Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Liz Wiseman has been named as one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world and teaches leadership to executives and emerging leaders internationally. She is the President of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley. She is the author of three best-selling books: Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. Multipliers: was recently revised and updated. In this episode we talk about these revisions and what to do when we have a leader that is a “diminisher.” 
Highlights
3:30 Revised edition of Multipliers 7:00 Diminishers as leaders 8:30 How do we build a culture of leaders 11:30 How to see the accidental diminisher in you 16:00 How to approach a diminisher? Most common strategies (that don’t typically work):
- Confront them
- Avoid them
- Quit
- Comply and lay low
- Ignore the diminishing behavior
18:00 Experience of Liz confronting a Relief Society President 21:00 Role play: good guy/bad boss 25:45 How to respond to a diminisher: Curiosity approach/ask questions
- “I wonder why?”
- Have empathy
- Who did wrong by this person?
- Who micromanaged them?
27:40 Having empathy for the people we work under changes the dynamics 28:15 Instead of excluding the diminisher, ask their opinion 30:00 You don’t get to change other people but you can change your response 31:00 You have the choice to be the Multiplier yourself. It doesn’t have to come from the top. 32:00 Choose to respond with love 33:00 You don’t have to be the boss to be the Multiplier 34:15 Fluid leadership 37:00 Defensive moves: turn the volume down 39:00 Retreat and regroup: example from Apple executive Steve Jobs 42:00 Assert your capability. Good strategy to deal with an accidental diminisher: “I’ve got this” 46:15 What Liz has learned about her discipleship
Links:
Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Other Liz Wiseman interviews with Leading Saints Read the TRANSCRIPT of this podcast
Thank you for this excellent podcast. I could very easily recognize myself in how I would behave around a diminisher – let’s just say I wouldn’t be asking too many questions. And yet, when you discussed the best way to approach working with a diminisher – it was a real “aha” moment. And now as a newly called stake leader myself – I am trying hard to see if I am a diminisher or a multiplier – perhaps a bit of both. Lots of insight gained and looking forward to purchasing the book. Thank you for giving of your time to share your knowledge. So helpful!