Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
If you're in a leadership role - read this book!I enjoyed this book. It is a great easy read and will challenge your notion of leadership. If you are interested in some different ideas on leadership fundamentals I am sure that you will find it interesting.The authors juxtapose two quite different types of leaders whom they characterize as the Diminisher, and the Multiplier. We have all had experience with these two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drains intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them and always needs to be the smartest person in the room. Diminishers under-utilize talent and resources, their own as well as others, and also demonstrate five disciplines: Empire Builder, Tyrant, Know-It-All, Decision Maker, and Micro Manager. If you think an individual is belligerent they are probably in this category. I am working hard to keep these people out of my life. They are energy sappers and diminish 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. These leaders spark ideas and problem solving. These are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These are the Multipliers. They "extract full capability," their own as well as others', and demonstrate five disciplines: Talent Magnet, Liberator, Challenger, Debate Maker, and Investor. My friend Lutz Ziob from Microsoft is deservedly recognized in this book as a Multiplier. These are people that can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations, getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. The authors suggest that Multipliers extract so much more from their people that - in effect - they essentially double the workforce at no additional cost, i.e. the total cost of what must be done (in terms of dollars and hours) is probably much less than what would be saved by doing it.If you're in a leadership role - read this book! In "Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter" by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown. Wiseman explains a study (and the results of that study) that she did with McKeown on different types of leaderships. Throughout the book, Wiseman uses two main terms to describe different types of leaders. One is a 'multiplier' and the other is a 'diminisher'. A multiplier is a leader who makes the people around them feel smarter and more productive whereas a diminisher is someone who makes themselves seem like the smartest person in the room, typically by shooting down other people's ideas and thoughts. One of the things that I liked most about the book is that it gave great examples of what multipliers did and the thought positions that they had that made them such great leaders. Multipliers expect you to be capable and get things done on your own. Diminishers would micromanage you and blame you if you messed up, but would also take all the credit if you did it right. Multipliers however, would give you room to make mistakes and then help you figure out where the mistake was made so that you could do better next time, all the while giving you thoughtful compliments that boost your self-esteem. I personally did think that this book was hard to read (mostly because it sounded like I was a diminisher) but also thought that it gave a lot of useful insight. I would reccomend this book to anyone who doesn't mind critisism (but I don't have an example of another book like it because so far this is the only book of this type that I have read so far).
What do You think about Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (2010)?
Good look at leadership styles, easy to read and engaging. Provides good direction.
—berosirk
Great book on leadership style. I had a Manager that was 100% diminisher.....
—shan
Could have been edited better, but great ideas and strategies!
—Klizz
