Multipliers, Revised and Updated by Liz Wiseman

Author:Liz Wiseman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062663061
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

The Diminisher’s Approach to Execution

The Diminisher operates from a very different assumption: People will never be able to figure it out without me. They believe if they don’t dive into the details and follow up, other people won’t deliver. These assumptions breed dependency among people, as full ownership is never offered to them. Diminishers assign piecemeal tasks, then jump in, believing that other people cannot make it work without them.

Unfortunately, in the end, these assumptions are often proven true because people become disabled and dependent on the Diminisher for answers, for approval, and to integrate the pieces together. When this happens, Diminishers look outward, asking themselves only, Why are people always letting me down? When Diminishers eventually leave an organization, things fall apart. Things crumble because the leader has held the operation together with micromanagement and sweat equity.

Consider the private equity investor in Brazil who stifled his entire organization with his micromanagement. Celso is extraordinarily smart and considered by his colleagues to be a financial genius. He was a superior analyst and a rock star of a stock trader. But his control-freak management style hampered his ability to build great companies. Unfortunately, as the head of a private equity firm, his job was exactly that: to build companies.

In staff meetings, his staff rarely got through their reports on prospective investments or portfolio companies before he interrupted with his pithy analysis. Sure, he’d make a few great points, but it discouraged other people from thinking. His signature remark was, “I can’t believe you haven’t figured this out.”

Celso tracked performance of their portfolio companies with second-by-second monitoring and arranged to receive all company sales reports on his cell phone. When sales dipped off target, he’d call the CEO at random hours of the night and start screaming. Whatever the situation, Celso was the first to respond. Like Pavlov’s dog, there was no delay between stimulus and response. When he found a problem, he’d jump in immediately and try to fix it himself.

Over time, Celso’s micromanagement created a sharp division inside the organization. Most of his colleagues would lie low, knowing that he eventually would do things himself. As much of the talent retreated, he compensated by hiring aggressive graduates of elite colleges who didn’t have enough experience to expect a different type of leadership. The organization began to look a lot like Celso over time and resembled an alpha-male annual convention with a revolving door. Like many Diminishers, Celso’s micromanagement stifled the intelligence within an organization chock-full of really smart people.

Let’s look at the ways in which Diminishers cripple the capability of their people and create dependent organizations.

MAINTAIN OWNERSHIP. The approach of the Micromanager is well captured in a comment made by a staff member of a prominent professor: “I can’t make any decisions. I don’t have lead in my pencil until Dr. Yang says that I do.” Diminishers don’t trust others to figure it out for themselves, so they maintain ownership. When they delegate, they dole out piecemeal tasks but not real responsibility.

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