking seriously far too soon.

Join 199,000+ leaders who live an essential life by joining my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/g9i9J_da

Reminder: You can do anything but not everything.

I tried a simple experiment in a room full of thoughtful, capable people.

Before it started, I asked one question:

“How confident are you that you’ll understand what you’re about to hear?”

Everyone was confident.

Almost no one was right.

That gap explains a lot about why conversations fail.

I unpack it in this week’s 1-Minute Wednesday.

→ Read the full newsletter below 👇

Life gets better when you make things simpler.

It sounds like common sense—yet most of us quietly do the opposite. 

We overcomplicate tasks that don’t need to be hard, then wonder why they feel overwhelming.

When I notice that happening, I try to pause and step back. 

Instead of pushing harder, I ask a different question: 

How could this be simpler?

Look for:

- unnecessary steps. 
- redundant processes. 
- extra layers that crept in over time. 

More often than not, there’s a simpler path to the same outcome.

If you’re facing a task that feels heavier than it should, try this:

1. Start with the end in mind. Be clear about what “done” actually looks like.

2. Examine the process you’re using now. Question every step.

3. Remove what doesn’t meaningfully contribute to the result.

The change doesn’t have to be dramatic. You don’t need a complete overhaul.

Sometimes removing one small step from a complex process is enough to create momentum—and relief.

Simplicity isn’t laziness.

It’s clarity in action.

Join 199,000+ leaders who live an essential life by joining my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/g9i9J_da

I spent 10 years confusing people by trying to help them understand.

I'd notice the blank stare. See the confusion in their eyes.

And my instinct was always the same: Explain more.

✅ Add more context. 
✅ Give more examples. 
✅ Cover all the angles. 
✅ Defend my position. 
✅ Prove I was right.

And somehow, they'd look even more confused.

I thought the problem was them. That they weren't listening hard enough. 

That they needed more information to finally get it.

I was wrong.

About five years ago, I learned something that changed how I communicate.

It came from cognitive science research that seems almost too simple to be true.

When researchers gave people MORE explanations to help them understand something complex, comprehension actually went DOWN. 

The problem wasn't the people. It was the information.

Their brains had maxed out. 

They shifted from understanding to just...coping.

So the researchers did the opposite. 

They removed unnecessary information.

Suddenly, understanding skyrocketed.

All those years, I thought clarity came from effort. 

From saying more. From being thorough.

But clarity doesn't come from effort.

It comes from restraint.

Here's what you can do to avoid this issue:

In meetings, instead of over-explaining, identify the ONE idea that actually mattered. Say it. Then stop.

With my team, instead of defending ideas with a wall of reasoning, I'd state the core and ask questions.

Engagement went up. Misunderstandings went down.

With others, instead of cramming in everything I wanted them to know, I protected what mattered most.

They made better decisions.

Here's the hard truth: You don't need to say everything you know.

You need to protect what matters most.

Most people will read this and still want to explain more. Add more detail. 

I get it. I was there.

But every extra word is noise to the person trying to understand.

Every additional point dilutes the main point.

Every defense of your idea weakens the idea itself.

Clarity isn't a luxury. It's a superpower.

And it belongs to people who know when to stop talking. 👊🏼

UNPOPULAR OPINION: Everyone tells you to compete harder. They should be telling you to compete differently. 👇🏼

On October 20, 1968, Dick Fosbury, an engineering student who didn't even make his high school track team, just won Olympic gold in the high jump.

The wild part is that nobody else was doing what he did.

Every high jumper before him used the same technique—jumping forward or at an angle, clearing the bar head-on. 

Fosbury did the opposite. He jumped backward. Headfirst. 

Curved his body over the bar using basic physics.

Coaches thought he was insane. Critics said it wouldn't work. He ignored them all.

Here's what happened next:

📈 Before Fosbury: Zero Olympic jumpers faced skyward.
📈 After Fosbury: Every world record holder did.

He didn't beat the competition. He made the competition irrelevant.

The real insight: Fosbury didn't win because he trained harder than everyone else. 

He won because he leveraged something nobody else had—unique knowledge. He was an engineer in a field full of athletes.

When you have expertise others don't have, you stop competing in a crowded field. 

You become the expert. Opportunities come because you're the only one who can do what you do.

Think about your own life. 

✅ What do you know that others find impossibly hard?
✅ What's easy for you but hard for them?
✅ What's the one thing you could deepen your expertise in that would make you the "Fosbury" of your field?

Because here's the truth: You'll never out-hustle 10,000 people doing the same thing. But you can out-specialize all of them.

Invest in your unique edge once. The opportunities will follow you for the rest of your life.

I'm curious—what's your Fosbury Flop? What's the unconventional skill or knowledge that sets you apart? 👇🏼

I spent years making everything harder than it needed to be.

I'd tackle a problem and my first instinct was always the same: 

- Grind harder. 
- Work longer. 
- Push through the resistance.

I believed hard work was the answer to everything.

So I'd work twice as hard and get half the results.

Exhausted. Burned out. Still not where I wanted to be.

I thought the problem was me. That I wasn't talented enough. Disciplined enough. Hungry enough.

But the real problem was my entire approach.

About five years ago, something shifted.

I was stuck on a problem that felt impossible. I'd been attacking it the same way for weeks. Getting nowhere.

And then I asked a question I'd never asked before:

"How can I make this easy?"

Not "How can I work harder?" Not "How can I push through?"

"How can I make this EASY?"

The moment I asked it, everything changed.

Suddenly, the problem didn't feel impossible anymore. 

It felt solvable.

And here's the part that shocked me: When I made it easy, I actually got results.

Real results. Better results than all those months of grinding.

I started applying this to everything.

Here's what I learned: Hard work isn't the answer when you're working hard on the wrong approach.

And most of us are.

We're grinding away, doing things the complicated way, adding friction at every step—and then wondering why we're exhausted and stuck.

So here's what I want you to try: Pick one thing you're making harder than it needs to be. 

Ask yourself: "How can I make this easy?"

Don't answer immediately. Sit with it. Let your brain work.

Ask it again tomorrow. And the next day.

Watch what happens.

That's where the real breakthroughs happen. ⬇️

Most people don’t ask for advice because they think it will make them sound less capable.

But it turns out that this belief is wrong.

When researchers looked closely at what actually happens, they found something surprising: people who ask for advice are seen as more capable, not less.

That insight changed how I approach decisions.

And it led to a second shift I didn’t anticipate.

I unpack both in this week’s 1-Minute Wednesday.

👉 Read the full newsletter below

Illustration by Pejman Milani

Quick question:

Who do you listen to on autopilot?

The people you know best?

The conversations you think you can predict?

That assumption has a cost.

This week’s 1-Minute Wednesday explores why understanding has to be renewed.

👉 Read it below

Who do you want to listen to differently this week?

If you optimize only for freedom, you shouldn’t be surprised when you end up alone.

Independence sounds powerful—but meaning usually lives in shared responsibility.

We taught a generation to prize independence as the highest goal.

✅ Be your own boss.
✅ Trust no one.
✅ Commit to nothing.
✅ Depend on nobody.

The result wasn’t fulfillment. It was isolation.

People became mobile, successful, and unbound—and quietly lonelier than ever. 

When nothing ties you down, nothing holds you up either. 

Without obligations, without people counting on you, life can start to feel weightless and strangely empty.

Meaning doesn’t come from having endless options. 

It comes from being needed. 

From choosing responsibility. 

From building something with others that you can’t walk away from the moment it gets hard.

The happiest lives aren’t independent. They’re interwoven.

Here's what you can do today:

Identify one place in your life where you could commit more deeply—to a person, a team, or a shared goal.

Not more freedom. More responsibility.

That’s often where meaning starts to grow.

Learn how to live an Essential life by joining my newsletter with 199,000+ leaders by clicking the link here: https://lnkd.in/g9i9J_da

Do the following and thank me later:

Dedicate mornings to essential work. 

Break down that work into three sessions of no more than ninety minutes each. 

Take a short break (ten to fifteen minutes) in between sessions to rest and recover.

Ever have a day where everything is flowing...
and then one email detonates your focus?

You were clear. Productive. On track.
Then suddenly—gone.

When that happens, here’s a simple tool I’ve found surprisingly effective: the 1-Minute Reset.

It works like this.

1. Create a single page of true things about your life.

List out the accomplishments you’ve earned, evidence of growth, meaningful memories, quotes that steady you, music you love, and photos that remind you who you are.

2. When you feel emotionally flooded, read that page for one minute. 

If you're knocked off course, stop and read that page for one minute. 

No fixing. No arguing. Just remembering.

That’s often enough to reset your nervous system and return to what actually matters.

Let me know if that works for you. 👊🏼

Learn how to live an Essential life by joining my newsletter with 199,000+ leaders by clicking the link here: https://lnkd.in/g9i9J_da

Here's the hard truth: High achievers are the most vulnerable to this trap.

We're wired to win. To achieve. To climb. 

And we assume that's the same as living.

But winning at one thing and losing yourself in the process isn't winning.

It's trading.

The people I know who are actually fulfilled aren't the ones chasing one big achievement.

They're the ones who built a life that's bigger than any single win. 

They have: 

✅ Multiple sources of meaning. 
✅ Multiple ways they contribute. 
✅ Multiple reasons to get out of bed that have nothing to do with external validation.

American runner Gabby Thomas shows something radical: You can be world-class at something AND have it not define you.

You can win the biggest stage AND know that's not the most important thing about you.

You can be driven AND have your identity tied to something deeper than achievement.

So ask yourself: If your biggest achievement disappeared tomorrow, who would you be?

If your title, your award, your success vanished—would you still know who you are?

Because that's the real gold medal.

Not the one around your neck.

The one you carry inside. 👊🏼

Harmeet Kelley

Listening compounds faster than talking.

We’re taught that strong communication is about speaking clearly, confidently, and persuasively. 

But that’s only half the equation—and not the compounding half.

The real advantage comes from listening well.

Every time you genuinely listen, you gain information without spending social capital. 

You hear what’s said—and what’s avoided. 

You catch assumptions, fears, incentives, and subtext. 

You notice patterns others talk right past.

Over time, this compounds. 

While others compete for airtime, you quietly accumulate understanding. 

And understanding is leverage.

That’s why the best leaders, strategists, and problem-solvers aren’t usually the loudest people in the room. 

They’re the ones asking fewer questions—and listening harder to the answers.

Here's what you should do:

For the next 24 hours, deliberately listen more than you speak.

Resist the urge to jump in. Let pauses breathe. Ask one more follow-up than you normally would.

At the end of the day, reflect on one question:

What did I learn today that I would have completely missed if I’d been focused on talking?

That answer is the beginning of the compound interest.

UNPOPULAR OPINION: If your workplace has no conflict, it’s probably underperforming. 👇🏼

When you imagine a great work environment, you probably think of:

✅Good communication
✅Shared goals
✅Mutual respect
✅Motivated people

One thing rarely makes the list:

Conflict.

Yet research shows that the highest-performing teams don’t avoid conflict — they practice the right kind of conflict.

Researchers call it “constructive controversy.”

The problem isn’t disagreement.
The problem is what happens when disagreement stays hidden.

Too often, conflict gets pushed underground.

Instead of becoming a productive force that sharpens ideas and improves decisions, it quietly turns into:

• Tension
• Resentment
• Politics
• Slower progress
• Weaker trust

Silence doesn’t create harmony.
It creates blind spots.

So how do leaders actually build healthy conflict into their teams?

Amy Gallo, author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People), offers a few powerful principles:

1. Make it safe to speak up.
Disagreement isn’t disloyalty. Staying silent when you see a problem doesn’t help you — or the team. Normalize respectful dissent.

2. Pay attention to what’s really happening.
Cultural shifts create discomfort. Watch body language. Listen for hesitation. Invite feedback from people who will tell you the truth.

3. State your intentions upfront.
Being challenged — especially by a leader — can feel threatening. Clarify what the conversation is and what it isn’t before it begins.

There’s no such thing as a conflict-free relationship.
There’s only healthy conflict or unhealthy conflict.

The teams that grow fastest don’t eliminate tension.
They channel it.

They use disagreement to sharpen thinking, surface blind spots, and build stronger solutions together.

Maybe the goal isn’t more comfort at work.

Maybe it’s more courage.

✅More honest conversations.
✅More productive friction.
✅More trust built through respectful challenge.

Because progress rarely comes from everyone nodding in agreement.

Don’t add more meetings.
Reduce the noise.

Don’t add more emails.
Reduce the noise.

Don’t add more pressure.
Reduce the noise.

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