From academia and the non-profit arena to the corporate world-of-work, I have many clients who complain about bosses who are ineffective leaders. Are their leaders intelligent and talented people? Yes. But, are they able to lead a team, motivate others, and empower success in their colleagues? No!

I have come to believe that while some leaders are born, most are developed and our current professional marketplace does not place enough emphasis on training effective leaders. This leads to discontent amongst the troops and ultimately low morale and low productivity. There are some enlightened organizations that train from within but I wish it was part of every organization’s professional development curriculum.

Liz Wiseman, worked at Oracle for 17+ years and considers herself a genius watcher. She was the VP responsible for the company’s global talent development strategy and ran the Oracle Corporate University. Her book: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter teaches valuable lessons for current and aspiring leaders.

During Wiseman’s 17+ year leadership watching and developing experience at Oracle, she discovered that some leaders drain intelligence and the capabilities of the people around them. Their focus on their own intelligence and their narcissistic need to be the smartest person in the room had a diminishing effect on everyone else around them. For them to look smart other people had to look dumb or incompetent and in turn, the Diminishers created a vacuum suck of all the creative energy in a room. Meeting times were doubled and other people’s ideas suffocated and died in their presence. From these so called leaders, intelligence only flowed one way – from them to others.

The Multipliers, on the other hand used their leadership intelligence in a much different way. They used their intelligence to amplify the capabilities of others on their team. People got smarter and better in their presence and ideas flowed freely and challenges were overcome. When these leaders walked into a room the energy level went up on the team and difficult problems were solved because every team member had a say and was involved.

So why do some leaders boost the mental IQ in a room and others suck the mental life out of their employees? The Multipliers bring out the intelligence in others by building collective and viral genius in an organization.

Wiseman identified 5 disciplines of Multipliers:

1. The Talent Magnet: Attract and optimize talent
2. The Liberator: Require people’s best thinking
3. The Challenger: Extend challenges
4. The Debate Maker: Debate decisions
5. The Investor: Instill accountability

By extracting people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the resources from people than do the Diminishers. Wiseman shared a success story about Bill Campbell, former CEO of Intuit who fully admits that he is a recovered Diminisher. A courageous team member called him on his micro managing, intelligence draining leadership style and pleaded for him to give the team space to create ideas and solve problems. It was a hard lesson for Campbell to learn but in the long run it gave him the insight he needed to become a more effective leader.

He now subscribes to the philosophy of creating brilliance in others on his team by empowering them to succeed. This is a difficult lesson for many of today’s unsuccessful leaders who don’t have the professional development resources to learn to become Multipliers. Others don’t have courageous team members to call them out on being ineffective leaders so they continue to diminish and dysfunctional teams plod along.

If confronting your diminishing leader is not within your comfort zone, or you fear job security, perhaps a mysterious copy of Liz Wiseman’s great book in an office mailbox will plant the seed anonymously. Are you a Multiplier or a Diminisher?

As a self proclaimed control freak, I had a hard time learning to delegate. I was doing things myself for so long that it was difficult for me to let go. I was also caught in the syndrome that if I wanted to get something done right – I would have to do it myself. But the more responsibility I took on in my job, consulting practice, and a variety of volunteer activities, the more essential it was for me to learn how to delegate.

I learned that relinquishing work was not only a way for me to focus on my strengths and do what I do best, it was a way for me to empower others on my various teams to get more involved. When I delegated a task, I gave someone else a significant assignment that gave them ownership and buy-in for the project and the organization at large. The act of delegation was helping others take on more responsibility and play to their strengths.

Delegation liberated me to focus on opportunities to move forward with my career goals and gave others a chance to step up and gain new experiences. My colleagues were motivated to show what they were capable of and enjoyed the opportunity to pursue new projects. We created a check-in system so I would not micro-manage their efforts and communication became stronger in the end.

By keeping all of the work to myself I was sending a message that I did not trust my colleagues. While this was not my intention, I realized that delegation engendered trust and helped me prove my confidence in the team. Ultimately, it motivated others to go above and beyond and our productivity level increased dramatically.

With delegation, I saw new leaders emerge and a renewed sense of enthusiasm in my colleagues. New ideas surfaced and I discovered talents in team members that I never knew existed. Delegation is a beautiful thing that helps people play to their strengths. It also gave me more time to advance my goals by maximizing my support. Try delegating – I think you will be surprised by the positive results for all.

It’s no secret that a mentor can be a terrific resource as you navigate your personal career path. Some organizations assign mentors and other relationships develop naturally when like minded people hit it off. If you are your own boss, or don’t have a company to connect you with a mentor, you can and should pursue mentors on your own.

Seeking a mentor starts simply with asking for advice from a trusted professional who has been there and done that in your industry. Start by asking for information and advice and see how the relationship develops. You will know when you have made an authentic connection with someone and taken the relationship beyond colleague to personal guru.

Mentors help to improve upon your strengths and guide you along your path to success with inspiration and resources that come from experience. A mentor can also help you set and accomplish your goals. Mentors will guide you and offer practical ideas about how you might do things differently. We all need at least one mentor that can speak candidly and offer constructive criticism, even when we don’t want to hear it.

Mentors should help boost your self confidence and empower you to achieve and overcome obstacles. But don’t think that you need one perfect mentor to help you on your professional way. In reality, life is full of mentors that can advise you day-by-day, sharing important bits of wisdom incrementally over time. I encourage you to take a close look at the many people in your life and reflect on how they may actually be mentoring you right now. Build your own personal Board of Directors, your personal posse, to guide you in your career pursuits.

You can gain a wealth of support and resources with a team. Sometimes these relationships develop organically and sometimes you need to take the driver’s seat and ask others for help.  No matter which, mentors volunteer their time and experience so always show them your respect. Listen, don’t argue – and always follow-up with a personal thank you note or gesture of gratitude. The mentor relationship is powerful and valuable, so cultivate it wisely and be mindful of how you can help others and keep the circle of wisdom continuous by becoming a mentor yourself.