Some leaders seem to drain intelligence and capability out of the people around them. Their focus on their own intelligence and resolve to be the most smarter person in the room had a diminishing effect on everyone else
They see intelligence and something static, since they are the most intelligence, they should always be thinking and “ordering” what is best.
They follow the logic of addition: to get more you need more → to do more things you need more people to follow your ideas
Traits:
The empire builder: Hoards resources and underutilizes talent
The tyrant: Creates tense environment that suppresses people’s thinking and capability
The know-it-all: Gives directives that showcase how much they know
The decision maker: Makes centralized, abrupt decisions that confuse the organization
The Micro Manager: Drives results through their personal involvement
Multipliers:
Other leaders used their intelligence in a different way. They use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capability of people around them. People grew smarter in their presence. Ideas grew; challenges were surmounted; hard problems were solved.
Genius makers
They just not access to 100% of people’s capabilities, they also able to stretch their intelligence. They know that people can give more than they can imagine
They see intelligence as something that can be developed
They follow the logic of multiplication: Most people are underutilized, using them correctly give you more. Using more of people intelligence, give you more results.
See complex challenges and opportunities around them, and they understand their job is to bring the right people together in an environment that liberates people best thinking
Traits:
The Talent Magnet: Attracts talented people and use them at their highest point of contribution
The Liberator: Creates an intense environment that requires people’s best thinking and work
The Challenger: Defines an opportunity that causes people to stretch
The Debate Maker: Drives sound decisions throough rigorous debate
The Investor: Gives other people the ownership for results and invest in their success
Great sense of Humor
Accidental Diminishers: System is made so being a Diminisher is the default
Chapter 2 - The Talent Magnet
Would your people describe you as someone who recognizes talented people, draws them in, and utilizes them at their fullest? Would they say they have grown more around you than any other manager they have worked for?
Or would they describe you as someone who pulled them into your organization not as a talent to be develop, but more as a resource to be deployed then left to languish? or maybe feel recruited but not given a meaningful role?
Talent magnets and The cycle of atraction:
Empire builders and The cycle of decline
Talent magnet do 4 things
Look for talent everywhere
genius comes in many forms — look for all type of geniuses
Ignore boundaries — they look for talent, but they don’t restrict for the hierarchies
they see talent networks instead
Find people’s native genius
Look for what is native — something that people do, not only exceptionally well, but absolutely naturallly. They do it easily (without extra effort) and freeely
Label It
Utilize people at their fullest
Connect people with opportunities
Shine a spotlight
Remove the blockers
Get rid of Prima Donnas
Get out of the way
The Empire builders
think People need to report to me in order to get them to do anything
Diminishers are owners of talent, not developers of talent. Since they don’t actively develop talent, people in their organizations languish and can actually regress
Chapter 3 - The liberator
Tyrants vs Liberators
Corporate environments have perfect setups for diminishing leadership. The org chats and hierarchies skew power toward the top and create incentive for people to shut down and comply
These hierarchies make easy for Tyrants to reign, surpress + constraint the thinking of people around them
Tyrants create a tense environment that surpress people’s thinking and capabilities
Tense environment full of stress and anxiety
Liberators create an intense environment in which superior thinking and work can flourish.
Creates an intense environment that requires concentration, diligence and energy
People are encourage to think for themselves but also where they have high expectations to do their best work
Is not enough to just free people’s thinking, it’s necesary pressure (but without generating stress)
3 Practices of a Liberator
Create Space
We need space to contribute and to work, don’t take for granted that people have this space
Liberators carve out space for others to be able to make contributions
Release others by restraining yourself
maintains the space carve-out by restraining yourself to consume it, specially if there are strong hierarchies that are used to have their leaders give all the answers
Shift the ratio of listening to talking
Liberators are more than just good listeners, they listen to feed their hunger for knowledge
Operate consistently
Operating consistently is good to enable others, reduce the stress because you are predictable and also creates safety
Level the playing field
In organizations, some voices (the most higher ups) are stronger than others, level the field
Demand people’s best work
Defend the standard
As a manager you know when someone is below his or her usual performance, What is harder to know if they are giving everything they have to give
Distinguish best work from outcomes
Is different to require best work, than desired outcomes.
If you make accountable for desired outcomes → stress will be build up → because you have no control over outcomes
But you can make accountable for best work→makes an intense environment→ but not stress or anxiety
Generate Rapid Learning Cycles
Give people permission to make mistakes and the obligation to learn from that mistakes
Admit and share mistakes
Insist on learning from mistakes
Both liberators and tyrants expects mystakes
Tyrants waiting to pounce on people who make them (and elude responsability)
Liberators stand ready to learn from them — get the best thinking from people by creating rapid cycle between thinking, learning and making/recovering from mistakes
