Feeling drained or stifled at work? It's possible that you're working with an accidental diminisher leader. This week, we recap the six core types of these unintentional suppressors: the optimist, rapid responder, pace setter, rescuer, idea type, and always on leader, and discuss how their well-intentioned management styles can actually hinder the growth and productivity of their teams and how you can help redirect them.

We'll explore topics such as understanding your leader's fears and motivations, engaging in meaningful conversations, and focusing on their strengths. By addressing these behaviors, you'll be on your way to cultivating resilience, emotional intelligence, and ultimately, building a stronger relationship with your leader.

Welcome to this week's episode of the Founder and the Force Multiplier podcast, where we explore how founders and leaders work together with their right-hand partners to turn ideas into action and build wildly successful businesses. Today, we're going to talk about what it means to work with an accidental diminisher. In a previous episode, we broke down what that what an accidental diminisher leader looks like. Now we're going to discuss what to do if that is the individual you are working with, and we'll kind of revisit some of the types as well. As we go through, let's see if this sounds familiar to you. If you are often frustrated at work, if you're unclear of your career path, do you feel like someone or something might be holding you back? Are you lacking motivation or engagement with your work? It could be because you're working with an accidental diminisher. So what is an accidental diminisher leader? This is an individual who is well-intentioned and who subtly, and usually completely unintentionally, shuts down the intelligence of others and reduces their abilities. These diminishers often are following popular management principles, but they are somehow still missing the mark. According to Liz Wiseman, who is the author of Multipliers, how the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, diminishers drain intelligence, energy and capability from the people around them and always need to be the smartest person in the room. So there are six core types of accidental diminishers. Each type can look like a positive leadership style at first glance. However, the outcome of the behavior is not always favorable for the team or the organization. So let's quickly look at each one. So we had the optimist. This is the leader who believes that they and the team can tackle any problem with hard work and a positive attitude mindset. Why is this a problem? Because the team may feel like there is no room for failure. The leader can be viewed as lacking empathy to the struggles of their employees and that their effort is not valued.

Then we have the rapid responder. This leader values productivity in keeping the company moving forward at a fast pace. This leader quickly troubleshoots problems, makes fast micro decisions, has a high sense of urgency and pushes the company to adopt this level of efficiency. Why is this a problem? This leader may be moving faster than the organization can successfully handle. The fast response time may be causing organizational whiplash. Rapid responses may create roadblocks, as emails, ideas and decisions are flying around faster than the organization can even implement. The rapid responder may also be unintentionally diminishing their team's ability to step up and answer a question, provide a thoughtful idea or ask for clarity, simply because they weren't allowing the time or space for that to happen.

Then we have the pace setter. This is a leader who is highly achievement oriented and leads from the front. They set the standard and the pace for the rest of the organization. So why is this a problem? This leader can often leave others in the dust if and when they are not able to keep up. Team members can become frustrated with the lack of visibility and what the pace setter is working on, and then the team members may give up. If they aren't able to keep up, then we've got the rescuer. This leader just wants to help their team members succeed. They don't like to see their employees struggle or fail, so at the first sign of an issue, they jump in to help. They want to help maintain their team members reputation. Why is this a problem? The rescuer ends up creating employees who are highly dependent on their leader, which actually hurts the employee's professional reputation. They may not have the confidence or develop the right skills to solve problems on their own. This stunts the team members' career growth. The sign of a great leader is someone who is able to develop. Other leaders and rescuers are unintentionally doing the opposite.

Then we have the idea type. This leader is a big thinker of visionary and has lots of ideas. They innovate and iterate constantly and they always want to share their ideas with the team. So if this is a problem, this can turn into the classic case of too many ideas and too little time to implement. The idea type leader can unconsciously overwhelm their employees with all of their ideas. The leader may not be sending clear priorities and team members may end up shutting down or spending too much time chasing the next big idea of the day. And then we have the always on leader. This is a leader who is charismatic, enthusiastic, high energy and influential. They have a big personality, are constantly engaged and they always have something to say or share with the group. Why is this a problem? When leaders are always on, they take up a lot of time and space with their energy and exuberance. They may often repeat themselves or dominate the conversation. This type of energy may overwhelm the team, resulting in team members shutting down, tuning out or ignoring what the leader has to say.

When you're always on and pushing for your agenda, you are going to dampen your team's creativity, confidence and engagement. Some of those may sound familiar. Maybe they resonate with you. Maybe you can identify your accidental diminisher style there, or perhaps it sounds like maybe a leader that you have on your team or a leader that you're working with. If it does sound familiar, you don't have to necessarily start looking for another job. Yes, you can't change somebody. However, you can work on your own behavior, reactions and your leadership to make your job better. So, in no particular order, here are several strategies to help you mitigate the diminishing behavior of your leader and create a more productive and fulfilling work environment for yourself.

So strategy number one get curious about your executive's fears and motivations. Remember, most diminishers are accidental diminishers. They may or may not even realize that they are causing frustration or stress for you at work. When you see diminishing behaviors from your boss, get curious, ask yourself or ask them why they may be acting that way. What are they afraid of losing if they give up control? Why are they micromanaging, putting extra pressure on you or discarding your struggles? What might be going on with them at work or at home? How does their diminishing behavior such as being a pay center or someone who's always on feel their ego and give them fulfillment at work. What motivates them? Once you have some clarity around why they are a diminisher and why they are an accidental diminisher, you can set about working on your own leadership in order to create a better work environment for everyone.

Strategy number two have a fierce conversation with your executive. Having a fierce conversation with your leader may be the most difficult strategy, but it's also the one that should give you the fastest result. Hit your leader head on with what you are seeing. I would recommend you read multipliers together and discuss how your individual leadership styles may be helping or hurting your team. Share articles that you're reading about diminisher behavior. You can share this podcast. Point out areas where they can improve and how their diminishing behaviors affects you and the team. Give them specific examples and take ownership over your own behavior. Ask them what you can do to help them feel more confident in your abilities, or ask for their coaching on how you can move from diminisher to multiplier. You may be the only one who is willing to give them this tough feedback. They need to be a better leader. It can be a burden or you can see it as a privilege. You get to choose how you approach that My opinion is that, as great force multipliers, we need to be able to have these difficult conversations with our leaders.

Strategy number three focus on your leader's strengths. Take a good look at where your leader is providing value to you and the organization. What are their strengths? How can you lean into those qualities to help you with the work under your area of responsibility? So focusing on your leader's strengths may help you reframe your mindset. So, for example, if you're working with an optimist, they may be able to help you see a problem from a different perspective and find a new solution. The pace that are may push you to think bigger and accomplish more than you thought possible. Sometimes a shift in your perspective is all that you need to improve your own working environment.

Strategy number four take ownership of your failures. Hiding your mistakes or downplaying failures may actually increase diminisher leadership, and I know that is not what you want. When mistakes are discovered and you have it previously owned up to them, the micromanaging may ramp up. The simple solution is to let your leader know as soon as possible that you've made a mistake or you've missed a deadline. Let them know how you're going to fix it and what system you put in place that it doesn't happen again. This will also build trust if you follow through.

Strategy number five create a user's manual to share with your leadership team. A user's manual is basically a cheat sheet of your idiosyncrasies, value, strengths and weaknesses. Diminisher leaders may be operating under preconceived notions about your abilities and how you work best. Help your leader work better with you by befriending them with a copy and encouraging them to fill one out as well. By knowing where everyone on your team stands, you're able to move forward together faster and more effectively, with less frustration, and that's a win for the whole team. You can download a user's manual template in the show notes or on our website.

Strategy number six communicate your role and value to key stakeholders. Accidental diminishers particularly if we're talking about the rescuer may need extra visibility into your role to be more confident and to stop that accidental diminisher behavior. They will need to know what you are truly capable of so that they aren't always rescuing you. Communicating your role to your executive and organization is an important step to having a better working relationship with your leader, but don't just stop there. Telling your leader what you're capable of is great, but you also need to show them to really start earning their trust. Strategy number seven build strength and communication with your leader.

When working with diminishers, particularly the idea type, the rescuer or the rapid responder, building trust can lessen their diminishing tendencies. The idea type may not be aware of what other projects and priorities you're working on. Therefore, their next big idea doesn't seem like such a big deal to them, but it could be highly disruptive to your current workload. Whether you implement weekly one-on-one meetings or create a regular reporting structure, and visibility into your work will be key to working with these types of leaders. With the rapid responder, i would recommend setting clear expectations around how quickly they expect you to respond. You don't want to try to fix a rapid responder by responding even faster. Perhaps you can suggest that they give you three hours to have the opportunity to respond before they jump in. After all, they may be looking to impress their own boss, but if you don't ask, you'll always be playing the game of who gets to it faster. And finally, you need to build trust with the rescuer in any of these diminisher types. Their intentions are usually good, but they need to be able to trust that you will do the job and do it well. Again, discussing expectations around specific tasks and responsibilities is a great place to start. Then you would just have to make sure that you deliver.

And strategy number eight model the behavior of a multiplier. One of the best ways to work with a diminisher is to be a multiplier. Liz Wiseman says multipliers are the leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, light bulbs go off over other people's heads, ideas flow and problems get solved. Make sure you are not guilty of being an accidental diminisher yourself If you are. Be purposeful on making the small changes necessary to turn those behaviors around. Develop emotional intelligence. Share what you are working on with your team and why? Learn to ask powerful questions. Give others the space to think and respond before you do. Cultivate resilience and keep a list of ideas and be conscious about which ones you share and when. When you work on you, you can't help but elevate those around you.