The Best Leaders Don’t Add Intelligence. They Multiply It.
Júlio da Zome®
Alumni Career Excellence Award Winner ’18 | COO at Zome® | Ex-Global Director @ TomTom
Lessons I took from a pandemic read that changed how I lead
Some books change how you think. Others change how you lead.
Multipliers by Liz Wiseman did both for me.
It gave language to something I had seen, and sometimes failed to practice:
Great leaders don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. They need to make the room smarter.
Here’s the core idea:
There are two types of leaders:
1. Overdrivers They drain energy. They hog decisions. They believe people can’t figure it out without them.
2. Multipliers They ask better questions. They push ownership. They grow people by trusting them with real problems.
The difference isn’t always about intent. Sometimes it’s about habits.
And when I read this, I saw myself both at my best and at my worst.
Five shifts that stayed with me
If you’re serious about leading better, here’s what I’d reflect on:
1. From answers to questions Smart leaders don’t need to be encyclopedias. They need to ask the kind of questions that unlock smart answers from others.
2. From control to challenge Multipliers don’t micromanage. They set high expectations, then give space for others to rise to them.
3. From pace-setter to pace-breaker Instead of leading the charge alone, they slow down to bring others into the process — and build lasting capacity.
4. From bottleneck to builder Multipliers make decisions distributable. They build systems where people can move with autonomy and clarity.
5. From spotlight to amplifier They don’t seek credit. They shine the light on the team — and make it louder when it works.
What changed for me
After reading Multipliers, I started catching myself more.
These shifts didn’t make me soft. They made the people around me stronger.
And in the long run, that’s the only kind of leadership that scales.
Final thought
A true leader doesn’t need all the answers, but knows how to unlock them in others.
That’s the power of a Multiplier. And once you’ve seen what that kind of leadership can create, you can’t go back.
Its ideas shaped how I showed up in meetings, in decisions, in pressure. And even now, I still try to lead like that. Because intelligence is everywhere. The real question is: are you making room for it to rise?
#LeadershipDevelopment #TeamPerformance #PeopleFirst #MultipliersMindset #GrowYourTeam #LeadershipMatters #CoachingLeadership #EmpowermentAtWork #StrategicLeadership #ProfessionalGrowth #zome
I help brands go beyond traditional campaigns by creating ecosystems of benefits and experiences that strengthen a sense of belonging and have a real impact on consumers’ lives.
3moThank you Júlio for sharing those book takeaways. One person I truly admired—and who embodied the principles you mentioned—was Henry Ford. He had an incredible, 360-degree vision for how beliefs can move mountains. And he proved that you don’t need to be the smartest person in the room to achieve greatness—just the determination to keep improving and give space to others, empowering them to excel and contribute with their best ideas.