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The Multiplier Effect: How Great Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

The Athletics Of Business

Release Date: 04/30/2025

What It Takes To Build a Championship Culture with JJ Gottsch show art What It Takes To Build a Championship Culture with JJ Gottsch

The Athletics Of Business

What does it take to build a championship team, grow a nationally recognized brand, and create a lasting culture that performs under pressure? In this episode of The Athletics of Business, Ed Molitor welcomes back JJ Gottsch, CEO of the Austin Gamblers. They dive into the leadership, culture, and disciplined execution behind one of PBR Teams’ most successful organizations. JJ shares how the Gamblers’ success began with ownership that did more than set a bold vision. They backed it with trust, resources, and support, giving the team what it needed to build a year-round brand around a...

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The Athletics Of Business

What if the most powerful thing a coach does never shows up in a box score? Every athletic department tracks wins and losses. Many track all-state selections, district championships, and tournament appearances. But the metrics that often matter most — the ones tied to connection, resilience, attendance, joy, accountability, academic growth, and long-term student development — have largely gone unmeasured. Until now. In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, Ed Molitor is joined by Kyle Craighead and Joshua Childs to talk about the transformational impact coaches have on student...

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The Athletics Of Business

What happens when a sport’s history is bigger, deeper, and more culturally revealing than the story most people have been told? Soccer has always been part of the American sports landscape. Union soldiers played it during the Civil War. Crowds of 46,000 showed up for soccer in New York in the 1920s. Pelé brought nearly 200 journalists with him when he played for the New York Cosmos. But the real story is not just about soccer. It is about how culture is built, how momentum grows, how narratives take shape, and how the stories we choose to tell can either limit what people see or expand what...

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The Athletics Of Business

Most people spend their lives trying to avoid failure. Gavin Mlinar has built his life around walking straight into it. From leaving home to pursue freestyle skiing as a teenager, to returning after multiple knee injuries to earn a starting role on the football field, to walking away from a successful executive career without a clear plan for what came next, Gavin has repeatedly chosen uncertainty over comfort. And more often than not, those decisions began with a simple phrase: "Yes, I'll figure it out." In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, Ed Molitor is joined by Gavin...

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The Athletics Of Business

What if the best captain on your team is not the loudest, most talented, or most popular player? For John O’Sullivan and Dr. Jerry Lynch, true captaincy is not about status. It is about skill, choice, relationships, and the daily behaviors that help a team become more connected, accountable, and resilient. In this episode of The Athletics of Business, Ed Molitor is joined by  John and Jerry to discuss their new book, Captain: The Athlete’s Guide to Being an Exceptional Leader. Together, they unpack why leadership in sports is often misunderstood, why teams should stop automatically...

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The Athletics Of Business

What changes when the work you lead is deeply personal? For Jeff Schaffnit, his career in the pharmaceutical industry is directly connected to his son, Carter, who was born with severe hemophilia. That personal experience shaped not only the work Jeff chose to pursue, but the kind of leader he strives to be. In this episode of The Athletics of Business, Ed Molitor and Jeff dive into what it takes to build a culture where purpose and performance strengthen one another. Jeff shares why patient stories serve as a North Star for his team, how he evaluates talent through the lens of heart, mind,...

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The Athletics Of Business

What keeps a coach grounded after more than 40 years, over 900 wins, 27 NCAA Tournament appearances, five consecutive Women’s Final Fours, and a national championship? For Bob Starkey, the answer has never been about the record.  It has always been about the relationships. In this episode of The Athletics of Business Podcast, Ed Molitor is joined by one of the most respected assistant coaches in women’s college basketball for a conversation about leadership, preparation, connection, and the standards that build great teams. Bob traces his coaching philosophy back to Alan Osborne, the...

info_outline The Power of Mentorship and Trust in Building a Championship Culture with Scott Howard show art 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...

info_outline One Team, One Heartbeat: How Human Connection Drives Transformation Before the Scoreboard Shows It with Meghan Long show art One Team, One Heartbeat: How Human Connection Drives Transformation Before the Scoreboard Shows It with Meghan Long

The Athletics Of Business

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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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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In 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

  • The difference between Multipliers and Diminishers and how both show up in everyday leadership

  • Why accidental diminishing is more common (and dangerous) than you think

  • Why sharing your own diminishing tendencies with your team builds trust

  • The five disciplines of Multipliers and how to practice each one with intention

  • The link between psychological safety and high expectations (safety + stretch)

  • How to create debate-driven decision-making that builds buy-in and clarity

  • What leaders get wrong about “helping” and how to avoid over-functioning

  • How Liz sees empathy, evidence, and honesty as vital to coaching and culture

  • The surprising lesson Liz learned leading a third-grade book discussion

  • How Liz’s early career at Oracle shaped her view on vulnerability, rookie smarts, and reaching out

 

Resources & Links

Liz Wiseman

 

Ed Molitor

 

In this episode:

  • [00:00:00] Introduction to Liz Wiseman

  • [00:02:55] Liz’s unexpected path into leadership and why “being just smart enough” mattered

  • [00:05:04] From Oracle’s hiring model to discovering how smart leaders can shut down talent

  • [00:08:49] Building Oracle University, sweatshirts, Latin mantras, and global rollout

  • [00:13:08] Why vulnerability wasn’t a buzzword, but honesty was everything

  • [00:16:34] Learning to let others take the big shots

  • [00:17:21] The 5 disciplines of Multipliers and why they’re simple but powerful

  • [00:20:11] Creating intensity, not tension as a Liberator

  • [00:24:07] The accidental diminisher: over-helping, over-optimism, and over-energy

  • [00:28:56] The safety + stretch equation: why people thrive when both are present

  • [00:31:22] Leading powerful debates on how to ask for evidence and invite everyone in

  • [00:38:33] What Liz learned from teaching 3rd graders to defend Jack and the Beanstalk

  • [00:42:20] Why micromanaging limits performance and how Investors flip the script

  • [00:47:16] What it means to give someone “51% of the vote and 100% of the accountability”

  • [00:50:22] Being a diminisher to one person and a multiplier to another how it happens

  • [00:54:46] The fastest way to change your leadership? Stop doing it in secret