Thursday, October 17, 2013

You may be a diminisher, if...

A Commanding Officer, who is a colleague of mine, asked me to refresh her on the traits of a "diminisher" as described in Liz Wiseman's book MULTIPLIERS - How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.

So, here are the main beliefs and assumptions of a Diminisher – (the other end of the spectrum of the Multiplier) – see if you recognize yourself in any of these…
  1. “Really intelligent people are a rare breed and I am one of the few really smart people.”
  2. “Other people will never figure things out without me.”
  3. “People who don’t ‘get it’ now never will therefore I’ll have to keep doing the thinking for everybody.”
  4. “I need to tell people what to do, make all the important decisions and jump in and take over when someone appears to be failing.”
I need to ask Liz Wiseman to write another book  DIMINISHERS - How Some Commanding Officers Crush the Motivation of Every Last Sailor Under Their Command.  She'll need to get busy because some of our COs are working on a few chapters of their own.

4 comments:

My kids' Mom said...

Mike, Liz Wiseman's book is a great read and I have used many concepts from the book in my teaching.

Diminishers are a great problem and they are everywhere, not only in the military. I used to work for a Diminisher at my previous workplace, Siljan Turism, it is an awful situation in which all enthusiasm and creativity are extinguished on the same time as it sucks the life-energy out of people. It would be great if Liz would write another book about and about that particular subject.

Have a great Friday!

Anneli

Anonymous said...

The best description, quotes from and framing of Admiral Mark Furguson, current VCNO, I've ever read:

1) “Really intelligent people are a rare breed and I am one of the few really smart people.”
2) “Other people will never figure things out without me.”
3) “People who don’t ‘get it’ now never will therefore I’ll have to keep doing the thinking for everybody.”
4) “I need to tell people what to do, make all the important decisions and jump in and take over when someone appears to be failing.”

The ultimate "Diminisher" Indeed, ADM Mark Furguson, please step forward and accept your award, and - don't clap for yourself....

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 1044PM

I think you have outed yourself as Captain M.D. Abrashoff.

Anonymous said...

Ferguson?

I figured this was an opportunity to continue the NIOC Hawaii. On the other hand, the IG is back so maybe this thing has gone to official review.

Regardless of the result, hope it's shared with us. Is it really a command leadership issue or is it a disgruntled JO who doesn't understand and is more willing to use a blog site instead of the correct process?