Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

by Liz Wiseman

New Demands, Insufficient Resources

a key insight was that Multipliers are hard-edged managers. There is nothing soft about these leaders.

There is more intelligence inside our organizations than we are using. It led to the idea that there was a type of leader, those I came to call Multipliers,

leaders

Jorgen was a classic Diminisher who ran a country operation like a dictator and made life miserable for his direct reports.

efficiency requires collaboration.

When you think about what is best for the organization and remove your ego, being a Multiplier is the only way to go.”

Some leaders seemed to drain intelligence and capability out of the people around them. Their focus on their own intelligence and their resolve to be the smartest person in the room had a diminishing effect on everyone else. For them to look smart, other people had to end up looking dumb.

over people’s heads. Ideas flew so fast that you had to replay the meeting in slow motion just to see what was going on.

Empire builders accumulate rather than multiply;

British explorer Ernest Shackleton

Brian became one of the walking dead who roam the halls

This is called “quit and stay.”

Is it possible that it is happening inside your own organization?

Empire Builders, having earned their reputation as career killers, continually struggle to get truly top talent into their organizations.

Andreas, a doctor, is the medical authority, and Thomas is the international marketing genius behind Hexal.

he distinguishes “hard opinions” from “soft opinions.”

In any hierarchical organization,

the playing field is rarely level.

off-the-cuff remark

translated as a strong opinion and turned into policy for her division.

Accidental

Diminisher.

Multipliers, by contrast, liberate people from the oppressive forces within corporate hierarchy. They free people to think, to speak, and to act with reason. They create an environment where the best ideas surface and where people do their best work. They give people permission to think.

ruthless Miranda Priestly

Wears Prada,”

give you space; you give me back your best work.

I give you permission to make mistakes; you have an obligation to learn from the mistakes and not repeat them.

importance of restraint in leadership.

Shift the Ratio of Listening to Talking

“How smart you are is defined by how clearly you can see the intellect of others.”

The number one difference between a Nobel Prize winner and others is not IQ or work ethic, but that they ask bigger questions.

Multipliers understand the power of an opportunity.

Lafley looked for ways to join forces with people in their supply chain whom they could partner with to innovate more rapidly.

Multipliers create a space between what people know and what they need to know, and that draws people into the challenge.

You only need to do this once to create the belief.” By “helicoptering” down to reality, Multipliers create a meaningful proof point that a bold challenge can be successfully met.

do it en masse.

“If you have a task to perform and are vitally interested in it, excited and challenged by it, then you will exert maximum energy. But in the excitement, the pain of fatigue dissipates, and the exuberance of what you hope to achieve overcomes the weariness.”

When leaders operate as challengers—telling less and asking more—they get contributions from their people that far surpass what they thought they had to give and it is this concomitant exhilaration that makes people sign up again and again.

It is better to debate a decision without settling it than settling a decision without debating it.