How to Be a Multiplier and Elevate the People Around You

As the leader of your organization, how well do you augment and accelerate your team’s talents and achievements?

This is a critical question because your ability to inspire and empower your people is truly the essence of great business leadership. A few years back, I had the honor of meeting renowned author Liz Wiseman, a leadership development expert and executive advisor who was a keynote speaker at a conference hosted by my organization.

Even though many of us in the room that day were seasoned business leaders, I believe we all experienced a collective lightbulb moment as we listened to Wiseman explain the difference between being a ‘multiplier’ and a ‘diminisher’ in managing and leading our teams.

Wiseman explained the stark and compelling contrast between ‘multipliers,’ leaders who amplify the intelligence and abilities of their people, and diminishers, those mis-managers who both devalue and undermine their employees’ capabilities.

Her words got me and the entire audience considering how we support and nurture the people around us and missed opportunities in which we may fall short in our abilities to encourage and elevate our teams. Now, I have always been a big advocate of employee empowerment, but I felt a little pensive that day. As I reflected on the times, I perhaps could have been more of a ‘multiplier.’

Related: How Your Company Culture Can Be a Force Multiplier

Don’t be a diminisher

Diminishers are leaders who tend to constrict and overmanage the people around them, either on purpose or unintentionally. Accidental or not, being a diminisher can have massive negative qualitative and quantitative impacts on your business. In fact, Wiseman asserts that “Diminishers only get half of the true brainpower of their people.”

A diminisher’s problematic behavior can take many forms, but the results tend to be the same. Uninspired personnel. High employee turnover. Lack of innovation. And stymied organizational growth.

Diminishers are often:

• Micromanagers who maintain a stronghold over how team members execute tasks.
• Authoritarians who demand strict compliance to their orders without question.
• Confidence killers who damper employees’ self-esteem by being overly critical.
• Minimizers of other’s contributions who fail to recognize talent and effort.
• Dependency builders who create a system requiring constant approval and oversight.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to negative and demoralizing behaviors experienced in so many organizations today. If you give it a little thought, I am certain you can recall many instances in your own career that included a diminisher or two. Or an entire leadership team.

So let me ask you this. How did those people make you feel and how did their actions impact your ability to contribute to the business and grow in your job?

Related: The Skills That Make You an Ethical Leader

Multipliers ignite success

Multipliers distinguish themselves as success drivers, talent expanders and growth superchargers through several key attributes:

• Multipliers excel in identifying and maximizing talent, recognizing individuals’ unique strengths, and leveraging these personal assets to their fullest potential.
• Multipliers cultivate an environment of trust and respect, empowering team members to voice their ideas and embrace risks.
• Multipliers challenge the status quo, set lofty goals and instill a belief within their team that they can achieve the seemingly impossible.
• Multipliers invite vigorous debate and facilitate insightful decision-making.
• Multipliers are coaches and mentors who invest the time and tools to nurture employee success.

By embodying these qualities, multipliers create a dynamic and profoundly rewarding workplace. Such an environment may not always be comfortable for everyone, but it drives top performers, and thus the entire organization, to thrive.

What’s keeping you from being a multiplier

Here’s the thing. Diminishers often don’t see themselves as possessing negative behaviors, poor communication styles, or ineffective leadership qualities. Instead, they rationalize why their approach is required to keep their employees in check or maintain compliance or some other nonsense like that. Here is a sampling of the common misguided beliefs of diminishers:

• “I’m too busy to pat everyone on the back just for doing their job.”
• “They haven’t been here long enough to have earned my trust.”
• “We didn’t hire you to think; we hired you to perform your job.”
• “That’s management’s responsibility. Now get back to work.”

How demeaning and deflating. Now, imagine the profound negative impact of leadership attitudes like these on employee dedication, motivation and innovation. Trust me, it is not good.

Related: You Have to Give Your Employees Freedom to See Excellence

Seven things you can do to become a better multiplier

The most critical role of a business leader is to foster a culture of respect, excellence and innovation – each of which includes a myriad of approaches and dynamics. If you wish to be a multiplier and improve your ability to elevate your team and celebrate their natural talents, the following are seven great ways to get started:

1. Be an Active Listener: Welcome one-on-one conversations with your team members and appreciate new perspectives.
2. Provide Growth Opportunities: Elevate your team with leadership development programs and skills workshops.
3. Delegate and Empower: Entrust employees to take on increased responsibilities and grow in their roles.
4. Give Them Feedback: Take the time to provide employees with your insight on what worked, what fell short, and how to hit or surpass the mark next time.
5. Celebrate Successes: Make it a habit to praise achievements, applaud effort and reward individual and team accomplishments.
6. Foster a Culture of Collaboration: To instill a sense of unity and alliance and create regular opportunities for interdepartmental projects and knowledge-sharing.
7. Lead by Example: It all starts with you, so set the right tone. Model for your team integrity, work ethic, respect, compassion and an innovative mindset.

By developing your skills as a multiplier, you will help raise your team to exceptional new heights, create innovative opportunities for your business, and ultimately evolve into the truly dynamic leader you were meant to be.