The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, Jul/2013

Why are some leaders able to double their team’s effectiveness, while others seem to drain the energy right out of the room?

In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman, leadership coach Elise Foster, and veteran principal Lois Allen team up to offer compelling research showing the overwhelmingly positive and exponential effect on schools – getting more done without increasing the number of teachers and resources.

Taking a deep dive with more than 100 of education’s best leaders, the authors explore the five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers and how these leaders attract and develop talent, as well as harness new ideas and energy to drive educational innovation. These five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed they are skills that every educator can learn to use – even when steeped in lifelong Diminisher settings. By practicing these disciplines, learders learn how to

1.  Attract top teachers to their school
2. Create an intense environment that demands people’s best thinking
3. Drive sound decisions by constructing debate and decision-making forums
4. Give their team a sense of ownership for responsibilities and results

About The Authors:

Liz Wiseman teaches leadership to executives around the world. She is the president of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development center headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. She is the author of the bestselling book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership, collective intelligence, and talent management and writes for the Harvard Business Review and a variety of other leadership journals. She is the former vice president of Oracle University. Liz holds a master’s in organizational behavior and a bachelor's in business management from Brigham Young University. She is a frequent guest lecturer at BYU, Harvard, the Naval Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, Stanford, and Yale. She is the mother of four school-age children.

Lois Allen has 30 years of experience in public education. She is a former teacher, special education manager, assistant principal, principal (elementary and middle school), and lecturer at San Jose State University. She holds bachelor's with great distinction in speech pathology and audiology and a master's in special education, both from San Jose State University. She holds California credentials as a speech and language pathologist, a special education classroom teacher, and a school administrator as well as a Certificate of Clinical Competency from the American Speech and Hearing Association. In addition to her role as the mother of four children and grandmother of thirteen, she is an avid gardener and a community and church volunteer.

Elise Foster is a leadership coach who enables education and business executives to unlock their potential to become even more successful. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership within education systems and is the co-author of The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside our Schools. As the Education Practice Lead for the Wiseman Group in Silicon Valley, Elise guides senior leaders on using their intelligence to make everyone around them smarter and more capable. She has taught and coached students at Indiana University (Kelley School of Business) and as a management fellow at Harvard University. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in engineering from Virginia Tech and a master’s in education from Harvard University. She is the mother of one school-aged daughter, and she also enjoys uncovering the genius in each high school student she encounters through her work with the Lilly Foundation Scholarship and Youth Leadership Bartholomew County.