Multipliers

How do certain leaders succeed in fully mobilizing the intelligence and energy of their teams? That is the question taken on by Liz Wiseman, a former Oracle executive and a specialist in leadership. The first part of the book uses field research to present portraits of “multiplier leaders”—managers who know how to reveal the strengths of each person around them and harness these for the benefit of the team. The author identifies the practices that set them apart: they identify the specific strengths of each individual; they invite all their team members to reflect on strategic issues; they organize limited-risk experiments to accelerate learning. These practices have the common characteristic of creating an environment that is both demanding and reassuring, one that raises the level of reflection, speeds up learning and increases everyone’s effective contribution—sometimes more than doubling it, according to the author’s measurements. In the second part, the book offers a guide to assessing one’s own leadership style and adopting the reflexes of a multiplier, while at the same time defusing certain well-intentioned reflexes that lead, unintentionally, to inhibiting the contributions of others.