Liz Wiseman

President of The Wiseman Group

Liz Wiseman

President of The Wiseman Group

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Biography

Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor who teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the author of New York Times bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work.

She is the CEO of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Some of her recent clients include: Apple, AT&T, Disney, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Salesforce, Tesla, and Twitter. Liz has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and in 2019 was recognized as the top leadership thinker in the world.

She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence and writes for Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and a variety of other business and leadership journals. She is a frequent guest lecturer at BYU and Stanford University and is a former executive at Oracle Corporation, where she worked as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for Human Resource Development.

Speaker Videos

Multipliers

Speech Topics

Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work

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.

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

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.”

Testimonials

"Liz’s storytelling, research and practical application have challenged our paradigms around effective managerial practices that will take us forward and develop our multi-generational workforce. Managers as multipliers will be a key lever in driving our business growth over the next few years. The dimensions of a multiplier are coming to life in a more powerful way than we had ever imagined across our global company!"

- Global Director, Leadership & Management Development, Nike, Inc.

"In a large organization, it’s natural to worry about the ‘energy vampires’ - those who are able to drain the energy and momentum from a team. When I came across Liz Wiseman’s book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, I was fascinated by the research about multipliers and diminishers and the impact a leader can have on a team’s creativity, ideas, and even light bulb moments. It was eye-opening for me, and I’ve since had Liz present her research to members of my Marketing management team. I’d love to have her back in the future."

- Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Symantec

"You have NO IDEA how great that talk was. I have *never* been in a Tech Talk here where there wasn’t a room full of open laptops. Never. Not Obama’s CIO Vivek Kundra, not the Executive Producer of House or Adam Savage from Myth Busters. Not even Will.i.am. Twitter is a laptop open culture and you managed to pull off what I thought was an impossible feat! I was impressed by the level of engagement and the number of questions at the end. You are certainly a powerhouse!"

- Vice President of Human Resources, Twitter, inc.

"I’m a newly promoted Vice President and Multipliers has unlocked for me how I need to lead in my new role. It is the leadership approach that will take me through the next 10 years of my career."

- Vice President, GAP, Inc.

"I hired Liz as a coach to better achieve my potential. I really enjoyed working with her, and she made a huge difference in my effectiveness—noticed by many of my colleagues. I recommend her for executive coaching, organizational effectiveness and development, and other coaching and development roles."

- Division GM & SVP, SAP

"Liz’s approach of combining leadership training with cross functional problem solving is winning the battle for minds and culture, which is the hardest thing to do in businesses today."

- General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Former President, Oracle Corporation, Chairman of the Board, HP

"Liz Wiseman did an outstanding job for Yale New Haven Health System on the two occasions that she worked with our leaders. She was able to engage key leaders and physicians in a very informative and highly interactive manner. Liz has an ability to take complicated ideas and concepts, and make them simple enough to effectively reach and teach audiences on multiple levels. I can’t say enough about her research and the passion she brings to her work. She is genuine, professional and effective. I highly recommend Liz and value the contribution she has made to leadership and organization development. Thank you Liz!"

- Vice President, Executive Director Institute for Excellence, Yale New Haven Health System