The Multiplier Effect: How Great Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
Release Date: 04/30/2025
The Power of Mentorship and Trust in Building a Championship Culture with Scott Howard
The Athletics Of Business
What does it take to build a championship culture that lasts? For Scott Howard, it starts with mentorship, trust, relationships, and a commitment to putting the team above yourself. In this episode of The Athletics of Business, host Ed Molitor reconnects with longtime friend Scott Howard, currently completing his 11th season with the Denver Nuggets organization after nearly four decades in basketball, including 17 years coaching in the college game and over two decades in the NBA. At the heart of this conversation is what truly builds championship culture. Scott shares how growing up in Iowa...
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One Team, One Heartbeat: How Human Connection Drives Transformation Before the Scoreboard Shows It with Meghan Long
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Why do the same teams keep winning without the most talent? Is it because they’ve learned to embrace the grind, celebrate small wins, and lead people as humans first—so they’d run through a wall for each other? In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, host Ed Molitor is joined by , Area Vice President of US Surgical Sales at . As a former Division I Lacrosse captain at UNC-Chapel Hill, Meghan understands what it takes to build a winning culture. Today, she brings those same principles into her work, leading high-impact growth and turnaround efforts across the medical device,...
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Connecting Like A PRO: The Four Underlying Motivators Every Leader Needs to Master
The Athletics Of Business
What if every frustrating conversation, every missed connection, and every stalled coaching moment with your team could be traced back to just four hidden forces, forces you've never been taught to see? In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, host Ed Molitor is joined by Paul Bramson, elite leadership trainer, global keynote speaker, and author of Connecting Like A PRO®, to explore the hidden drivers behind every conversation, conflict, and coaching moment. Paul reveals the four underlying motivators that shape how we respond under pressure: the Need to Be Liked, the Need to Be...
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The Reset Mindset: How Strategic Focus Drives Leadership in a Distracted World
The Athletics Of Business
Do you ever feel pulled in a hundred directions at once, with notifications buzzing and priorities constantly shifting? In a world of constant distractions, competing priorities, and unprecedented change, the ability to focus has become one of the rarest and most valuable leadership skills. But according to Penny Zenker, focus isn't just about paying attention. It's about strategically directing your energy toward what truly matters. In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, host Ed Molitor sits down with Penny Zenker, internationally known as "The Focusologist," to explore how...
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Leading with Competitive Character: Building Connected Teams That Perform and Care
The Athletics Of Business
In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, host is joined by , Vice President of Sales at . In this encore episode, Will shares insights into his leadership philosophy, drawing from his experiences as a former football player at Indiana University and his current role leading a powerhouse team at Agios. Throughout the episode, Will shares his core values of competitive character, which he defines as the ability to perform under pressure, ethically, and consistently. He dives into how these principles shape his approach to team culture, leadership, and achieving success in the...
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Ten More Feet: How Resilience and Faith Make the Extraordinary Possible
The Athletics Of Business
Some people chase summits. Others spend the rest of their lives talking about the one they have already reached. Mark Pattison refuses to look in the rearview mirror. In this episode of The Athletics of Business podcast, host Ed Molitor welcomes back Mark Pattison, former NFL wide receiver for the Los Angeles Raiders, mountaineer, entrepreneur, and author of the new book Finding Your Summit: How to Build Resilience and Faith to Rise Above Life’s Challenges. Mark became the first NFL player to climb the Seven Summits, including Mount Everest, but the mountains are only part of the story. This...
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Beat Yesterday: Competing Within to Win Together
The Athletics Of Business
In this episode of The Athletics of Business, host Ed Molitor is joined by Jake Thompson, the Chief Encouragement Officer at Compete Every Day. Jake takes us on a journey through his entrepreneurial path, from starting his brand with t-shirts sold out of his car trunk to building a global movement worn by leaders in 62 countries. Jake discusses his books Compete Every Day, Lead Better Now, The Line, and his upcoming release, Beat Yesterday. He explores how competition and collaboration can be balanced to foster a high-performance culture in both sports and business. Jake shares how we can use...
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Heart Equity: What Great Coaches Teach Leaders About Culture Under Pressure
The Athletics Of Business
What if the difference between teams that crumble under pressure and those that rise has little to do with talent or strategy and everything to do with trust? What if the real competitive edge in business is not bigger budgets or better metrics, but genuine vulnerability and a deeper human connection? What if executive isolation is not inevitable, but the result of avoiding hard conversations? And what if the most powerful investment an organization can make is not in technology or talent, but in something far more human, heart equity? In this episode, host Ed Molitor sits down with his good...
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The New Standard: How BEC and CoEffex Are Redefining Talent Search in Life Sciences
The Athletics Of Business
Our Guest: Ted Coss Ted leads the strategic direction of top talent search firm, Buckman Enochs Coss and Associates (BEC) while ensuring outstanding service and measurable results for clients. With a deep passion for life sciences and healthcare, Ted draws from both professional and personal experiences to understand the transformative impact of these industries. Since joining BEC in 1993, Ted has successfully completed hundreds of executive searches including numerous C-level placements and large-scale commercial team expansions. Many of the leaders he has placed have gone on to shape the...
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Unlocking the Champion’s Soul with Dr. Jerry Lynch
The Athletics Of Business
Most people chase performance by training the mind and pushing the body. Dr. Jerry Lynch has spent decades proving that’s only part of the equation. Because when pressure hits—when fear shows up, when doubt gets loud, when the moment gets heavy—mindset won’t carry you if your inner foundation is empty. What separates the best isn’t just mental toughness. It’s what champions can access when the stakes are real: meaning, courage, connection, and the soul behind the performance. In his fifth appearance on The Athletics of Business Podcast, Jerry joins Ed Molitor to explore what truly...
info_outlineIn this powerful and thought-provoking episode of The Athletics of Business, Ed Molitor sits down with Liz Wiseman, celebrated leadership researcher, bestselling author of Multipliers, Rookie Smarts, and Impact Players, and CEO of The Wiseman Group. Liz shares transformative insights from her research on leadership effectiveness, accidental diminishing, and how to unlock the full intelligence and potential of teams.
She opens up about her early career at Oracle, her rookie mindset, and how feeling like an underdog led to a lifelong pursuit of discovering what truly makes great leaders. This episode is a masterclass in how to lead by amplifying others.
Our Guest
Liz is the author of New York Times bestseller Multipliers and Wall Street Journal bestsellers Rookie Smarts and Impact Players. She is a researcher and executive advisor, who teaches leadership to executives around the world, and the CEO of The Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California.
Liz is a former executive at Oracle Corporation, where she worked as the Vice President of Oracle University and as the Global Leader for Human Resource Development. She is a frequent guest lecturer at Brigham Young University and Stanford University. Liz has received the top achievement award for leadership from Thinkers50 and has consistently been named one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
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The difference between Multipliers and Diminishers and how both show up in everyday leadership
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Why accidental diminishing is more common (and dangerous) than you think
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Why sharing your own diminishing tendencies with your team builds trust
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The five disciplines of Multipliers and how to practice each one with intention
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The link between psychological safety and high expectations (safety + stretch)
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How to create debate-driven decision-making that builds buy-in and clarity
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What leaders get wrong about “helping” and how to avoid over-functioning
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How Liz sees empathy, evidence, and honesty as vital to coaching and culture
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The surprising lesson Liz learned leading a third-grade book discussion
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How Liz’s early career at Oracle shaped her view on vulnerability, rookie smarts, and reaching out
Resources & Links
Liz Wiseman
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Website: https://thewisemangroup.com/who-we-are/our-team/liz-wiseman/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizwiseman
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Twitter/X: https://x.com/LizWiseman
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Amazon (Books): https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00369WNUW
Ed Molitor
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Website: https://www.themolitorgroup.com/
In this episode:
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[00:00:00] Introduction to Liz Wiseman
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[00:02:55] Liz’s unexpected path into leadership and why “being just smart enough” mattered
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[00:05:04] From Oracle’s hiring model to discovering how smart leaders can shut down talent
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[00:08:49] Building Oracle University, sweatshirts, Latin mantras, and global rollout
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[00:13:08] Why vulnerability wasn’t a buzzword, but honesty was everything
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[00:16:34] Learning to let others take the big shots
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[00:17:21] The 5 disciplines of Multipliers and why they’re simple but powerful
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[00:20:11] Creating intensity, not tension as a Liberator
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[00:24:07] The accidental diminisher: over-helping, over-optimism, and over-energy
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[00:28:56] The safety + stretch equation: why people thrive when both are present
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[00:31:22] Leading powerful debates on how to ask for evidence and invite everyone in
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[00:38:33] What Liz learned from teaching 3rd graders to defend Jack and the Beanstalk
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[00:42:20] Why micromanaging limits performance and how Investors flip the script
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[00:47:16] What it means to give someone “51% of the vote and 100% of the accountability”
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[00:50:22] Being a diminisher to one person and a multiplier to another how it happens
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[00:54:46] The fastest way to change your leadership? Stop doing it in secret