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Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (2010)

by Liz Wiseman(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0061964395 (ISBN13: 9780061964398)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

HarperBusiness

review 1: Like many business concepts there is nothing revolutionary in the leadership attributes identified in this book. They could be classified as "common sense". However, personal experience has shown that common sense does not necessarily mean common practice. I have seen the negative behaviors described in this book in leaders I have worked with as well as in my own leadership actions.I found the authors grouping and summary of behaviors concise and informative and find myself regularly referring back to them. I also found the illustrative anecdotes help focus my understanding of the concepts. I will sometimes go back and read some of these anecdotes for inspiration when I am not feeling especially effective. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to managers, supervisors... more, or anybody whose job it is to lead others.This book answers the question,"How is it that given the same environment, with the same circumstance, and the same skills an employee's performance can vary widely based solely on who their supervisor is?"The authors speculate the primary difference is based on whether a given leader's behaviors fall into one of two categories that they dub "Multiplier" and "Diminisher". They further break these categories down into five major classifications dedicating one chapter to each sub classification.According to the authors leaders are rarely all of one or these categories but instead other but fall somewhere along the spectrum between these two extremes. In their words:"We see the Diminisher-Multiplier model as a continuum with a few people at the extremes and most of us somewhere in between. As people have been introduced to this material, they almost always see some of the Diminisher and some of the Multiplier within themselves. One leader we worked with is illustrative. He was a smart and aware individual who didn't fit the archetype of a Diminisher, and yet when he read the material he could see how he sometimes behaved in a Diminishing manner. While we studied this leadership phenomenon as a contrast, we see the model as a continuum with only a very few people at the polar extremes and the majority of us somewhere in the middle."Throughout the book the authors provide a number of anecdotes that demonstrate the effect Multiplier and Diminisher behaviors have in real life situations. They show that by moving from negative behaviors to positive behaviors a leader can double his team's output without adding more staff.Multipliers are leaders who are able to amplify the capability of people around them. They are able to optimize output by playing to people's unique intelligence and capability. The goal of a multiplier is not to get more done by multiplying his own efforts but instead to multiply the output of those around him.They are talent magnets: they attract and optimize talent.They are liberators: they create intensity that requires the best thinking of the team.They are challengers: they define opportunities that cause people to stretch.They are debate makers: they drive sound decisions through rigorous debate.They are investors: they instill ownership and accountability.Diminishers, despite having smart people on their team they are unable to reach their goals. They are absorbed in their own capabilities They tend to stifle productivity and deplete the organization of intelligence and capability. Many times this organizational depletion is done unintentionally by the diminisher. They are unaware of the affect they are having on those around them.They are empire builders: they hoard resources and underutilize talent.They are tyrants: they create tense environments that suppress thinking, creativity, and capability.They are know-it-all's: they give directives that showcase how much they know.They are "the decision maker": they make centralized, abrupt decisions that confuse the organization.They are micro managers: they drive results through their personal involvement.Review
review 2: I agree with some of the other reviewers that this was not necessarily the best written book. The chapters were fairly formulaic, and the advice and the examples became repetitive.But that doesn't really matter -- at least not to me -- because this is one of those books where the value is the framework that the authors introduce. This book explores the difference between Multipliers and Diminishers. A Multiplier is someone who increases the potential and impact of those around them. A Diminisher is someone who decreases the potential and impact. The authors looked at people strongly identified as working in one of these modes and analyzed what made them different from each other. (As the authors note, the distinction here is a continuum, not binary, and the same person can have some of the tendencies of a Multiplier and some of a Diminisher. By presenting the two as a dichotomy, the authors aim to highlight the key differences in practice between the two modes of operation.)Examining different leaders, Wiseman and McKeown found five key practices that differentiate Multipliers and Diminishers. Multipliers want to optimize the talent of those they work with, create intensity without fear, extend challenges that stretch the capabilities of those they work with, debate decisions openly, and give people a sense of ownership and accountability. Underlying each of these practices are the assumptions that people are smart and can figure things out on their own and people will grow given the right challenge. The practices themselves sound a bit like common sense once you see them listed -- although, that which sounds like common sense but is backed by research is worlds more valuable than that which just reflects intuition. What makes this book really valuable is that Wiseman and McKeown go over each practice of a Multiplier and describe concrete practices that you can use to move further to the multiplier side of the continuum for that practice. A lot of these things sound like common sense too, but as always with this sort of book, the key is in actually turning the advice into practice.Overall, I look forward to choosing one or two of the Multiplier practices to focus on and seeing if I can grow my team more effectively! less

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