Liz Wiseman

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Introduction to Multipliers - Liz Wiseman

Living and working with child-like wonder | Liz Wiseman | TEDxUniversityofNevada

Liz Wiseman:

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In a time of constant change, success depends on seeing the world through rookie eyes, and in this essential guide, the bestselling author of Multipliers explains why we are often at our best when we are doing something for the first time—and how to reclaim and cultivate this curious, flexible, youthful mindset called Rookie Smarts.

In a rapidly changing world, experience can be a curse. Being new, naïve and even clueless can be an asset. Rookies are unencumbered, with no baggage to weigh them down, no resources to burden them and no track record to limit their thinking or aspirations. For today’s knowledge workers, constant learning is more valuable than mastery.

Leadership expert Liz Wiseman argues that the most successful rookies are hunter-gatherers—alert and seeking, cautious but quick like firewalkers, and hungry and relentless like frontiersmen. Most importantly, she identifies a breed of leaders she refers to as “perpetual rookies.” Despite years of experience, they retain their rookie smarts, thinking and operating with the mindsets and practices of these high-performing rookies.

Rookie Smarts addresses the questions every experienced professional faces: “Will my knowledge and skills become obsolete and irrelevant? Will a young, inexperienced newcomer upend my company or me? How can I keep up?” The answer is to stay fresh, keep learning and know when to think like a rookie.

We’ve all experienced two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type consists of individuals who drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them and always need to be the smartest people in the room. They are the idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment. The second type, on the other side of the spectrum, consists of leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the intelligence and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, light bulbs go off over people’s heads, ideas flow, and problems get solved. They are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves and get more from other people. They are the “multipliers.” And the world needs more of them, especially now that leaders are expected to do more with less.

In this highly engaging talk, speaker Liz Wiseman will share the research behind “multipliers” and illustrate the resoundingly positive and profitable effect these multipliers have on organizations – how they get more done with fewer resources, develop and attract talent, and cultivate new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation. She’ll introduce the five disciplines that distinguish “multipliers” from “diminishers” and provide practical tips for leading like a “multiplier.”

Biography

Liz Wiseman teaches leadership to executives and emerging leaders around the world. She is the President of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley. Some of her recent clients include: Apple, Disney, eBay/PayPal, Facebook, GAP, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Roche, Salesforce.com, and Twitter. Liz has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and named as one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world.

She is the author of three best-selling books: Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence and writes for Harvard Business Review and Fortune and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc. and Time magazines. She is a frequent guest lecturer at BYU, the Naval Postgraduate Academy, and Stanford University.

A former executive at Oracle Corporation, she worked over the course of 17 years as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for Human Resource Development. During her tenure at Oracle, she led several major global initiatives and has worked and traveled in over 40 countries.

Liz holds a Bachelors degree in Business Management and a Masters of Organizational Behavior from Brigham Young University. Liz lives in Menlo Park, California with her husband and four children who share her over-active curiosity and sense of adventure.