As the leader of your organization, how well do you grow and accelerate talents and achievements of your team?

This is a critical question because your ability to inspire and empower your people is really the essence of great business leadership. A few years ago, I had the honor of meeting a well-known author Liz Wiseman, a leadership development expert and executive consultant who was a keynote speaker at a conference organized by my organization.

Although many of us in the room that day were seasoned business leaders, I believe we all experienced a collective light bulb moment as we heard Wiseman explain the difference between being a 'multiplier' and a 'reducer' in managing and leading teams ours.

Wiseman explained the sharp and compelling contrast between 'multipliers', leaders who amplify the intelligence and skills of their people, and reducers, those bad managers who devalue and undermine the skills of their employees.

Her words made me and the entire audience consider how we support and nurture the people around us and the missed opportunities in which we can fall short in our abilities to encourage and uplift our teams. Now, I've always been a huge advocate of employee empowerment, but I was feeling a little pensive that day. As I thought about the time, maybe I could have been more of a 'multiplier'.

Connected: How your company culture can be a force multiplier

Don't be a shrink

Shrinkers are leaders who tend to narrow and overmanage people around them, intentionally or unintentionally. Accidental or not, being downsized can have massive negative qualitative and quantitative impacts on your business. In fact, Wiseman claims that “Reducers only get half of their people's true brain power.”

A reducer's problematic behavior can take many forms, but the results tend to be the same. Uninspired staff. High employee turnover. Absence of NEW. And it hindered organizational growth.

Diminutives are often:

• Micromanagers who keep a stronghold on how team members execute tasks.
• Authoritarians who demand strict adherence to their orders without question.
• Confidence killers who undermine employees' self-esteem by being overly critical.
• Minimizers of others' contributions who fail to recognize talent and effort.
• Addiction builders who create a system that requires constant approval and oversight.

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to negatives and demoralizing behaviors experienced in many organizations today. If you think about it, I'm sure you can recall many times in your career that involved one or two less. Or an entire management team.

So let me ask you this. How did those people make you feel and how did their actions affect your ability to contribute to the business and grow at your job?

Connected: Skills that make you an ethical leader

Multipliers ignite success

Multipliers distinguish themselves as success enablers, talent expanders and growth drivers through several key attributes:

• Multipliers excel at identifying and maximizing talent, recognizing individuals' unique strengths, and leveraging these personal assets to their full potential.
• Multipliers cultivate an environment of trust and respect, empowering team members to express their ideas and embrace risks.
• Multipliers challenge the status quo, set high goals and instill confidence within their team that they can achieve the seemingly impossible.
• Multipliers invite vigorous debate and facilitate insightful decision-making.
• Multipliers are coaches and mentors who invest the time and resources to nurture employee success.

By embodying these qualities, multipliers create a dynamic and deeply rewarding workplace. Such an environment may not always be comfortable for everyone, but it drives top performers, and thus the entire organization, to thrive.

What prevents you from being a multiplier

Here's the thing. Diminutives often do not see themselves as possessing negative, poor behaviors communication styles, or ineffective leadership qualities. Instead, they rationalize why their approach is required to keep their employees in check or maintain compliance or some other nonsense like that. Here is a sample of common misconceptions of downsizers:

• “I'm too busy patting everyone on the back just to do their job.”
• “They haven't been here long enough to earn my trust.”
• “We didn't hire you to think, we hired you to do your job.”
• “This is management's responsibility. Now get back to work.”

How humiliating and exploitative. Now, imagine the profound negative impact of leadership attitudes like these on employee commitment, motivation and innovation. Trust me, it's not good.

Connected: You must give your employees the freedom to see excellence

Seven things you can do to become a better multiplier

The most critical role of a business leader is to drive one the culture of respect, excellence and innovation – each of which encompasses a multitude of approaches and dynamics. If you want to be a multiplier and improve your ability to elevate your team and celebrate their natural talents, here are seven great ways to get started:

1. Become an active listener: Welcome one-on-one conversations with your team members and evaluate new perspectives.
2. Offer growth opportunities: Build your team with leadership development programs and skills workshops.
3. Delegate and empower: Trust employees to take on increased responsibilities and grow in their roles.
4. Give them feedback: Take the time to provide employees with your insights into what worked, what didn't, and how to hit or miss the point next time.
5. Celebrate successes: Make it a habit to praise accomplishments, applaud efforts, and reward individual and team accomplishments.
6. Fostering a culture of collaboration: To instill a sense of unity and alliance and create regular opportunities for cross-departmental projects and knowledge sharing.
7. Lead by example: It all starts with you, so set the right tone. Model your team's integrity, work ethic, respect, compassion and an innovative mindset.

By developing your skills as a multiplier, you will help lift your team to incredible new heights, create innovative opportunities for your business, and ultimately evolve into the truly dynamic leader you were meant to be.