Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

by Liz Wiseman

Oracle not only built a strategic intent, it also built a deep belief within the organization

They had built the collective will and energy needed to execute. The organization was ready to take the challenge.

Multipliers begin with small, early wins and use those to generate belief toward the greater stretch challenges.

orchestrating small, early wins.

It is not the Multiplier who whips up this belief. Rather, it is the challenge he or she has issued that generates this commitment.

they give directions in a way that showcases their superior knowledge.

Diminishers consider themselves thought leaders and readily share their knowledge;

When Diminishers do actually engage others, to no surprise, it is as an auditor.

Diminishers leave people stressed, but unstretched.

Diminishers stay in charge and tell others—in detail—how to do their jobs.

Diminishers often unintentionally shut down the intelligence of others.

have built their careers on their own expertise and have been rewarded for their superior knowledge.

This has similar characterisics to the software anti pattern thd scarecrow.

Rapid cycles and accelerated problem solving without the initiation of the formal leader

I saw this in Anna. She caught the vision of what i envisioned. And she ran with it. It was quite to see

When leaders operate as Challengers, teams are able to accelerate their performance.

DIMINISHER CREATES IDLE CYCLES.

A MULTIPLIER CREATES RAPID CYCLES.

I can work extremely fast because I don’t get punished for mistakes. We work fast forward.”

The question “why” is at the core of their thinking.

When deeply rooted in a mindset of curiosity, one is ready to begin working as a Challenger.

GO EXTREME WITH QUESTIONS.

The first step in this journey is to stop answering questions and begin asking them.

As immediate past district director, I need to all more questions when the trio comes to me with questions.

Take the Extreme Question Challenge to shift from Know-It-All into Challenger mode.

At work, take the first step by finding a meeting that you can lead solely with questions.

TAKE A BUS TRIP.

What this means in my industry of logistics in go site. In toastmasters it means observe a club.

This means that Multipliers 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.

Diminishers like Jonathan Akers seem to hold an assumption that there are only a few people worth listening to.

They don’t focus on what they know but on how to know what others know.

They seem to assume that with enough minds we can figure it out

Diminishers operate as Decision Makers: when the stakes are at their highest, they rely on their own knowledge or an inner circle of people to make the decision.

When Multipliers are faced with a high-stakes decision, they have a different gravity pull toward the full brainpower of their organization.

In harnessing this knowledge, they play the role of ...

the approach a leader takes in making a decision matters.

Lutz loved to stir up controversy and would become noticeably disappointed if the debate wasn’t charged and the sparks weren’t flying.

Diminishers raise issues, dominate discussions, and force decisions,

Multipliers: 1) frame the issues; 2) spark the debate; and 3) drive sound decisions. Let us examine each of these in more detail.

They prepare the organization for the debate by forming the right questions and the right team and framing the issues and process in a way in which everyone can contribute.

As leaders, probably the most important role we can play is asking the right questions and focusing on the right problems.

framing the debate in terms of key questions within a clear context,

Multipliers spark the debate.

Multipliers create safety, but they also maintain pressure for a reality-based, rigorous debate.

How do Multipliers demand rigor?

When the group moves too quickly toward agreement, Multipliers often step back and ask someone to argue the other point of view.

they are not necessarily consensus-oriented leaders.

that they are equally comfortable making the final decision.

they focus on the “what” rather than on the “how” or the “why” of a decision.

Diminishers tend to dominate the discussion with their own ideas.

ASK THE HARD QUESTION.

ASK FOR THE DATA.

Ask for the evidence.

Make it a norm so people come into debates armed with the data—an ent...