Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman demonstrates how Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations—getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. I recently had a chance to connect with Liz and ask her a few questions about her bestselling book.Thanks Liz for taking time from your busy schedule to answer these questions.
Q: In the "Instill Ownership and Accountability" section of Multipliers, you recommend letting people remain accountable for their actions and experience consequences. This is a message I experience difficulty in applying since typical management training says that managers should protect their staff. Under what situation, if any, do you believe managers should attempt to protect their staff from the consequences of their actions?
A: This question is at the heart of the art of good management. It is certainly naive to suggest that managers should just let their people fail and experience the sting of real learning. But, I find that in working with management teams on this question, they find that there is far more room for experimentation that they initially thought. Here's a quick mental exercise: Take out two pieces of paper. On one, make a list of everywhere it is OK to let someone live out a mistake or fail. On the other, make a list of where it isn't OK and you need to intervene. Focus on the criteria. Challenge yourself by making the second list no more than half as long as the first list. My guess is that two things will happen:
1. You will see that there is a lot more room to experiment that you might feel and
2. You will develop a short set of criteria that you can use to recognize when you need to step in.
Typically this criteria is something like, "when it is business ending, life ending, or career ending (for them or you!)." Often the criteria for when it is OK to let failure happen sounds like this: "when the opportunity for learning is bigger than the cost to the business."
Doing this exercise as a management team can be a powerful way to shape the culture and the environment for learning and performance.
The art of management comes in finding this right balance. When is the mistake too costly and might seriously jeopardize the business or the person? I like to think of this as finding the right size wave — one where someone will learn from their mistake and not be swept out to sea! Check out my new Right Size Wave video for the full story.
