Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter - Hardcover

Wiseman, Liz

  • 3.99 out of 5 stars
    16,156 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780061964398: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

Synopsis

Wall Street Journal Bestseller

A thought-provoking, accessible, and essential exploration of why some leaders (“Diminishers”) drain capability and intelligence from their teams, while others (“Multipliers”) amplify it to produce better results. Including a foreword by Stephen R. Covey, as well the five key disciplines that turn smart leaders into genius makers, Multipliers is a must-read for everyone from first-time managers to world leaders.

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About the Authors

Liz Wiseman is a researcher, executive advisor, and speaker who teaches leaders around the world. She is a former executive and the author of the bestselling books Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. Liz has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and named as one of the top ten leadership thinkers in the world.



Greg McKeown is a partner at The Wiseman Group, where he leads the workshop and assessment practice and teaches around the world. Originally from London, England, Greg holds an MBA from Stanford University.

From the Back Cover

Are you a genius or a genius maker?

We've all had experience with two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the ones around them and always need to be the smartest ones 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, lightbulbs 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.

In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman and management consultant Greg McKeown explore these two leadership styles, persuasively showing how Multipliers 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.

In analyzing data from more than 150 leaders, Wiseman and McKeown have identified five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. These five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed, they are skills and practices that everyone can learn to use—even lifelong and recalcitrant Diminishers. Lively, real-world case studies and practical tips and techniques bring to life each of these principles, showing you how to become a Multiplier too, whether you are a new or an experienced manager. Just imagine what you could accomplish if you could harness all the energy and intelligence around you. Multipliers will show you how.

Reviews

Drawing on interviews with more than 150 executives and on her own experience as a former executive at the Oracle Corporation and the former vice president of Oracle University, Weisman argues that executives fall into two distinct leadership categories: Multipliers and Diminishers. Unsurprisingly, Multipliers turn out to be better leaders: unlike Diminishers—self-centered empire builders who tear employees down—Multipliers attract talent, liberate employees to do their best and step out of their comfort zones, make decisions rather than promoting unproductive debate, and invest in human capital. While spotlights on such Multipliers as Mitt Romney, a Talent Magnet at Bain Capital and beyond, and Steven Spielberg, who fosters an open environment on his film sets, are appealing and instructive, the major points are repetitive. Chapters drag on after descriptions of distinctive Multiplier or Diminisher behavior have been made. The breadth of the material is better suited for a lengthy article than a full business book, and the effort to stretch it into a longer work diminishes the meaningful research. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Why do some genius-level leaders seem to drain intelligence and performance out of the people around them, while others stimulate, motivate, and get so much more out of their work associates? Wiseman labels the former group, people who need to be the smartest person in the room, as diminishers, while the latter are multipliers, people who use their smarts to stimulate and enhance the creativity of the group. Both authors are connected with the Wiseman Group, a leadership research center that advises senior executives and provides workshops and leadership assessments around the world. By analyzing 150 executives across America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, the authors have identified what they consider the five most important disciplines that help managers to think and act more like multipliers, bringing people together, and giving others on the team more freedom, power, and responsibility, which ultimately generates self-worth and satisfaction. The book is a well-organized sytem that could be used as a personal tool or as a workbook for team-development seminars. --David Siegfried

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