Molly Graham

Explorer

Molly Graham has spent nearly two decades inside fast-growing companies, helping them scale through messy, high-stakes inflection points. She’s best known for memorable frameworks like “Give Away Your Legos,” which captures the identity shifts leaders face as organizations evolve, and for her TED talk on taking bold career risks. After leading operations at companies like Facebook, Quip, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Molly shifted her focus from building companies to supporting the humans inside them. Today, she builds communities and conversations that help leaders make sense of the inner life of work and lead with greater clarity, courage, and self-awareness. She leads Glue Club, a leadership community for operators inside fast-changing companies; helps build The Guild, an intimate network for accomplished women leaders; writes on LinkedIn and her Substack, Lessons; and hosts the podcast WorkLife from the TED Audio Collective.

Weird metaphors that work

careers, company building, leadership, management, startups, technology

I'm taking over from Adam Grant as the new host of "WorkLife", a podcast by the TED Audio Collective! I also gave a talk at TEDNext in 2024 about why taking risks in your career is essential. I led the newcomers session at TED 2025 and will lead it again at TED 2026. I'm interviewing Chris Anderson at TED 2026 about lessons learned from his time leading TED.

Whitewater kayaking