Tessa West

Tessa West is a Professor of Psychology at New York University and a leading expert in the science of interpersonal communication, whose TED Talk on “anxious niceness” was one of the 10 most popular of the year. Her work focuses on questions such as: Why is it so hard to give honest, critical feedback? How do class, race, and cultural differences make communication in the workplace so difficult, and what can we do to improve it? And what does it take to really know another person?

Her upcoming book, Job Therapy, is a vital guide for diagnosing and dealing with unhappiness at work. Losing and replacing talent has a real cost for your company, which is why retention is more crucial than ever today. Tessa explains the five main sources of employee frustration, and offers strategies on how to resolve them: from flipping an identity crisis around with the help of good workplace social networks, to identifying your underappreciated stars and motivating them to stay. She shows how leaders can help their employees feel not only happy but fulfilled in the workplace, and improve motivation and effectiveness across their organization.

Her first book, Jerks at Work, is “a breezy and fun read for anyone who wants happier and healthier relationships at work” (Annie Duke, author of Quit). In it, Tessa identifies different kinds of difficult colleagues—from the Neglectful Boss to the “Kiss Up/Kick Downer”—and offers practical, research-backed ways to navigate and break free from toxic situations. Bestselling author Scott Galloway calls it “a practical and engaging set of tools,” and Publishers Weekly says that “leaders and workers alike will find in West an astute and personable guide.”

Tessa’s work has been covered by Scientific American, The New York Times, ABC World News, TIME, Harper’s Bazaar, The Financial Times, Forbes, CNBC, CNN, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, Strategy and Business, and the US Supreme Court. She has appeared on the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, CNN, and Good Morning America, and is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal. She discussed how we can really know another person on an episode of Hidden Brain, which quickly became the most downloaded episode of all time in the first month it was out.

Tessa received her PhD from the University of Connecticut and has published over 80 academic articles in psychology’s most prestigious journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. She has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Tessa has also received several career awards, including the early career award from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology, and the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology among others.