How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
iseman, Liz and Greg McKeown. Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2010. It isn't how much you know that matters. What matters is how much access you have to what other people know. It isn't just how intelligent your team members are; it is how much of that intelligence you can draw out and put to use. The Diminisher is an Empire Builder. The Multiplier is a Talent Magnet. The Diminisher is a Tyrant. The Multiplier is a Liberator. The Diminisher is a Know-It-All. The Multiplier is a Challenger. The Diminisher is a Decision Maker. The Multiplier is a Debate Maker. The Diminisher is a Micromanager. The Multiplier is an Investor. Would your people describe you as someone who recognizes talented people, draws them in, and utilizes them at their fullest? Would they say they have grown more around you than any other manager they have worked for? Or would they describe you as someone who pulled them into your organization not as a talent to be developed, but more as a resource to be deployed and then left to languish? What people do easily, they do without conscious effort. They do it better than anything else they do, but they don't need to apply extraordinary effort to the task. They get results that are head-and-shoulders above others but they do it without breaking a sweat. "Ignore me as needed to get your job done." Leaders most often know who the blockers are. The most common mistake they make is waiting too long to remove them. While a Tyrant creates stress that causes people to hold back, a Liberator creates space for people to step up. While a Tyrant swings between positions that create whiplash in the organization, a Liberator builds stability that generates forward momentum. One way he elicits the best thinking from people is that he knows what people are actually capable of producing. He knows everyone's job intimately, but he doesn't do it for them. generate rapid learning cycles. Liberators don't just listen the majority of time. They massively shift the ratio, listening most of the time. This creates space for others to share what they know. Diminishers give answers. Good leaders ask questions. Multipliers ask the really hard questions. They ask the questions that challenge people not only to think but to rethink. They ask questions so immense that people can't answer them based on their current knowledge or where they currently stand. There are times when a leader is so knowledgeable and personally brilliant that it seems tempting for them to provide directives centered in what they know. However, in the end, Know-It-Alls limit what their organization can achieve to what they themselves know how to do. The nature of the executive role makes it easy to stay rooted in answer mode and to be the boss. The first step in this journey is to stop answering questions and begin asking them. Our research has shown that Diminishers tend to make decisions solo or with a small inner circle. As a result, they not only underutilize the intelligence around them, but they also leave the organization spinning instead of executing. In preparation for the meeting itself, Debate Makers define what needs to be addressed, why it is important, and how the final decision is expected to be made. At first glance, it appears that Diminishers make efficient decisions. However, because their approach only utilizes the intelligence of a small number of people and ignores the rigor of debate, the broader organization is left in the dark, not understanding the decision, nor the assumptions and facts upon which it is based. With this lack of clarity, people turn to debating the soundness of a decision rather than executing it. Multipliers enable others to operate independently by giving other people ownership for results and investing in their success. Multipliers can't always be present to perform emergency rescues,