Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (28 page)

When leaders like Mr. Murthy invest in the development of other leaders, they earn the right to step away without jeopardizing the performance of the organization. The Investor not only reaps these rewards but is now available to repeat the investment cycle elsewhere.

Much like a serial entrepreneur who builds one successful company after another, these leaders can become Serial Multipliers. Of course, doing so requires the leader to break free of the addiction to praise that entraps many senior leaders and instead become addicted
to growth—growth of the business and growth of the people around them. Serial Multipliers grow intelligence. This intelligence isn’t ephemeral, fleeing when the Multiplier is no longer by their side. It is real, and it is sustainable, which is what allows the Multiplier to replicate the effect again and again.

BECOMING AN INVESTOR

But to become a Serial Multiplier (or serial entrepreneur), you have to have a starting point and a first success to begin the positively addictive cycle. Here are four strategies for becoming an Investor.

The Starting Block

1. LET THEM KNOW WHO IS BOSS.
When you delegate, you probably let people know what you are expecting of them. But take this to the next level and let people know that they (not you) are in charge and accountable. Tell them how you will stay engaged and support them, but that they remain in charge. Give them a number to make it concrete. For example, tell them they have 51 percent of the vote and that you have only 49 percent. Or be bold and make it a 75/25 split.

Give them charge of something that requires them to stretch beyond their current capabilities. Start with ownership for the current scope of their role, and then take it up one level. Look for ways to up-level their responsibility and give them a job that they aren’t fully qualified for.

2. LET NATURE TAKE ITS COURSE
. Nature is the most powerful teacher. We can easily forget this when consequences are artificially imposed on us. But we remember and learn deeply when we experience the natural consequences of our actions.

Several years ago, our family took a vacation to Maui, Hawaii.
We parked ourselves on the beach at the very end of Ka’anapali, at the base of Black Rock point. It is a beautiful beach, but because it is there that the ocean confronts the huge rock jutting out of the beach, the surf can be rough. My three-year-old son Christian was fascinated by the ocean and kept straying out of the baby waves and into the dangerous surf. The scene is familiar to every parent. He would venture out too far, then I would go fetch him back, get down at eye level, and tell him about the power of the ocean and why it was too dangerous for him to be out this far. He would resume playing, forget my teaching, and venture out again. We repeated this futile cycle several times.

I decided it was time for him to learn the lesson from Mother Nature instead of from Mom. I watched for a mid-size wave to come toward shore. I selected one that would give him a good topple but wouldn’t sweep him off to Japan. Instead of pulling him back in as the wave approached, I let him venture out. And rather than grabbing his arm and lifting him out of the water, I simply stood by his side. Several parents nearby looked alarmed as they saw the wave coming. One tried to get my attention by giving me that “bad mother” look. I assured him I was on duty but as more of a teacher than a lifeguard. The wave came in and instantly dragged Christian under the surf and tossed him around several times. After he’d had a good tumble, I pulled my three-year-old back up to safety. Once he caught his breath and spit out the sand, we had a talk about the power of the ocean. This time he seemed to understand, and now stayed closer to shore. He continues to love the ocean and to body surf, but displays a respect for the power of nature.

Nature teaches best. When we let nature take its course and allow people to experience the natural consequences of their actions, they learn most rapidly and most profoundly. When we protect people from experiencing the natural ramifications of their actions, we stunt their learning. Real intelligence gets developed through experimentation and by trial and error.

Letting nature teach is hard, because our managerial performance instincts kick in. We want to ensure that our team delivers successfully. The good news is that you don’t need to let a major project fail. Find the “smaller waves” that will provide natural teaching moments, without catastrophic outcomes. To let nature teach, try these steps:

• 1.
  Let it happen.
  Don’t jump in and fix an assignment so it doesn’t fail. Don’t take over a meeting because someone isn’t handling it well. Let the person experience a degree of failure.
  
• 2.
  Talk about it.
  Be available to help someone learn from the failure. Be standing by after a failed meeting or lost sales deal to help them get up, brush off the sand, and talk about what happened. Ask great questions and avoid the ever-diminishing, “I told you so.”
  
• 3.
  Focus on next time.
  Help them find a way to be successful next time. Give them a way out and a path forward. If they’ve just botched an important sales call, ask them how they’ll handle a similar situation with another customer in their pipeline.
  

Not only are there natural consequences to our mistakes, there are natural consequences to good decisions. Allow people to experience the full force of their successes. Step out of the way, give them credit, and let them reap the full benefits of their victories.

3. ASK FOR THE F-I-X.
Many people are promoted into management positions because they are natural problem solvers. So when someone brings you a problem, it is only natural for you to want to fix it. And chances are, people will expect you to because you so often do. In that split second before you respond, recall Kerry Patterson marching into the office of his intern and demanding she do more than just point out awkward sentences. Ask for people to complete the thought process and provide a fix. Use simple questions such as:

• What solution(s) do you see to this problem?
  
• How would you propose we solve this?
  
• What would you like to do to fix this?
  

Most important, don’t assume responsibility for fixing the problem. Put the problem back on their desk and encourage them to stretch further. When someone brings you an A-W-K, ask for an F-I-X.

4. HAND BACK THE PEN
. When someone is stuck and asks you for your opinion, it can be hard not to take over. For some, the tendency to take over is so great that they sit on their hands afraid to speak out lest it turn into a hostile takeover. When you see your team members are struggling, offer help, but have an exit plan. These conversations can happen anywhere—in a conference room, sitting in your office one-on-one, or during a spontaneous meeting in the hallway. Regardless of the venue, visualize the point in the conversation when you can symbolically give the pen back. Imagine yourself at the whiteboard, adding a few ideas to the collective thinking on the board. You finish your thought and then hand the pen back. This gesture lets your colleagues know they are still in the lead and are accountable to finish the job.

Here are some statements that signal that you are handing back the pen:

• I’m happy to help think this through, but I’m still looking to you to lead this going forward.
  
• You are still in the lead on this.
  
• I’m here to back you up. What do you need from me as you lead this?
  

Each of the above is a simple entry point. But done repetitively these actions can instigate the Multiplier effect inside your organization.

THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT

When Multipliers invest resources and confidence in other people and give them the ownership of their success, they uncover the vast intelligence and capability that lies within. Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel laureate and father of the microcredit movement said, “Each person has tremendous potential. She or he alone can influence the lives of others within the communities, nations, within and beyond her or his own time.”

Multipliers invest in others in a way that builds independence to allow others to apply their full intelligence to the work at hand, and also to expand their scope and influence. The independence they create in others also allows the Investor to reinvest over and over, becoming a Serial Multiplier. The math is simple but powerful. The immediate Multiplier effect is that Multipliers get, on average, twice the capability from someone they lead. When extrapolated across an average organization size of approximately fifty people, that’s the equivalent of adding an additional fifty people. Repeated over potentially ten different leadership roles over the course of a career, that is an additional 500 people.