BOOK
The Person You Mean to Be
How Good People Fight Bias
“Finally: an engaging, evidence-based book about how to battle biases, champion diversity and inclusion, and advocate for those who lack power and privilege. Dolly Chugh makes a convincing case that being an ally isn’t about being a good person—it’s about constantly striving to be a better person.”
— ADAM GRANT
The path to being a better person starts with letting go of being a good person.
Most of us believe we're good people. That belief feels true, and it feels safe. But it can quietly become a finish line, a place we stop, certain we've arrived.
This book makes a different case. Being "good-ish" is the more honest place to stand: it means committing to getting better rather than insisting you're already good. And that turns out to be how real growth works—not a verdict you reach, but a direction you keep choosing.
This is an inspiring guide from Dolly Chugh, an award-winning social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business, on how to confront difficult issues including sexism, racism, inequality, and injustice so that you can make the world (and yourself) better.
“Dolly Chugh applies the power of a growth mindset to work on equity and inclusion at a time when it is much-needed. The Person You Mean to Be is essential reading.”
Carol Dweck (bestselling author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success)
“This is a book for anyone who thinks of themselves as a pretty decent human being but who knows, deep in their heart, they could be better. A cocktail of stories and science that gets you thinking and, more important, gets you acting.”
Angela Duckworth (founder and CEO of Character Lab and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance)
“Dolly Chugh helps us identify our ‘platform of privilege’ and guides us on how we can use this and other tools to create positive change. She encourages us to accentuate our strengths and to manage our weaknesses, and forces us to focus on being better and stronger in everything we do.”
Billie Jean King (social justice pioneer and tennis champion)
“Dolly Chugh has written the most important and actionable book on reducing bias that I have read. Using powerful and enduring findings from research on bias, she explains the reasons we fail to be the person we mean to be and provides prescriptions for managing the pitfalls of our humanness. This deeply personal book is a must-read.”
David Thomas (president of Morehouse College and author of Leading for Equity and Breaking Through)
“Never has an author made it so easy to see our blind spots and the downsides of our best intentions. Dolly Chugh’s brilliant lens reveals the invisible, uncomfortable truths of ordinary privilege, yet offers a light that inspires and guides each of us to be the moral, inclusive leader we hope to be.”
Liz Wiseman (New York Times bestselling author of Multipliers and Rookie Smarts)
In authoritative yet accessible prose, social psychologist Dolly Chugh outlines how we can all make the indispensable shift from being ‘believers’ who live under the ideal of inclusion to being ‘builders’ who live up to that ideal. This book is both guide and gift.
Kenji Yoshino (author of Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial and Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law)
RESOURCES
The Person You Mean to Be
Book Club Discussion Guide
The Person You Mean to Be
Instructors’ Guide
The Person You Mean to Be
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RELATED MEDIA
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About the Author
Dr. Dolly Chugh is an award-winning behavioral scientist at the NYU Stern School of Business where she studies the psychology of good people. With her trademark blend of science and soul, she helps individuals become the leaders, colleagues, citizens, and people they aspire to be (while trying to do the same herself). Before becoming a professor, she worked in investment banking, consulting, and media, and earned her MBA and PhD from Harvard University. She is the author of The Person You Mean to Be and A More Just Future.