Hi Reader,

Are you accidentally crushing your team’s potential?

Here's the thing about good intentions: They can be your biggest leadership blind spot.

You hire brilliant people. You want them to succeed. But somehow, your team keeps coming to you for answers instead of bringing solutions. Sound familiar?

Liz Wiseman's research in Multipliers reveals a uncomfortable truth: leaders with the best intentions often suppress their team's intelligence without realising it.

You're not trying to micromanage. You're trying to help.

She lays out 9 ways you’re accidentally undermining your team

The Idea Fountain​
Your crime: Flooding every meeting with your brilliant ideas
Their reality: "Why bother thinking? The boss already has all the answers"

Always On​
Your crime: Being the ever-present, always-available leader
Their reality: No space to step up when you're always stepping in

The Rescuer​
Your crime: Swooping in the moment things get tough
Their reality: Never learning to solve problems independently

The Pacesetter​
Your crime: Setting an impossible standard through your own performance
Their reality: "I'll never be that good, so why try?"

Rapid Responder​
Your crime: Having answers ready before questions are fully formed
Their reality: Brain switches off—why think when you'll just answer anyway?

The Optimist​
Your crime: Relentless positivity that dismisses real challenges
Their reality: "My actual problems don't matter here"

The Protector​
Your crime: Shielding them from difficult situations
Their reality: Never building the resilience to handle complexity

The Strategist​
Your crime: Over-directing every move
Their reality: Following orders, not developing thinking skills

The Perfectionist​
Your crime: Expecting everyone to work exactly like you
Their reality: Innovation dies when there's only one "right" way

Which one are you?

Because here's what I've seen in 30 years of leadership: every expert-turned-leader has at least one of these patterns. The ones who pretend they don't are usually the worst offenders.

You don't have to have all the answers.

In fact, the moment you stop providing them is the moment your team starts thinking for themselves.

Your job isn't to be the smartest person in the room - it's to make everyone else smarter.

What's your pattern?

Your wing woman,
Catherine

P.S. Spotted yourself in multiple patterns? Good. Self-awareness is the first step. Denial would be worse.