The Default to Assumptions and Answers: A Conversation with Liz Wiseman
February 01, 2021
Appears in February 2021: School Administrator.
The fourth installment in School Administrator’s Thought Leadership Series featuring prominent book authors captures the thinking of Liz Wiseman in a conversation with former superintendent Suzette Lovely.
Wiseman is a researcher and author of the New York Times bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leadership Make Everyone Smarter, as well as The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schoolsand Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work.
As CEO of the Wiseman Group, Wiseman combines leadership training with cross-functional problem solving to serve as a catalyst for multiplier behavior across an organization. Recent clients include some of the world’s largest corporations, including Apple, Bank of America, Disney, Facebook and Google.
Lovely spent four years as superintendent in Carlsbad, Calif., and is the author of four books on education.
In her interview, Wiseman talks about building work teams that foster significant contributions even during challenging or ambiguous times. She offers poignant anecdotes about the downside of experience, tackling assumptions head on, recognizing diminisher tendencies and bringing out the genius in others.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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Books by Liz Wiseman
Several of Liz Wiseman’s published works have important applications for school leaders. Here’s what I see as their relevancy.
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (2010, revised 2017)
Wiseman’s groundbreaking bestseller, Multipliers, explores two distinct leadership styles: Diminishers and Multipliers. Diminishers drain workplace intelligence, energy and human capacity. They also have a compelling need to be the smartest person in the room. Conversely, Multiplier leaders amplify the brain power and talents of their entire team. When Multipliers walk into a room, light bulbs start popping, ideas flow and problems get solved. The book’s practical tips push superintendents to become Multipliers whether they are just starting out in their role or have been at it a long time.
The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools (2013)
During my superintendency, I used this book (which Wiseman co-authored with Lois N. Allen and Elise Foster) for a summer book study with the entire management team in the school district. After reflecting on the disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers, the team committed to mobilizing the talents and native genius of their employees to expand the district’s collective intelligence. This practical book taught us (instructionally and operationally) that when leaders inspire more, we are able to achieve more as an organization.
Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work (2014)
I found this book addresses the questions every experienced school leader faces: Will my knowledge and skills become obsolete and irrelevant? Will a young, inexperienced new-comer upend my organization or me? How can I keep up? Wiseman shares strategies that help us in school leadership at every career level stay fresh, keep learning and know when to think like a rookie.
Wiseman has a new title, The MVP Mindset, coming out in September 2021, published by HarperCollins.
— Suzette Lovely
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