Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
by Liz Wiseman
Chapter 1: The Multiplier Effect
- pg 5: The person sitting at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is the genius maker, not the genius.
- pg 12: Multipliers not only access people’s current capability, but stretch it, getting more from people than they knew they had to give.
- pg 14: Diminishers argue their people are overworked, the best people are maxed out, and so accomplishing a bigger task requires more resources.
- pg 16: Multipliers argue that most people are underutilized, better leadership can leverage this capability, and so no bigger investment is needed.
- pg 20: A diminisher thinks “They will never figure it out without me,” while a multiplier thinks “People are smart and will figure this out.”
- pg 21: Multipliers attract and optimize talent, create intensity that requires best thinking, extend challenges, debate decisions, and instill ownership and accountability.
- pg 24: Multipliers have a hard edge, and are not “feel-good” managers. They see a lot, and so they expect a lot.
- pg 25: Multipliers have a great sense of humor. They don’t need to defend their own intelligence, and so can see the comedy in error.
- pg 28: In summary, diminishers underutilize people, while multipliers increase intelligence in others and leverage their resources.
Chapter 2: The Talent Magnet
- pg 35: Talent Magnets have a reputation for not only delivering results, but creating a place where young, talented people can grow.
- pg 36: Diminishers operate as Empire Builders, hoarding resources and underutilizing talent, thereby creating disenchantment.
- pg 38: The Talent Magnet has the confidence and magnetism to get A players, who are then stretched into A+ players. These people get recognized and offered new opportunities, giving the organization a reputation as “the place to grow.” This attracts more A players.
- pg 40: An Empire Builder has a reputation as a career killer, which is why he or she must labor hard to hoard the resources that he or she has.
- pg 44: Talent Magnets look for talent everywhere. They recognize and appreciate all types of genius, and ignore organizational boundaries because people love to contribute their genius.
- pg 46: They find people’s native genius, which is what one does exceptionally well and naturally. And they label it, raising the person’s awareness and confidence.
- pg 49: They utilize people at their fullest. They connect people’s genius to opportunities that allow it to be used best, and then provide both public and specific praise.
- pg 52: They remove the blockers. They remove the prima donnas that impede organizational smarts, and get out of the way themselves whenever needed.
- pg 56: Empire Builders acquire resources, put people in boxes while being the point of integration, and let talent languish.
- pg 58: Empire Builders have a “one brain, many hands” organizational model. They are costly to organizations, because their portfolio does not increase in value.
- pg 60: Become a genius watcher by identifying a strength and using five whys to find the underlying capabilities; then ask others to test your hypothesis; and finally identify roles to use and expand this genius.
- pg 62: Also remove Diminishers aggressively, as they cause others to operate at only half of their full intelligence and capability.
- pg 63: Talent Magnets encourage people to grow and leave. When people leave, they celebrate their departures and shout their success, which is their best recruiting tool.
Chapter 3: The Liberator
- pg 67: Multipliers liberate people to think, speak, and act with reason. They create an environment where the best ideas surface and where people do their best work.
- pg 69: Diminishers act as tyrants, shutting down the flow of intelligence and thereby rarely accessing people’s best work.
- pg 72: Tyrants create a tense environment, full of stress and anxiety. Liberators create an intense environment that requires concentration, diligence, and energy.
- pg 72: A Tyrant creates stress that causes people to hold back, and creates whiplash. A Liberator creates space for people to step up, and creates momentum.
- pg 77: Liberators create a duality by creating both comfort and pressure in the environment. They give you space, but expect your best work.
- pg 78: A Liberator creates space. They release others by retraining themselves, ferociously listen, operate consistently to create predictability and safety, and amplify the important voices.
- pg 82: They demand people’s best work. They ask if someone is giving their best work, but do not conflate that best work with outcomes.
- pg 84: They generate rapid learning cycles. They admit and share their own mistakes, and they insist on learning from mistakes.
- pg 87: Tyrants dominate the space, create an anxiety that imposes a mental tax on others, and create cycles of criticism, judgment, and retreat.
- pg 89: Liberators believe people’s best thinking must be given, not taken. Diminishers believe pressure increases performance, but an unsafe environment yields only the safest ideas.
- pg 91: If prone to dominating discussions, give yourself a time budget for talking during a meeting. Use your time wisely.
- pg 92: Divide your opinions into soft opinions, where you have a perspective to offer, and hard opinions, where you have a clear and emphatic point of view.
- pg 92: When sharing mistakes, get personal by sharing what you did and what you learned, and go public with them so that everyone can learn.
Chapter 4: The Challenger
- pg 102: Diminishers operate as Know-It-Alls, assuming that their job is to know the most and tell the organization what to do.
- pg 103: A Multiplier plays the role of a Challenger, finding new opportunities and then stretching their organization to get there.
- pg 104: A Know-It-All provides all the answers, thereby teaching subordinates to wait for those answers, and then finally concludes that “they couldn’t have figured this out without me.”
- pg 104: A Challenger accepts that he or she doesn’t have to have all the answers, and so is free to ask bigger, more provocative, and more interesting questions.
- pg 107: A Challenger seeds the opportunity. They allow others to discover those opportunities, ask questions that challenge fundamental assumptions, reframe problems to show their opportunity, and provide a starting point but not a complete solution.
- pg 111: They lay down a challenge. They extend a clear and concrete challenge, ask the hard questions that need to be answered, and let others fill in the blanks.
- pg 118: They generate belief. They take the challenge down to the ground level, lay out a path, co-create a plan to create buy-in, and then orchestrating small and early wins.
- pg 121: Know-It-Alls tell people what they know, tell people how to do their jobs, and test other people’s knowledge to see if they’re doing it right.
- pg 125: A Know-It-All creates idle cycles because everyone must wait on him or her. A Challenger creates rapid cycles.
- pg 128: To draw the intelligence out of people and guide others through a challenge, find a meeting you can lead solely with questions.
- pg 128: Create a learning experience that will reveal a need that must be met, create energy, and ignite a fire within your organization.
- pg 129: When you create an early win, get the entire organization to do it together, en masse, so that everyone can see the results and start to believe that something great is possible.
Chapter 5: The Debate Maker
- pg 136: Diminishers operate as Decision Makers, assuming there are only a few people worth listening to, and ignoring many sources of insight.
- pg 136: Multipliers operate as Debate Makers, leading rigorous debate that challenge and stretch what people know, thereby making the organization smarter over time.
- pg 142: A Debate Maker frames the issue. They find the right issue and formulate the right question, form the team, ensure data is collected, and frame the decision by clarifying the decision-making process and establishing roles.
- pg 145: They spark the debate, making it engaging, comprehensive, fact-based, and educational. They create safety for best thinking, and demand rigor by asking hard questions, demanding evidence, and pursuing all sides of an issue.
- pg 149: They drive a sound decision. They re-clarify who makes the decision and when, make the decision, and communicate the decision and the rationale.
- pg 152: A Decision Maker raises issues, dominates the discussion with his or her own ideas, and then force a decision by relying heavily on their own opinion or short-cutting a rigorous debate.
- pg 154: A Decision Maker doesn’t use the full complement of talent, intelligence, and information available, while a Debate Maker stretches it.
- pg 155: With a “shared inquiry” technique, the discussion leader only asks questions, participants must supply evidence, and everyone participates.
- pg 156: Following this, to create a debate, ask a hard question that confronts underlying assumptions, ask for evidence when opinions are offered, and ask each person.
Chapter 6: The Investor
- pg 161: Diminishers act as Micromanagers, jumping in, saving the day, and driving results through personal involvement.
- pg 161: Multipliers act as Investors, infusing others with the resources and ownership needed to produce results independent of the leader. They expect a return.
- pg 168: Investors establish ownership up front. They give away the majority ownership, give ownership of the whole and not just a piece, and stretch a role and the person in it.
- pg 173: They invest resources. They teach and coach by asking questions, and provide backup when complications arise.
- pg 175: They hold people accountable. They give back leadership and accountability, make others find solutions and not just problems, allow consequences to take effect and inform intelligent action, and make the scoreboard visible.
- pg 181: A Micromanager maintains ownership, jump in when problems arise, and take back problems that are given to them instead of keeping them with the team.
- pg 186: A Micromanager doesn’t use the full complement of talent and resourcefulness available, while an Investor stretches it and grows the assets in his or her portfolio.
- pg 187: Investors earn the right to step away from an organization without jeopardizing its performance.
- pg 188: When you delegate, don’t just say what you’re expecting of someone, but also tell them that they are in charge and accountable, not you.
- pg 188: Allow people to experience the natural consequences of their actions. Orchestrate small teaching moments, then talk about it and find a path forward.
- pg 190: When someone brings you a problem, ask that person to complete the thought process and provide a fix.
- pg 191: When you see team members struggling, offer help, but have an exit plan. Hand back the pen.
Chapter 7: Becoming a Multiplier
- pg 199: Multiplier leadership is not the norm, because the path of least resistance is frequently the path of the diminisher.
- pg 200: If you are underneath a diminisher, manage like a multiplier and let the results speak for themselves. You can out-lead your boss.
- pg 201: If you’re overworked or overwhelmed, become a multiplier by working the extremes, start with the assumptions, and taking a 30-day challenge.
- pg 204: Leaders need to have mastery of a small number of skills, and no show-stopper weaknesses. So work two extremes by neutralizing a weakness and topping off a strength.
- pg 207: Our assumptions have a powerful effect on outcomes. Try on the multiplier assumptions and not the diminisher ones and let them guide your actions.
- pg 210: The most effective and enduring learning involves small, successive experimentation with new approaches, so focus your efforts on a single discipline for 30 days.
- pg 215: Beyond the 30 days, sustain momentum by developing your mastery of skills layer by layer.
- pg 216: Stay with it for a year to develop Mastery. Each year, carry with you a question that challenges your thinking and inspires your learning.
- pg 217: Build a community. The most successful participants of the 30-day challenge worked collectively or had a partner as a sounding board and accountability point.