PDF Summary:Multipliers, by Liz Wiseman
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There are two types of leaders: Multipliers, who use their intelligence to bring out the intelligence and ability of everyone else, and Diminishers, who rely on their own intelligence because they think intelligence is a rare trait and they’re one of the few who have it. Multipliers get two times more out of people than Diminishers, doubling the intelligence and capability of their organization without adding headcount. Multipliers can even increase people’s intelligence.
In Multipliers, leadership expert Liz Wiseman explains how to reduce your Diminisher tendencies (almost everyone diminishes by accident at some point) and strengthen your Multiplier behavior to be an effective leader.
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- For example, chief marketing officer Garth does all the work himself on projects that the CEO will notice because he thinks his team isn’t smart enough to do the work themselves and will thus embarrass themselves in front of the CEO. On less visible projects, however, he doesn’t help at all, and his team can’t get the work done without him because they’ve learned to depend on him.
Diminishers access only 20-50% of their team members’ capabilities—half as much as Multipliers—because their behavior drains other people’s energy and shuts them down.
Becoming a Multiplier
Now that you’ve learned about the advantages of multiplication and the disadvantages of diminishment, the question is: Can you become a Multiplier? The answer is a resounding yes. Multiplier and Diminisher aren’t either-or identities; they’re two extremes on a continuum. Most leaders fall somewhere in between and can move in either direction, and even the strongest Diminisher can change.
To aid your transformation into a Multiplier, use the following five accelerators to speed up your adoption of the behaviors outlined above:
Accelerator #1: Change your assumptions about your team’s intelligence and capability. Behavior stems from assumptions. (Conscious assumptions are stored in the same part of the brain that stores unconscious habits.) Therefore, you can’t just copy the actions of Multipliers; you need to change your thinking to make the habits really stick.
Accelerator #2: Strengthen your strengths and weaken your weaknesses. You don’t need to be good at everything to be a Multiplier. Instead, strengthen an area you’re good at and neutralize one you’re bad at.
Accelerator #3: Do 30-day experiments. You have to practice Multiplier behaviors before they become habit, and your practice will be most effective if you experiment with individual behaviors for short periods. This is because you’ll quickly receive feedback and get regular opportunities to reassess, and small successes will encourage you to keep experimenting.
Accelerator #4: Ask someone else to choose your experiment. Someone else can more objectively identify your strengths and weaknesses.
Accelerator #5: Anticipate difficulty. While the Multiplier concepts are easy to understand, they’re not as easy to implement. Accept that changing habits is hard, give yourself permission to make mistakes, and seek support from colleagues.
Reducing Your Diminishing Qualities
Interestingly, most Diminishers don’t diminish on purpose—they have good intentions and don’t realize how their assumptions and behaviors affect others.
Likely, you have some inadvertent diminishing tendencies you’re not aware of. There are three steps to uncovering these tendencies:
Step #1: Reflect on Your Intentions
If you see your own intentions in the following list, reflect on the unintended consequences and try the suggestions for avoiding diminishment:
Intention #1: Inspiration. To inspire your team, you might share your ideas or vision of the future.
The consequences: People stop thinking for themselves because you’re doing it for them.
To avoid diminishing, keep ideas to yourself until you want people to pursue them. Additionally, outline a strategy but let everyone else flesh out the details, encourage people to use their talents, ask leading questions, give people ownership, and challenge your people to think.
Intention #2: Rescue. To keep your team safe, you might step in when something goes wrong, or even hide problems from your team.
The consequences: People become dependent, don’t experience ownership and accountability, and don’t learn from their mistakes. They also get an unrealistic sense of their own abilities because they always get good results, even if it was the manager and not them who was responsible for the outcome.
- For example, when Sally, a high school principal, gave her colleague Marcus ownership of a data-compilation project, she knew that he was new to both the school and spreadsheets so she tried to be extra helpful. She was careful and clear about the hand-off and she offered to go over things again or provide extra training multiple times. Finally, Marcus told her that he needed less help—Sally wasn’t giving him enough space to figure it out by himself.
To avoid diminishing, you should let some of the small dangers through so people can learn to deal with adversity. Additionally, challenge your people, delegate, ask questions, and give people ownership.
Intention #3: Perfection. To encourage high standards, you might set the bar as your own performance, or point out picky errors in people’s work.
The consequences: People step back and watch rather than emulating the leader’s performance (they assume that because the leader is doing something, it’s an executive task and beyond their scope), or they become so discouraged by criticism or the distance between themselves and the leader that they disengage and give up.
To avoid diminishing, you should be clear about the criteria for excellence and completeness and check your own progress so you don’t get too far ahead of anyone else. Additionally, be clear about when failure is okay and when it's not, talk about mistakes, ask questions, delegate, and challenge people.
Intention #4: Energy and optimism. To motivate people, you display your energy and believe you and your team can achieve anything.
The consequences: People become exhausted and think the leader is disconnected from reality or won’t accept failure.
- For example, when the author was working on a difficult project with a colleague, she often asked him how difficult the task could be. The colleague struggled with this sentiment—the project was objectively very hard and he did think they could do it, but hearing this phrase over and over again minimized the challenge.
To avoid diminishing, you should express your optimism or energy only once and encourage others to talk, and acknowledge when tasks are challenging. Additionally, encourage others to use their talent, talk less, ask questions, delegate, be clear about when failure is acceptable, spark debates, and talk about mistakes.
Intention #5: Agility. To create an agile organization, you might respond quickly to emails and problems that are actually other people’s responsibilities.
The consequences: People become less responsive because they know you’ll finish things before they can even get started.
To avoid diminishing, you should wait a certain amount of time (perhaps 24 hours) before responding to emails that are someone else’s responsibility. Additionally, ask questions and spark debates.
Step #2: Take a Quiz
Take one or both of the following quizzes:
- “Are You an Accidental Diminisher?” This quiz involves responding to ten common scenarios. You’ll get a score and some suggestions for how to be more of a Multiplier.
- Multipliers 360 Assessment (requires contacting The Wiseman Group)
Step #3: Get Feedback From Those You Lead
Ask the people you lead the following questions:
- Am I shutting people down?
- Am I doing any diminishing behaviors?
- Are my actions being interpreted the way I think they are?
- How do I change?
Surviving Diminishers
Even once you’ve gotten a handle on your accidental diminishing tendencies and worked at improving them, you’ll still face challenges—most of us aren’t the only leaders in our organizations and have to work with others who may be Diminishers.
The good news is, there are three strategies for surviving (or even transforming) Diminishers:
- Survival strategies. To survive Diminishers: Tune them out occasionally, connect with other people who can support you and help you see the situation objectively, reassure Diminishers that you can do the job and that you’re smart, and/or ask for information and use it to tailor your work accordingly. If necessary, quit and find a Multiplier boss instead.
- Multiplying strategies. You can be a Multiplier even if your boss isn’t because Diminishers are most concerned with their own smarts and need their intelligence validated. As Multipliers, by nature, validate people’s genius, acting like a Multiplier towards your boss will make them feel comfortable and more likely to give you more trust. To multiply a boss: Invite them into the loop, harness their knowledge, learn from them, tell them how to best use you, ask for a challenge, and/or share your mistakes to encourage them to do the same.
- Transformation strategies. These only work if your boss wants to become a Multiplier—while every Diminisher has the potential to do so, you can’t force anyone to change. To encourage them: Lead by example, teach your boss about Multipliers and Diminishers, only bring up one piece of feedback at a time, and/or reward baby steps towards multiplication.
How to Create a Multiplier Culture
You can use your knowledge to do so much more than just get rid of Diminishers and become a Multiplier yourself—you can create a Multiplier culture in which every member of an organization holds Multiplier assumptions and engages in Multiplier behaviors.
There are five elements of culture to apply Multiplier assumptions, behaviors, and ideas to:
Element #1: Vocabulary. In strong cultures, everyone in the culture uses the same definition for words and phrases. This allows them to name, and therefore discuss, good and bad behaviors openly and concretely. To develop Multiplier vocabulary: Discuss Multipliers. Then, ask leaders to take the Accidental Diminisher quiz, honestly discuss their weaknesses with team members, and celebrate their Multiplier moments.
Element #2: Conduct. In strong cultures, every member of the culture responds a certain way in a certain situation. They learn the appropriate response from the leader and it becomes instinct. To change the default conduct to Multiplier behavior, you need to make people aware of their Diminisher behavior and then encourage them to consciously choose Multiplier behavior until it becomes unconscious. To do this: Tell everyone in the organization about Multiplier assumptions and train people in Multiplier practices using workshops and simulations.
Element #3: Convictions. Conviction means every member of a culture agrees on what is true and shares assumptions. When it comes to multiplication, the goal is for everyone to know what makes a good leader. To develop this conviction: Define the expectations that a leader’s primary job is to multiply others and help them to give 100%.
Element #4: Myths. In a strong culture, everyone admires the same people based on their accomplishments, behavior, or traits. When it comes to business, the role models should be Multipliers, and their heroics should inspire others to copy their behavior. To mythicize Multipliers: Publicly celebrate Multiplier moments. Additionally, assess how well leaders use the Multiplier practices, which will encourage them to improve to heroic levels.
Element #5: Customs. In a strong culture, everyone adheres to the same customs and behaves the same way. In the context of multiplication, customs mean that the Multiplier concepts spill into every area of the business, from financial incentives to operational practices. To strengthen this facet of culture: Run a pilot program to implement a particular Multiplier practice, and connect Multiplier practices with existing business practices.
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