Multipliers - Columbus, OH Chapter

“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

Multipliers:

How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

An April 06, 2011 Management Forum Series presentation by

Liz Wiseman

Synopsis by Rod Cox

“Most organizations have far more intelligence than meets the eye. They are filled with
latent capabilities and intelligence that wants to be used. We’ve all had experience with two
dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drains intelligence, energy, and capability
from those around them and always needs to be the smartest one in the room. These are the
idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment.

On the other side of the spectrum are leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the smarts
and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, light bulbs
go off over people’s heads, ideas flow, and problems get solved. These are the leaders who
inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These
are the Multipliers. And the world needs more of them, especially now, when leaders are
expected to do more with less.

Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect – getting more done with
fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating ideas and energy.”

It’s an elegantly simple idea: leaders can use their intelligence to multiply the intelligence of the people
around them and, in doing so, effectively double output . . . for free! As compared to Diminishers,
Multipliers differ in five key areas or disciplines:

• They attract and optimize talent
• They require people’s best thinking
• They extend challenges
• They debate decisions
• They instill accountability

Wiseman’s Executive Forum presentation is built around these disciplines.

Liz Wiseman is president of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development group
headquartered in Silicon Valley. She and her colleagues advise senior executives in firms such as
Apple, SAP, GAP, Salesforce.com and Microsoft. A former executive at Oracle Corporation, Wiseman
has conducted significant research in the field of collective intelligence. Her book Multipliers: How the
Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, published in 2010, has already become a Wall Street Journal
best seller. This Executive Forum synopsis includes excerpts from that book, quotes and concepts
from Wiseman’s local presentation, and feedback from audience participants.

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

“D Iminishers come at a high cost because they are entrenched in two faulty
assumptions: 1) they are the leaders because they are the smartest; and 2)
accomplishing a bigger task requires the addition of more resources. Multipliers
don’t necessarily get more with less. They get more by using more – more of people’s
intelligence and capability. We call this the 2X effect. It’s the result of the deep leverage
Multipliers get from their resources. When you extrapolate the 2X Multiplier effect to the
organization, you begin to see the strategic relevance. Simply said, resource leverage creates
competitive advantage.”

At the core, Multipliers and Diminishers operate from a very different set of assumptions:

Multiplier Descriptors: Diminisher Descriptors:
“People are smart and will figure this out.”
“They will never figure this out
without me.”

Talent Attracts talented people and Empire Hoards resources and
Magnet uses them at their highest point Builder underutilizes talent
Liberator of contribution
Tyrant Creates a tense environment
Challenger Creates an intense environment that suppresses people’s
that requires people’s best Know-It-All thinking and capability
thinking and work
Decision Gives directives that
Defines an opportunity that Maker showcase how much they
causes people to stretch Micro- know

Debate Drives sound decisions through Manager Makes centralized, abrupt
Maker rigorous debate decisions that confuse the
organization
Investor Gives other people the
ownership for results and Drives results through
invests in their success personal involvement

“The idea and the message is about utilization – about getting more from people around you
because you ask for more. Your goal is to access their latent intelligence, getting rid of corporate
malaise where people are busy being busy, but are secretly bored.”

It’s also about scale: i.e., growing the top line without growing expense. Unless revenues grow
faster than expenses, a company will be out of business. But in most organizations, tight
forecasts are accompanied by scaling up demands while reducing expenses. Quality goes down,
and people get burned out. Important things get cut out. Output becomes unstable. The critical
skill – how to do more by tapping into resources and intelligences already in the organization – is
bypassed.

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

As compared to Diminishers, Multipliers tend to access distributed intelligence twice as often and
twice as powerfully. In today’s environments, that’s the difference between winning and losing. In
his book Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, author Steve
Johnson notes that in today’s marketplace, the organizations that can access the greatest number
of brains will be the most successful. “It’s not about what you know – the intelligence that’s sitting
in front of you – but about how quickly you can access the intelligence around you, on the
periphery, at the bottom of the organization.”

So who is using a Multiplier approach now? Think Apple, Google, Facebook, Ebay and
Wickipedia. All of these highly successful companies have a corporate culture grounded in
accessing distributed intelligence and monetizing it. Noted individual Multipliers include:

• Steve Jobs and Tim Cook at Apple, leaders of the resurgence of the Mac division, moving
it from “about to fail” a few short years ago to now being poised to overtake Microsoft.

• Lutz Ziob, Manager of Microsoft Learning, who encourages ferocious debates on big
decisions.

• Susan Siegal, a brilliant debate maker about whom people say “when I’m around her, I’m
at my best.”

• Shai Agassi, SAP software executive who switched to the World Economic Forum where
he promulgates the use of high tech batteries instead oil. He is known for giving his team
outlandish problems to solve, and then backing off for a couple of months while they come
up with solutions.

• K. R. Sridhar, former NASA rocket fuel cell scientist, who hired other brilliant scientists but
would tolerate no prima donnas. His focus: lots of pressure (to gain results) but minimal
stress (because people were optimally involved).

• Kay Yow, women’s basketball coach at top-of-the-line North Carolina State, known for
always making “it” about getting top performances from her team, rather than about her.

Bringing It Home to the Pacific Northwest

To see how this correlates with the Portland-area business environment, Wiseman gave each
attendee four sticky notes, and asked each to take a few minutes to recall a multiplying leader as
well as a diminishing leader with whom they had personal experience; i.e., to whom they had
reported.

• What were the behaviors of each?

• How much intelligence did each of them elicit from you?

The sticky notes were subsequently posted on a large whiteboard, reproduced below. (Similar
responses have been combined. Some responses are edited for clarity.)

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

Multiplier Behaviors Diminisher Behaviors

Values my Saw the best in me, Believes in my Wouldn’t let another No trust; I did just Kissed up instead
intelligence and got out of the capability and opinion in, and enough to stay of delegating down
intelligence limited questions
way Yelled at staff “clean” and not be Managed by
subversive directives and
Pushes me out of my Gave me a problem Gave free rein to Took undue credit controlled each
discuss alternatives Didn’t act on any of
comfort zone and left me to solve it the team’s ideas, step
recommendations Took personal
Inspires through Complete trust in my Allowed me to learn credit for the team’s
actions and words decisions and by failing Condescending
judgment successes
“Nothing is Laid out the tasks and
impossible” Gave me an outcome, then Never asks for input Yelled, screamed, Set me up to fail
assignment with a supported me on decisions that threatened
Continuously affect my group Did not involve me
acknowledges my targeted result Suggests, then steps Micro-managed
work, and tells others Inspired me back Limited my ability to Knows my
contribute Micro-managed daily strengths, chooses
Encouraged my best Cleared road blocks Gave me pride in my assignments not to utilize them
work Controlled minute Mind closed to new
Asked for my input tasks Treats questions as
threats and authority ideas
Allowed me freedom Empowered and Expected more from Questions my ability
to fail or succeed trusted me me than I believed rather than providing challenges Over-controlling
Set lots of rules
Listened Celebrates small wins possible needed input Created conflict by
Expected that I giving different
Believed I could do it Never specified would not succeed workers different
requirements
Encouraged views Explained the needs Supported innovation Ignored my ideas standings and rules
that were different and then let me go Condescending and gave too much
than the entrenched about how I do specific detail on the Took all the credit
something I have
ones done successfully process Talked down to me
Owned everything; Talked over me
Had faith in me; Allowed me to fail in a Is interested in my for years Not trustworthy, and
Expected each safe environment success
person to take risks Valued status quo doesn’t trust me
and comfort over
Continuously Allowed me to Empowered to make change and growth
encourages me to determine the P&L decisions
challenge how we do Never wanted to
process Gave me concepts, listen to anyone
things but challenged me to
Challenges me to do under her
Consulted with me on the impossible find the solution
policies needed to Always critical Set my goals for me, Refused to reward
support sales Gives freedom to be Gave team freedom Continuously redid and didn’t make them
myself and lead to create and invent, Blamed others
Gave me the and used what the my work clear A victim, not a
challenge and knew I Proposed extreme
challenges and gave team generated Took credit for my Does not value my victor
would achieve it – unconditional support work (Note, this was contribution
then gave me more and encouragement Told me the expected mentioned 9 times)
outcome, but allowed
Listened and jointly Aside from results, Ignored my Shut ideas down
took thinking to the me to develop the fails to show interest knowledge Doesn’t listen to me
process
next step in my operation

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

Multiplier er Behaviors (cont’d) Diminisher Behaviors (cont’d)

Encouraged me to Empowered me to Gave me a big Jealous of my “Threw me under Undermined my
always find or make business challenge plus total successes the bus” to protect work and judgment
decisions herself when her
recommend a solution responsibility Not supportive project went wrong
to issues

Inspired me by Encourages new Provides guidance Did not show Questioned my Self-absorbed
walking the talk thoughts but allows me to respect for our decisions and
make decisions
employer action

Removed barriers Encouraged, coached Values my Continuously redid Wouldn’t listen Did not utilize my
and listened contributions my work skills

Allowed me to run my Challenged me; Made Laid out the project or Hit me on the head Got in the way with Did not attempt to
department based on me work harder with need, and let me with a pencil: “What constant editing and understand what
more accountability do I have to do to value I brought to
my knowledge figure out the process criticism without
get this through contribution the process
your head?”

The average elicited intelligence in Portland? Diminishers elicited 43.8%; Multipliers elicited
91.3%. “These Portland real-life results are right in line with scientific surveys. Multipliers, on
average, elicit twice the production as Diminishers.”

Interestingly, the most frequently noted Portland-area Diminisher behaviors were 1) taking credit
for other people’s work; 2) being untrustworthy; and 3) micro-managing. The most frequently
noted Portland-area Multiplier behaviors were 1) trusting and believing in their people; 2)
challenging people to stretch themselves; and 3) listening. Several attendees noted that the
influence of both Diminishers and Multipliers has a pronounced effect on their personal quality-of-
life beyond the workplace.

Surprising Research

“As we studied leaders across the world, we found a remarkable amount of consistency and
patterns that confirmed our research. But here are some findings that are surprising and
intriguing.”

• Multipliers are hard-edged. They expect great things from their people, and they drive
them to achieve extraordinary results. They’re tough and exacting. They make people
feel smart and capable, but they are not “feel-good” managers. They look into people and
find capabilities; they see a lot so they expect a lot.

• Multipliers typically have a great sense of humor. They aren’t necessarily comedians, but
they don’t take themselves or situations too seriously, perhaps because they don’t need to
defend their own intelligence. They can laugh at themselves and see comedy in error and
in life’s foibles. Their sense of humor liberates others.

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

• Diminishers are typically “accidental.” Most have no idea about the restrictive impact they
have on others and on the company. They grew up receiving praise for personal and
intellectual merit. They see the world as boss/subordinate, a view often inherited from the
people who promoted them.

• There is a continuum between Multipliers and Diminishers, with just a handful of people at
either polar extreme. A Diminisher who moves just a few degrees toward becoming a
Multiplier is likely to experience a noticeably positive effect on outcome. Said another
way, “with only slight changes in approach, they can create genius around them and
receive higher contributions from their people. They can recalibrate their mindset to think
and operate like a Multiplier. They can learn to stop leaving undeveloped resources on
the table.”

The Talent Magnet: Attracting and Optimizing
Talent

Synergy – an interaction of things that creates a result greater than the sum of the things – is an
over-used term, but in the case of Multipliers, it fits like a glove. As shown in the following
diagram, Multipliers attract A-player talent which is encouraged to grow, and in turn, attract A+
players who drive profits that increase market value. In doing so, they brand their employer as
“the place to grow,” attracting yet other A players and creating a continually accelerating success
cycle.

1. Attracting “A”
players who get
fully utilized and

grow

4. Building a 2. Attracting
reputation as “A+” players

“a place to who drive
grow” profits

3. Increasing
Market Value

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

“Talent Managers look for talent everywhere, and appreciate the diversity of talent requisite to
building a successful company. They understand that people love to contribute their genius, and
that the most effective genius is native; i.e., something that people do not only exceptionally well,
but absolutely naturally, easily and freely. The goal is to unleash them.”

The four practices of a Talent Magnet:
1. Look for talent everywhere. Appreciate all types of genius. Ignore boundaries.
2. Find people’s native genius. Look for it and label it.
3. Utilize people to their fullest. Connect them to opportunities. Shine a spotlight on them.
4. Remove the blockers. Get rid of prima donnas. Get out of the way.

The Liberator: Require People’s Best Thinking

“The Liberator creates an environment where good things happen. Ideas are generated with
ease; people learn rapidly and adapt to new environments; people work collaboratively; complex
problems get solved; and difficult tasks get accomplished.”

A key strength of Liberators is their ability to hold two seemingly opposing positions: 1) creating
comfort, letting people do what they do best; and 2) creating positive pressure to get the best
outcomes. “The power of Liberators emanates from this duality. It isn’t enough to just free
people’s thinking. Liberators create an intense environment that requires people’s best thinking
and their best work. They generate pressure, but they don’t generate stress.”

Liberators label their opinions so that people know the difference between a random thought, an
opinion, and a policy decision. They divide their views into soft opinions (where they give
perspectives to consider) and hard opinions (where they have an emphatic point of view).

The three practices of Liberators:

• Create space for others to contribute. They restrain themselves to give space for others
to contribute. They shift the Talking/Listening ratio to emphasize the latter. They operate
consistently, and they level the playing field so that people closest to the action are
unmuffled and can contribute their unique front-row-seat contributions.

• Demand people’s best work by defending the standard. “It’s not just winning; it’s giving
your best.” They hold people accountable, but they don’t hold people accountable for
things that are beyond their control.

• Generate rapid learning cycles. “Liberators give people permission to make mistakes and
the obligation to learn from them.” They admit and share mistakes. They insist on
learning from the mistakes. They institutionalize feedback and challenge even when it is
pointed at them. They set the expectation for full effort.

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

The Challenger: Asking Bigger Questions

“Challengers have a full range of motion; they can see and articulate the big thinking and ask the
big questions, but they can also connect that to the specific steps needed to create movement. “

Wiseman posed a series of questions: “Why would you ever take a job for which you are
qualified? Wouldn’t you want a job that would allow you to grow into it?” What would happen if
everyone on your team had a job he/she had to grow into? How would this affect your team’s
production?” She noted that when we buy shoes for kids, we always buy them a bit large,
knowing that they’ll soon grow into them. “Isn’t this what you want for your team?” She also
noted the performance limitations of job descriptions and hiring qualifications. “Throw them
away!”

The three practices of Challengers:

• Seed the opportunity. Show the need, and challenge the assumptions. Reframe
problems. Create a starting point.

• Lay down a concrete challenge. Ask hard questions, and let others fill in the blanks.

• Generate belief in what is possible by helicoptering down, laying out a path, and co-
creating the plan. Orchestrate an early win.

The Debate Maker: Building Up-front Engagement

“Multipliers make decisions by first engaging people in debate – not only to achieve sound
decisions, but also to develop collective intelligence and to ready their organizations to execute.”
Debate Makers, says Wiseman, encourage people to engage up front so that they contribute their
best thinking to frame the issues and create well-considered solutions rather than being delegated
to fixing them later on. With this level of understanding, efficient execution becomes the norm. In
contrast, Diminishers tend to make decisions within a tight circle without the input of the broader
organization. Enormous energy goes into “selling” their directives to uninvolved and often
resistant executers.

The three practices of Debate Makers:

• Frame the issue and define the question. Form the team, assemble the data, and frame
the decision.

• Spark the debate by creating safety for best thinking and by demanding rigor.

• Drive a sound decision. Re-clarify the decision-making process. When making decisions,
communicate both the decision and rationale.

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

The Investor: Instilling Ownership and
Accountability

“Multipliers invest in the success of others. They may jump into each situation and share their
ideas, but they always give the pen back, knowing that when leaders fail to return ownership, they
create dependent organizations. Multipliers enable others to operate independently by giving
people ownership for results and investing in their success. They can’t always be present to
perform emergence rescues, so they ensure that people on their teams are self-sufficient and can
operate without their direct presence.”

In other words, Multipliers refuse to micromanage. “You might ask yourself, how would I coach if I
could never be out on the playing field? How would I lead if I couldn’t jump in and take over?
How would I respond to a performance gap if I were a Multiplier?”

The three practices of Investors:

• Define ownership by naming the lead, giving ownership for the end goal, and stretching
the role.

• Invest resources to teach and coach, providing backup.

• Hold people accountable. Give the pen back. Expect complete work and respect natural
consequences. Make the scoreboard visible.

Becoming a Multiplier

“Learning to lead like a Multiplier can feel overwhelming. Many organizational cultures lean to the
Diminisher side. The path of least resistance is frequently the path of the Diminisher. It is
definitely easier to be a Diminisher. However, with the right approach, leading like a Multiplier is
within reach.”

Wiseman suggests three approaches which she designates as “Accelerators.”

1. Work the extremes. Rather than trying to become strong in all five Multiplier disciplines,
select just two: one a weakness, the other a strength. The weakness: despite what you
may have read or heard, you are unlikely to turn a weakness into a strength, but you can
probably move it into a “reasonably acceptable” or neutral zone where it will not handicap
your leadership. The strength: becoming world-class – a tower of strength, as it were – in
an area where you already have strong capabilities is a worthy and achievable pursuit. “If
the people you work with were to describe you in only one word, what would it be?”

2. Start with assumptions. Behavior follows assumptions. If you make the correct
assumptions – if you’ve adopted the belief that people are smart and will figure it out –
you’re likely to see opportunities everywhere.

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“What is possible if you can access all of the intelligence in your organization? By extracting
people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the capacity from them.” Liz Wiseman

3. Take a 30-day multiplier challenge. “The most effective and enduring learning involves
small, successive experimentation with new approaches. Over time, these experiments
form new patterns of behavior that establish a new baseline.” Rather than focusing on
several behavior disciplines simultaneously, choose one and give it concentrated attention
for 30 days, long enough for the habit to become ingrained.

Allow yourself to build your Multiplier skills, layer by layer, over time, staying with each layer for a
year – or a lifetime. Building a community of like-minded people is another tool, just as building a
community of fellow exercisers or weight-losers or foreign language learners can help develop
those skills. We incorporate the power of peer pressure to sustain momentum.

Summing Up

“It has been said that after meeting with the great British Prime Minister William
Ewart Gladston, you left feeling he was the smartest person in the world; but
after meeting with his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking your were the
smartest person.” (Bono, rock star and global activist)

To which Wiseman concludes:

“Which will you be: A genius? Or a genius maker? Your choice matters.”

--------------------------------------------

Executive Forum encourages you to consider the value of Multipliers in non-business settings as
well; especially, in family settings. Are you a Multiplier who elicits the intelligence of your
spouse/partner, or do you call the shots? Are you teaching your children how to think, or do you
focus on their obedience? In families as well as in business, the smartest leaders make everyone
else smarter, too.

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