A List of Force Multipliers

There are certain attributes and skills that not only enable greater results, they multiply them. When you combine these attributes and skills individually or as a group, you produce outsized results. One plus one isn’t two, it’s ten.

• Leadership: Nothing produces better results faster than leadership, plain and simple. Whether it’s group performance or individual performance, leadership is a force multiplier. If you produce a certain result now, leadership will increase that result by 10 times. Personal leadership counts, too.
• Disciplines, Processes, and Systems: Consistency is a force multiplier. Disciplines, the things that you do without failure, generate outsized results over time. Having processes and systems is a form of discipline. Doing the right things in the right way at the right time multiplies the effectiveness of what you do over time.
• Esprit de corps: This is unit cohesion. Esprit de corps is an attitude about who you are and why you do what you do. It’s a commitment to one another. This is the soft stuff that leaders build, and it is the foundation of high performance.
• Growth mindset: The belief that you can be more, learn more, do more, and contribute more increases your overall effectiveness by a factor that is impossibly difficult to measure. It iswhat actuates your initiative and resourcefulness, allowing you to increase your capacity to take on greater challenges.
• Agility: We live in the Disruptive Age. The world we live in is changing faster, and we are accelerating that change. Agility means being able to adapt to the changing environment, in this case, an environment that we are creating. Being fast is more valuable than being big. Speed multiplies your effectiveness.
• Psychological safety: The ability to fail without being chastised or punished allows for experimentation. When you can question why things are, you can explore what you might change and how you might change it. The ability to question the status quo and create new possibilities multiplies your effectiveness.
• Accountability: Accountability is an underestimated force multiplier. Accountability is keeping your commitments. It’s doing what must be done without fail. When everyone is accountable, no one has to worry about what is being done or if it is being done right. This multiplies results by creating the confidence to act.
• Courage: Being willing to act in spite of uncertainty or known difficulties massively improves results. It allows for action where fear creates paralysis. The ability to move forward without knowing the outcome, to take risks, multiplies your strength.

You have limited time and energy. Most of us spend too much time doing, without building the capacity to actually increase our effectiveness. It makes sense to sharpen the saw.

Which of these attributes would multiply your effectiveness?

Which attributes could you use to build a force multiplier effect in your team?