Liz Wiseman: Impact Players

Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor. She is the author of the 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*. She is the CEO of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley.

Her clients include: Apple, Disney, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Twitter, and many others. Liz has been listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and named one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world. She is a former Oracle executive, who worked over the course of 17 years as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the global leader for Human Resource Development.

Liz is the author of Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact*. In this conversation, Liz and I discuss the mindset that’s most useful in making real traction in an organization. Plus, we explore practical steps that you can take to think bigger and get noticed for your work.

Key Points

The #1 thing managers appreciate: when employees do things that need doing without being asked.

Upward empathy is the ability to consider what the bosses situation feels like — and what they need from you.

Pursuing your passion sounds nice in a commencement speech, but can get in the way of what the organization actually needs.

A job description might be a starting point, but it’s almost never the ending point.

Beware of becoming the foosball player that does hard work in one spot, but misses the bigger picture. Become a nimble midfielder who plays where they are most needed.

Resources Mentioned

Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact* by Liz Wiseman

The Wiseman Group

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

Related Episodes

The Benefit of Being a Rookie, with Liz Wiseman (episode 340)

Influence Through Overlapping Networks, with Sandie Morgan (episode 422)

How to Motivate Leaders, with John Maxwell (episode 452)

Keep Your Ideas From Being Stolen (Dave’s Journal)

Discover More

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.