Are you a giver? Or are you a taker? Or maybe a matcher, which is how the author describes people who tend to follow the adage “you scratch my back, I scratch your back.”

In Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant, the author explores the unique advantages of being a giver. The book focuses mostly on the workplace but the idea can apply to relationships, churches, family, etc.

Grant opens the book with an interesting insight: when studies are done on givers, takers and matchers in a given workplace, the givers tend to group at the bottom (the classic pushover stereotype) but also at the top (the CEO’s and other top leaders). The takers and matchers tend to dwell in the middle.

Based on this research, Grant has written a book to help us be one of those givers who rises to the top. The title of the book makes me squirm a little bit. Not sure I buy into the idea of seeing my being a giver as way to promote my own advancement. Still, human behavior is driven by self interest most of the time, and if the book helps a few of those takers switch gears I’m all for it. Including my own behavior, I might add.

Anyway, the book is well written and insightful. Gave me some insight into my own behavior (I usually hover between giver and matcher) and those of some of the people I work with (mostly givers, though some are entirely too giving). If you manage people or work in a group setting of any kind, t will probably help you too.