“Impact Players” by Liv Wiseman is a book that explores the characteristics and behaviours of high-performing individuals within organisations, often referred to as “impact players.” As a team of outsourced HR managers we know too well that impact players are the key contributors to the success of growth minded companies.
Impact Players have been identified by author Liz Wiseman known for her New York Times bestselling book ‘Multipliers: The Multiplier Effect’ and Wall Street Journal bestseller ‘Rookie Smarts’. Liz is a former corporate executive who now works as an awarded management consultant. Impact Players have been defined as individuals who consistently deliver exceptional results, demonstrate leadership qualities, and positively influence their teams and organisations.
Liz Wiseman’s book “Impact Players” provides valuable insights into what it takes to excel in the workplace and offers practical guidance for individuals and organisations seeking to cultivate high-performing teams and drive success. Liz breaks down the winning formula for identifying the impact players in business and how to cultivate a culture that fosters impact players. Here’s a mini book review of the key insights we loved:
Characteristics of Impact Players: Wiseman identifies several key characteristics that distinguish impact players, including strong communication skills, resilience, adaptability, strategic thinking, and a focus on continuous learning and improvement. Impact players are smart, capable, hard-working, contributors and focus on making an impact. Their mindset is a crucial aspect of their success including. Here’s an insight into how Impact Players think:
BELIEFS
- I can do anything
- If I don’t know, I’ll find out
- I have the capability to make an impact
- My role is to make everyone’s job easier / better
MINDSET / FOCUS
- What is the objective of the business?
- How can I impact that objective?
- I am what I achieve not what I do
- Every challenge is an opportunity
Impact Player Behaviours: The book delves into the specific behaviours and actions that impact players exhibit, such as taking ownership of projects, collaborating effectively with colleagues, seeking out opportunities to add value, and proactively solving problems.
WHAT THEY SEE
- An opportunity to be useful
- Opportunities to provide leadership
- Chances to build strength and prove themselves
- Find reasons to build new capabilities
- A need to work together
WHAT THEY DO
- Do the job that’s needed
- Step up, then step back
- Finish stronger
- Ask and adjust
- Make light work for themselves and others
Leadership Qualities: Wiseman emphasizes the importance of leadership qualities in impact players, highlighting traits such as vision, integrity, empathy, and the ability to inspire and motivate others.
Whilst the average employee might be quick to think ‘That’s not my job’, Impact Players look above their role to get the real job done. They adopt a sound process of thinking and behaving that’s focused on the W.I.N. (What’s Important Now?) for the organisation and to their boss or stakeholders.
- First THINK
- Then DO
- Practice Upward Empathy to understand the goals of our leaders
Cultivating Impact Players: The book offers insights and strategies for organisations and leaders to identify, develop, and retain impact players within their teams. This includes providing opportunities for growth and development, fostering a supportive and inclusive culture, and recognising and rewarding excellence.
Measuring Impact: The book also discusses the importance of measuring the impact of individuals within organisations, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to understand their contributions and identify areas for improvement. We can’t agree more on measuring your people outcomes.
Impact Players’ thinking is so crucial to business success that we embed these learnings through every step of our PeopleEconomics® framework. This book is mandatory reading for all our employees and therefore thought it was important to share with our community.
P.S. By the way, if you’re interested in seeing samples of our standard HR reports, our Performance Matrix report, our People & Culture Temperature Checks or any other HR customised reports, and how these are integrated with our people and culture software CentralStation™ please get in touch with one of our team.
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