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

by Liz Wiseman

Multipliers get more from their people because they are leaders who look beyond their own genius and focus their energy on extracting and extending the genius of others.

One corporate VP had a favorite saying, quoted often and written on her door: “Ignore me as needed to get your job done.” This simple mantra signaled an important trust in the judgment and capability of others. Her people knew that exercising their judgment and getting the job done rapidly was more important than placating the boss. She told new staff members, “Yes, there will be a few times when I get agitated because I would have done it differently, but I’ll get over it. I’d rather you trust your judgment, keep moving, and get the job done.”

When offering his opinion, he distinguishes “hard opinions” from “soft opinions.” Soft opinions signal to his team: Here are some ideas for you to consider in your own thinking. Hard opinions are reserved for times when he holds a very strong view.

Asking whether people are offering their best gives them the opportunity to push themselves beyond previous limits. It is a key reason why people report that Multipliers get more than 100 percent intelligence out of them.

Try giving yourself a budget of poker chips for a meeting. Maybe it is five; maybe it is just one or two. Use them wisely, and leave the rest of the space for others to contribute.

Define the space for experimentation in your team’s work by clarifying the area where it’s okay to fail versus when failure isn’t an option. This delineation acts like a ship’s waterline (as described by management author Jim Collins): above the “waterline,” people can experiment and take risks and still recover; however, mistakes below the waterline are like cannonballs that may cause catastrophic failure and “sink the ship.”