Some leaders are Multipliers and some are Diminishers. Multipliers make everyone around them smarter and more productive. Diminishers do the opposite. This book teaches people how to be Multipliers by describing the 5 disciplines (behaviors) of Multipliers.

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The Multiplier effect

Some leaders make us better and smarter. These leaders are Multipliers. They are genius makers who fill the organization with intelligence and capability. They make people around them smarter and more capable by insisting that decisions and intelligence start with team members and flow to them.

Some leaders are black holes who make us less effective. These leaders are Diminishers. They stifle others and deplete the organization of intelligence and capability. They do this by being absorbed in their own intelligence and insisting that decisions and intelligence flow from them to the team.

Proof that Multipliers are real

  • Many people self report feeling brilliant and competent under one leader and dumb and inneffective under another.
  • Many people self report being used at 20% effectiveness under Diminishers and at 120% under Multipliers

Proof that intelligence is not static

  • People have higher IQs today than people 50 years ago did
  • Children can end up with higher IQs after changing families

Also worth noting:

  • Multipliers can get growth without adding headcount.
  • It is possible to be overworked and under utilized.

The mind of the Multiplier

Diminishers

Diminishers believe that intelligence is rare and unchangeable.

The implications for how Diminishers lead are that they:

  • Believe intelligence is scarce and limited and people who don’t get it now never will.
  • Tell people what to do and make all of the important decisions.
  • Jump in and take over when someone appears to be failing.
  • Note under this model there is no vacation for smart people

The 5 disciplines of the Diminisher:

  1. Empire builder: They collect people and power under themselves.
  2. Tyrant: They rule with fear and demand people’s best thinking but never get it.
  3. Know-it-all: They set direction.
  4. Decision maker: They make decisions in the dark without input from others.
  5. Micromanager: They make all the decisions for everyone else.

Multipliers

Multipliers believe everyone is a genius at something intelligence can be developed.

The implications for how Multipliers lead are they they:

  • Believe people are smart and will figure it out
  • Believe people are capable of producing at much higher levels
  • Wonder what could be done to grow people’s intelligence
  • Create an environment that liberates people’s best thinking and then get out of the way.
  • Trust people and extend hard challenges to them.

The 5 disciplines of the Multiplier:

  1. Talent magnet: They attract and optimize talent.
  2. Liberator: They require the team’s best thinking, create intensity that requires their best thinking, and create an environment that is comfortable and intense.
  3. Challenger: They extend challenges, push you beyond what you know, and ensure direction gets set.
  4. Debate Maker: They debate big decisions.
  5. Investor: They instill ownership and accountability and set high expectations.

Also worth noting

  1. Multipliers have a hard edge. They are tough and exacting. They are not feel good managers. People like these leaders because they grow under their leadership.
  2. Multipliers have a great sense of humor. They don’t take themselves or situations too seriously. They can see comedy in error and this puts people at ease.
  3. Accidental diminishers are leaders who inherit a world view from diminishers they work for.

Summary

  • Get more done by getting more out of your people
  • Diminishers underutilize people
  • Multipliers increase intillegence in people

Discipline 1: Talent Magent

People want to work for Multipliers because they make people better. Multipliers try to answer the question “What is stopping you from succeeding?” Multipliers believe people are a resource to be developed and give credit by recognizing the accomplishments of others.

Diminishers believe people are a resource to be deployed and therefore don’t grow or invest in people. Diminishers take credit by collecting people to make themselves appear smarter or more powerful.

What talent magnets do:

  1. Look for talent everywhere

    • Genius comes in many forms.
    • Look for complementary intelligence.
    • Build and traverse talent networks.
    • Ignore boundaries and org charts: Everyone works for a Multiplier. People love to contribute their genius. There is talent at all levels of the organization.

  2. Find people’s native genius

    • What do they do better than anything else they do?
    • What do they do better than anyone else?
    • What do they do effortlessly?
    • What do they do without being asked?
    • What do they do without being paid?
    • Label it: Tell people what genius you see. “Fish are good at swimming but don’t think twice about it.”

  3. Utilize people at their fullest

    • Engage their native genius with the right assignment.
    • Connect people to opportunities that allow them to use their native genius. This increases their value and increases their utilization.
    • Set high expectations and stretch people: “Nothing grows under a banyan tree. There is shade and it is comfortable, but there is not enough sunlight.”

  4. Remove the blockers

    • Remove the people who run over others.
    • A players attract A players.

How to become a talent magent

  1. Be a genius watcher. Identify the genius of someone you work with.
  2. Test it: Ask them and others if they agree.
  3. Work it: Make a list of other roles or assignments this person would use that genius.
  4. Encourage people to grow and leave.
  5. Customize the role and difficulty level to match the individual.

Discipline 2: The Liberator

Multipliers create an intense environment and set high expectations while ensuring a safe space to have ideas and make mistakes. They are approachable, calm, consistent, and filter and reduce stress for others. They give people the space to step up.

Diminishers create stressful environment using fear and intimidation by waiting for the chance to point out mistakes in order to demonstrate their own genius. As a result people only bring up safe ideas the diminisher will already agree with.

What liberators do:

  1. Create space by

    • Restraining themselves from doing things or making decisions.
    • Being ferocious listeners who learn what other people know.
    • Amplifying the voices of people who might not be heard otherwise.

  2. Demand people’s best work by

    • Defending the standard.
    • Applying positive pressure. Create an intense environment not a tense environment.

  3. Generate rapid learning cycles by

    • Failing early, fast, and cheap.
    • Building processes around learning: Do, Make mistakes, Learn from them.
    • Creating an environment where its OK to make mistakes but you must learn from them.
    • Knowing that learning can’t happen without mistakes.
    • “How smart do you need to be? Smart enough to learn.”

How to become a liberator

  1. Give yourself 5 poker chips. 1 chip = 120 seconds. Don’t spend more than 5 chips in a meeting.
  2. Label your opinions. Carefully label soft opinions (musings, suggestions) vs hard opinions (policy – it matters).
  3. Make your mistakes known.

Also worth noting:

  1. The path of least resistance is tyranny.
  2. Liberators give permission to think and require the team’s best work.
  3. Multipliers are intense.
  4. People’s best work must be given, not taken.

Discipline 3: The Challenger

Multipliers are challengers. They believe a leader’s role is to ask the big questions and identify problems (aka challenges aka opportunities). Multipliers believe that people get smarter by being challenged.

Diminishers are know-it-alls. They believe a leader’s role is to be the expert and tell everyone what to do. A sign that a Diminisher is in charge is when people are idle waiting for the leader to decide.

What challengers do:

  1. Cede the opportunity.

    • Provide just enough answers for people figure it out on their own.
    • Show the need to solve this problem and allow people to respond to it. (vs just giving the answers).
    • Reframe problems as opportunities.
    • Create a starting point. Allow someone else to explore.

  2. Lay down the challenge.

    • Raise the bar.
    • Give people permission to try without fear of failure.
    • Make the challenge tangible and measurable.
    • Communicate you are confident they can solve it.
    • Ask the hard questions and then back off and shift the burden of ownership to the team.

  3. Generate belief.

    • Helicopter down. Show that the bold challenge can be done.
    • Orchestrate a small early win.
    • Tell what you know. Teach everyone to be smarter.

How to become a challenger:

  1. Have curiosity. “I wonder if we could do the impossible.”
  2. Go extreme with questions. Stop answering questions. Start asking them.
  3. Take a bus trip. Show the need. Educational.
  4. Take a massive baby step. Low hanging fruit.

Discipline 4: The Debate Maker

Multipliers are debate makers. They make big decisions by gathering their people to debate the issue both to develop collective intelligence and to get everyone thinking in the same direction. “With enough minds, we can figure it out.” Multipliers focus on what others know.

Diminishers are decision makers. They make big decisions by themselves or with a small inner circle because they believe there are only a few people worth listening to. “People will never be able to figure it out without me”. Diminishers focus on what they know.

What debate makers do:

  1. Frame the issue.

    • Ask the right question. Focus on the right problem.
    • Prepare the data in advance
    • Frame the debate: What is being debated and why

  2. Spark debate.

    • People need to feel safe voicing their opinion or being wrong
    • Challenge assumptions
    • Ask for evidence. What additional data is needed?
    • Highlight tension and trade offs
    • Get people to confront reality
    • Get multiple view points
    • Ask people to argue the other side

  3. Drive sound decisions.

    • Do we need more info?
    • Who will make the final call
    • Summarize key ideas and outcomes
    • Decision doesn’t need to be consensus
    • Communicate the decision and the rationale

How to become a debate maker:

  1. Ask a hard question. Don’t answer your own question.
  2. Ask for evidence.
  3. Everyone must participate.

Discipline 5: The investor

Multipliers are investors. They invest in growing people who can operate and lead when they are not around. They give other people ownership over the results and support them and help them succeed. The result is people who take initiative and people who learn to solve problems without their boss’ help.

Diminishers are micromanagers. The result is people who wait to be told what to do and free riders who wait for their boss to do everything. Everything falls apart when the diminisher is not around.

What investors do:

  1. Give ownership.

    • When you identify capability in somone, put them in charge of something.
    • Give ownership of the whole end goal not just part of it. Otherwise people tend to optimize just their part and not consider the big picture.
    • Create a role for the person at one or two levels above their current capability. They will be energized by the challenge and it will pressure them to grow to the challenge.

  2. Invest resources.

    • Teach and coach. This does not mean take over and do the project for them when they get in trouble.
    • It doesn’t have you be you personally. Assign someone else who can advise.

  3. Hold people accountable.

    • If you assign ownership and invest resources, you have the right to hold people accountable.
    • If someone needs help, help them. But give ownership back to them after.
    • Don’t shield owners from natural consequences.
    • Present clear metrics that show people how they are performing.

How to become an investor:

  1. When you delegate: Make it clear they are in charge and have ownership. Tell them they have 51% of the vote. Make it a stretch.
  2. Don’t save anyone. Let them experience failure. Talk about it and help them find a way to be successful next time.
  3. Insist on solutions, not problems.
  4. Don’t take over when somone is stuck. Coach them. Signal interest and engagement, but not ownership.

Also worth noting:

  1. Multipliers get invovled in operational details but keep ownership with others.
  2. Coaching: Soccer coaches don’t steal the ball from their player and run down the field and score. Their role is to coach, not to play. This is true as well for managers, leaders, teachers, and parents. “A leader is someone who helps others lead.”
  3. Serial multipliers: Leaders who setup a team or organization and invest in the people and make them leaders can then step away from that organization to setup a new one. Meanwhile the old one continues to function as extension of themselves.