Description
Do you want to become an effective leader? How can you get maximum performance from your team? How can you help your people perform well? The answer to all this lies in the multiplier. In this summary, you will learn who a multiplier is and what principles multipliers use every day. Plus, you’ll learn how to retain good talent, uncover the best ideas, challenge people, encourage debate, and invest in your organization’s success. If you become a multiplier you can multiply the genius and output of your team.
Book Summary
Introduction
Some leaders underestimate the intelligence and abilities of the people around them or consider them of no use. He focuses on his intelligence and his desire to be the smartest. This means that for these leaders to look smart, everyone else must look stupid. Have you ever had the experience of working with such leaders? They create a black hole that sucks the energy of everyone around them.
Liz, the author of this book, calls these types of leaders Diminisher. When they come to the office, the IQ of the team decreases and the meetings become longer. He kills everyone’s ideas and drains the energy. That means, in that organization, intelligence flows in only one direction: from the Diminisher to the rest.
But there is another type of leaders who use their intelligence not as a weapon but as a tool. He uses his intelligence to enhance the intelligence and abilities of the people around him. This helps the team create innovative ideas, overcome challenges and solve problems. People become better and smarter in their presence. These leaders are ‘multipliers’.
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If diminishers are geniuses, multipliers are genius makers. This summary will show you how multipliers do this.
Liz has studied 150 leaders from different companies and organizations. They have assessed their leadership processes and also interviewed their employees. From this, Liz discovered that Multipliers are able to get twice as much from their people as Diminishers.
People who lead multipliers are twice as creative, resourceful and motivated. He always gives his 100% or more. In her study, Liz found 5 principles that multipliers use to bring out the best in people. In this summary, we’ll discuss those 5 principles and how you can practice them in your organization.
The Talent Magnet
Meg Whitman was the CEO of eBay. After obtaining MBA degree from Harvard, he started his career with a famous business consulting firm ‘Bain & Company’. He had heard that all the young consultants wanted to be a part of Mitt Romney’s team.
Mitt Romney is a US senator. He is also the CEO of Bain & Company. Early in his career, Mitt led a team of consultants, which included Meg. Everyone liked working for him. Mitt took the time to get to know everyone on the team and their capabilities. He used to find out what each consultant was naturally good at and gave them the right projects accordingly.
Whereas Meg’s colleagues had leaders who were focused on furthering their own careers instead of helping their team members. They did not grow or develop their capabilities. When a consultant faced a problem, he preferred to remain silent and work for a long time rather than asking for help. Despite completing his work, he never received praise or appreciation for his hard work. Instead the team leader took away all the recognition and rewards.
Mitt Romney is a talent magnet, while the rest of the team leaders are empire builders. Talent magnets attract people to their teams, develop their potential and prepare them for the next stage of their careers. Under his leadership, people grow and become talent magnets themselves. Meg Whitman is proof of this. She became CEO of eBay and increased its revenue by 88%.
Empire builders, on the other hand, are leaders who hoard resources and do not utilize talent properly. They hire top talent, make big promises but fail to develop them and let their people down. He accumulates resources and hires top talent to make himself look good, but the team keeps falling apart under his leadership.
Talent magnets create a cycle of attraction. He is known for his good leadership reputation, that is why A players want to be in his team. Talent magnets discover the genius of A players and help them improve. This turns A players into A+ players. They also get praise and recognition for their good work.
This increases their value in the talent market. A+ players start getting offers of bigger opportunities inside and outside the organization. Talent magnets support them till the end. This makes the team and organization known as a “place to grow.” So more A players want to work with him, replacing A+ talent who have moved on in their careers. This ensures a continuous flow of talent and growth in the company.
Whereas empire builders create a cycle of decline. Brian Beckham was a brilliant, optimistic and collaborative employee. He used to solve every complex problem that came his way. Brian was eventually promoted to Vice President of Operations. He also continued to solve complex problems for his growing division. But Brian soon realized that he and his colleagues were working under a Senior Vice President (SVP) who was not concerned with their problems. SVP just wanted to make his division bigger.
Despite Bryan’s hard work, the problems in his division only got worse. Without SVP’s support, Bryan became an average performer. Many good members of his team left his team. Brian was hoping for things to improve so he continued working at the same company and got stuck in that job. He did not grow and also missed many good opportunities in the talent market. Like many of his colleagues, he too had become a ghost in the office. He was a superstar but his talent was being wasted.
Like talent magnates, empire builders also hire A players in their team, but empire builders do not pay attention to them after hiring them. Under his leadership, A players become either A- or B+ players. People lose their confidence and do not even get recognition for their work. Their skills do not improve. This cycle of decline affects not just an individual employee but the entire organization. This happens because empire builders only focus on making themselves successful. He doesn’t develop or guide people like talent magnets.
So how can you become a talent magnet? How can you create the cycle of attraction? For this, here are 3 habits –
First, talent magnets look for talent everywhere. Talent magnates know that intelligence can come in all forms. Every employee has his own strengths. Intuit’s previous CEO, Bill Campbell, was a talent magnet. He was known for his ability to guide and lead the best engineers of Silicon Valley. He listened to his people’s ideas and asked them to teach him what they didn’t know. Because he appreciated the genius of others, Bill became the personal advisor to the CEOs of Apple, Google and many other companies.
Second, talent magnets discover people’s native genius (born ability or talent). He discovers and utilizes the native genius of his team. Native genius means an ability or quality that a person does naturally and excellently without knowing it. Talent Magnet shows people their genius and gives them confidence. Larry Gelwicks was the head coach of the Highland High School rugby team. A player named John still remembers how Larry praised him for his speed in front of everyone. John knew he was very fast but he did not know that he could be even faster. Larry inspired John to do better and push himself beyond his limits.
Third, talent magnets remove blockers. Sometimes leaders have to remove arrogant team members who think they are the only intelligent ones on the team. But sometimes the leaders themselves are blocking the growth of the members.
A female VP had a sign posted on her door that read, “If you have to ignore me to get your job done, do it.” He had confidence in his people to do their job. She let him use his judgment. Sometimes the VP was worried because he himself would have done the work in a different way. But they know their people are intelligent and capable enough to do the job well.
That’s why talent magnates train and develop their people. Eventually they move on to bigger roles and challenges. But empire builders put limits on their people. Due to this they are not able to grow and lose their value in the talent market.
The Liberator
Liberators create an intentional environment where people come up with their best ideas and do great work. Tyrants create a tense environment where people’s ideas and abilities are suppressed.
Jenna Healy was SVP of operations for a telecommunications company. His height was only 5 feet but everyone was afraid of him. Jenna was a very experienced and intelligent manager, but she was a tyrant. One of her team members had said, “She manipulates and bullies people until she gets what she wants. She creates a tense atmosphere in the office.”
She suddenly makes someone her target. No one knows who will be Xena’s next victim. His team members are always under stress because they are worried whether they will be the next victim of his criticism.
Once a quarterly meeting of the company was held in Denver. Jenna had called representatives from different teams so that they could discuss the status of the business in the US market. Every department gave its report. Daniel, the manager of the IT team, reports in and asks her a question, which Jenna takes as an attack on her field operations team. After this he insulted Daniel in front of everyone.
Jenna and Daniel argued with each other for 10 minutes. Then someone reminded the group it was time to take a break. Everyone left the room but Daniel was determined to defend himself. They were shouting at each other. Some team members were cheering for Daniel as he stood up against the bullies. But some people were scared because it was their turn to present the report next. In the end, nothing productive came out of that meeting because no one dared to share their original ideas.
Tyrants use fear to lead people, resulting in people becoming stressed and nervous. Tyrants do not let people control their work, rather they insist on their opinions and their way of working. This makes team members feel small and retreat. People avoid doing anything different to avoid the insult of the tyrant. He only gives the safest ideas and does average work.
Liberators, on the other hand, encourage people to create many different and new ideas. This helps people learn quickly and work together. They solve complex problems together and complete difficult tasks.
Award-winning film director, Steven Spielberg is an example of a liberator. His movies have been extremely successful and have each earned an average of $150 million. So what’s Spielberg’s secret? Some people would say that this happened because he is a creative genius and adept at the art of storytelling. Some will talk about his strong work ethic. But Spielberg’s real secret is that he is an expert in bringing out the best performance in people.
He knows every task but he lets people do their work. Spielberg creates an open creative environment but still expects high quality output from his team. He says, “All good ideas start as bad ideas. That’s part of the process.”
Spielberg’s team is twice as productive as the teams of other directors. He creates an environment where everyone can perform at their best. Actors and crew members always want to work with him. Spielberg usually works on two projects at once because his crew stays with him and starts a new project immediately.
Liberators like Spielberg apply the concept of duality to their teams, which means “I’m giving you space, you give me the best work you can.” And “It’s okay to make mistakes, but you have to learn from them, not repeat them.” Liberators provide comfort and pressure simultaneously. They create an intense environment where people have to give their best ideas and output. That means there is so much pressure on people to give their best but not be stressed.
So how can you be like Steven? How can you become a Liberator? To do this follow these 3 habits –
First, give people space. Everyone needs space to work and contribute. Liberator gives people the space they need to be productive.
Second, demand the best work from people. Henry Kissinger was US Secretary of State under Richard Nixon. He was a demanding diplomat but also a multiplier and a liberator. His Chief of Staff once submitted a report on foreign policy. Kissinger asked him, “Is this your best work?” The Chief of Staff thought about it and was afraid that the report was not very good. He replied, “Sir, I think I can do it better.”
After 2 weeks the Chief of Staff submitted a reworked report. Kissinger took it but returned it after a few days. He left a note in it, which read, “Are you sure this is your best work?” The Chief of Staff realized that perhaps he had missed some things. He again made that report and went to Kissinger. Finally he said, “Sir, this is my best work.” Kissinger replied, “Then this time I will read your report.”
Third, create a rapid learning cycle. You might be wondering how smart you have to be to become a multiplier? So the answer is, you just have to be smart enough to learn.
Lutz Liob was the general manager of the education business at Microsoft. He made it safe for the team to take risks and make mistakes. Lutz did this based on how he responded to the mistakes of others and his own mistakes. He neither hid his mistakes nor held his staff responsible for them. Lutz admitted his mistakes without shame.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the new movie.
