As I’ve previously mentioned, at Rodel we like to spend time maximizing the success of our business, and one such way, we believe is to encourage and enable our team to be the best that they can be and to perform to the best of their abilities.
A book that has brought very interesting insight to the subject is leadership expert, Liz Wiseman’s, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. And as the title suggests, it explores how the right leadership can be a key to eliciting dramatic results from staff members.
Wiseman and management consultant partner Greg McKeown suggest that while some leaders drain capability and intelligence from their teams, others amplify it to produce better results. They label the latter group “Multipliers” and offer powerful pointers as to how to ensure your own leadership style is suited to getting the best from your team. A must-read for all leaders, here are just three simple yet strategic ways to start utilizing and amplifying the intelligence and capability of the people around you.
“Shift from answers to questions. Don’t provide all the answers—ask the right questions. Use your knowledge of the business or a situation to ask insightful and challenging questions that cause people to stop, think, and rethink. Instead of continually selling your vision, ask the questions that get other people thinking and piecing together that vision for themselves.
Dispense your ideas in small doses. If you are an idea guy who is prone to toss out more ideas than anyone can catch or have the gift of gab, try dispensing your ideas in small, but intense doses. Introduce fewer ideas, and leave white space. Providing more distance between your ideas creates room for others to contribute; and, people really listen when you say something. Imagine playing your ideas like poker chips, carefully placing each where it creates the most value.
Expect complete work. People learn best when they are fully accountable and experience the consequences of their work. Instead of jumping in and fixing the work of others, give it back to them and let them know what needs to be improved or completed. Ask people to go beyond pointing out problems: Ask them to find a solution. By wrestling with it, they’ll grow their capability and operate more independently.”
Liz Wiseman, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.