I loved Liz’s message. (Her book is Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
- Diminishers
- Multipliers
Have you ever worked around someone who made you feel smarter and more capable? That person is a multiplier.
Have you ever worked around someone who made you question your intelligence? That person is a diminisher. Some leaders literally shut down brainpower in the people around them.
Multipliers get so much brainpower from their people that the workforce is effectively doubled for free.
Conversely, organizations can’t afford diminishers! (And, it’s disrespectful.) Diminshers on average get about 43% of a person’s capability. Multipliers on average get 91%.
Why do some leaders drain intelligence while others multiply it?
At root, multipliers believe that people are smart.
The multiplier approach is to let people weigh in. Because when people weigh in on something important, you get buy-in in the process.
Multipliers are liberators. They create space. Space for people to do their very best thinking. But a bit of a deal—what do they owe the multiplier back in return? their best thinking.
They are challengers. They ask people to do hard things. They invite people into the space of difficult and challenge, and they don’t apologize for it. They are debate makers. They give others the responsibility and put them in charge. They create owners, not hirlings in their organizations.