Impact Players

Why do some professionals consistently deliver extraordinary value while others, equally talented, plateau? In Impact Players, Liz Wiseman argues that standout contributors differentiate themselves not through superior competence alone but through a distinct way of seeing and responding to work. These individuals wear what she calls opportunity goggles—a lens that interprets ambiguity, gaps, and challenges as invitations to contribute rather than reasons to withdraw.

Wiseman’s research—spanning companies like Google, Target, Oracle, Adobe, NASA, and Unilever—shows that Impact Players expand value precisely where others stop. They do it through five repeatable behaviors: they do the job that’s needed, step up and step back, finish stronger, ask and adjust, and make work light. Together these habits transform ordinary contributors into indispensable problem solvers whom leaders instinctively trust with the messy, unplanned, and mission-critical work.

Seeing Opportunity Instead of Ambiguity

At the core of this philosophy is a cognitive shift. Most people freeze or seek clarity when confronted with incomplete information. Impact Players instead lean in. They view ambiguity as permission to exercise judgment, curiosity, and initiative. It’s not naive optimism but a pragmatic form of agency that converts uncertainty into motion. For example, Liz’s early experience at Oracle taught her to interpret unclear mandates as playgrounds for invention. Similarly, Maninder Sawhney at Adobe translated an executive’s vague emphasis on customer focus into a tangible metrics project that redefined how the company measured attrition—and in doing so, vaulted into a leadership role.

Behavioral Foundations of Impact

Wiseman found that top performers don’t hide behind their role description. They fill gaps, lead temporarily when leadership is absent, and deliver beyond expectations. They act like entrepreneurs inside their organizations, demonstrating ownership without waiting for perfect authority. Where others rely on reassurance, they generate their own clarity by asking better questions: “What’s Important Now?” (the W.I.N.) or “Where could my effort remove friction for others?”

That behavioral pattern compounds into visibility and trust. Managers estimate these Impact Players contribute roughly three to ten times the value of their peers, not because they work longer hours but because their efforts directly relieve managerial overload. (Note: This aligns with Ron Heifetz’s idea of adaptive leadership—mobilizing people to address challenges that require learning rather than just execution.)

Culture and Multipliers of Trust

Leaders reciprocate when they encounter these contributors. Trust becomes a deposit account: each time you deliver complete, low-drama results in the midst of uncertainty, managers invest more—time, access, assignments, and sponsorship. Over time this creates what Wiseman calls a value loop: your reliability attracts investment, and each investment gives you leverage to create bigger wins. Maninder’s story at Adobe and Sabine Khairallah’s launch at Unilever exemplify this compounding trust cycle.

Beyond Skill: Building a Learning Reputation

Importantly, Impact is not static achievement—it’s adaptive momentum. The best contributors learn faster than the game changes. They seek guidance instead of validation, turn feedback into immediate adjustment, and publicly close the loop by showing how they applied advice. This visible learning builds a reputation of coachability, one of the strongest currencies in performance cultures like Google or Salesforce. (Parenthetical: Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety echoes this principle—learning requires exposure and follow-through.)

Making Work Lighter for Others

Finally, Impact Players create lift around them. They simplify complex tasks, reduce noise, ease emotional strain, and amplify others’ strengths. They act as organizational lubricants rather than friction points. Managers and peers describe them as the people who “make work light.” Their composure in chaos—like Genie Chance during the Anchorage earthquake—signals reliability and calm under pressure. This emotional steadiness enhances collective performance.

The overall argument of Impact Players is that excellence is teachable if you change your lens. By choosing agency over assignment, curiosity over compliance, and contribution over comfort, you shift from being busy to being essential. Wiseman shows through vivid stories and research-backed habits that your greatest leverage lies not in doing more work, but in doing the work that matters most—especially when no one has told you exactly what to do.

Wiseman’s first behavioral pillar urges you to look beyond your official role and identify the real work your organization needs done. High-impact contributors don’t cling to a job description—they read the organizational field like athletes who move to open space. This is called working in the white space: the areas between functions, where critical problems often sit ignored because they belong to no one.

Read the Field and Find the W.I.N.

To operate in the white space, you must first “learn the game.” That means clarifying the current W.I.N.—What’s Important Now—for your team or organization. Ask yourself what keeps your leaders awake at night or what success looks like for this quarter. At Oracle, Liz Wiseman realized technical credibility was what really mattered, so she shifted from training design to product mastery and built influence accordingly. Similarly, Sabine Khairallah at Unilever jumped outside marketing boundaries to handle customs documentation and logistics when her launch stalled; that adaptability made her indispensable.

Align Passion with Usefulness

Impact Players redirect passion toward organizational pain points. They don’t chase their interests at the expense of relevance; they channel energy where it solves urgent problems. Mike Maughan at Qualtrics typifies this—he wasn’t initially passionate about cancer research, but he made it the company’s cause, raising millions and deepening corporate identity. That harmony between purpose and need marks true professional maturity.

Avoiding Decoys: Duty and Passion

Two detours often trap would-be Impact Players. The first is the call to duty: performing assigned work perfectly but ignoring emergent priorities. James at the gaming studio fell into this, missing a key leadership opportunity during his firm’s digital migration. The second is the pursuit of passion: focusing on what personally excites you but not what the business values. Lasting influence arises at the intersection of competence, curiosity, and contribution.

(Practical tip: Run Wiseman’s “Double W.I.N.” play—find a project that aligns with both company-wide goals and your boss’s top priorities. Offer your help where those two overlap. It’s the fastest way to build trust and visibility.)

Leadership, in Wiseman’s framing, is not a static position but an on-demand service. You step up where leadership vacuums exist and step back once others can carry the work. This flexible approach prevents bottlenecks and builds shared ownership, transforming teams from dependent units into self-correcting networks.

Spot Vacuums and Fix “Ambient Problems”

Impact Players naturally notice what others tolerate. Paul Forgey at Target recognized that refund delays stemmed from cross-functional miscommunication; by convening disparate departments, he cut resolution time from ten days to one. You can do the same by listening for chronic frustrations, bottlenecks, or tasks “everyone hates.”

Earn Permission Through Competence

“Inviting yourself” into leadership moments requires tact. Liz Wiseman recounts attending an executive meeting uninvited—but prepared with insights that earned her a role in redefining Oracle’s strategy. This illustrates social intelligence: offer immediate value and you’ll gain informal permission to lead. Effective emergent leaders also make explicit handoffs. Ellie Vondenkamp at Target, for example, consistently pulls colleagues into the spotlight as she offloads projects—ensuring others own success after her departure.

(Try this: Identify one problem you could fix in four weeks. Surface it clearly, rally collaborators, test a small pilot, then pass ownership once processes stabilize. It’s a microcosm of real leadership—a cycle of step-up, step-back, and scale.)

Starting is easy; finishing well under uncertainty is where credibility compounds. Impact Players distinguish themselves by their completion gene: an internal obligation to carry work across the line with quality and reliability. They turn deliverables into outcomes, ensuring no loose ends remain for their managers.

Finish Predictably, Then Add Delight

Finishing stronger means closing loops with precision and adding a final 10% of value—an executive-ready summary, a risk mitigation plan, a polished visual. The Mars rover teams embodied this principle: they anticipated unknowns yet delivered usable science long past design life. Managers depend on such predictability because it reduces oversight drag.

Negotiate, Anticipate, and Escalate Wisely

Wiseman’s exemplars—like Dr. Kevin Menes’ trauma unit coordination—show that strong finishers prepare for chaos. They negotiate resources upfront, clarify authority, and know when to call for help without abdicating responsibility. Framing escalations as “I’ve tried X and Y; here’s the plan; here’s where I need input” maintains ownership while inviting leverage.

(Beware of two decoys: finishing at all costs, which exhausts teams, and false alarms that erode trust. True endurance blends grit with judgment.)

In rapidly evolving environments, your advantage lies not in what you know but in how quickly you learn. Impact Players translate feedback into iteration loops that compound performance. They don’t just ask for praise—they ask and adjust.

Seek Guidance, Not Evaluation

Asking “How can I make this work better?” transforms feedback into partnership. It invites problem-solving rather than judgment. Braden Hancock modeled this as an intern—seeking guidance, acting on it, and then closing the loop by showing results. That response turned mentors into long-term sponsors and laid groundwork for his future ventures. (Research supports this: guidance-oriented questions elicit actionable suggestions and strengthen relationships.)

Tune Quickly Without Overreacting

Rapid learners maintain emotional composure. Deep Shrestha, for instance, learned to take a walk before responding to criticism—an intentional pause that transformed defensiveness into curiosity. Small, targeted adjustments made him a trusted collaborator. Top performers know how to calibrate—moving the needle 10% daily rather than swinging wildly between extremes.

The final skill is closing the loop: letting others know how their input changed your work. This brief step multiplies coaching investments and cements your reputation as coachable. Over time, you become the colleague everyone wants to help—because their advice turns into impact.

High impact doesn’t require high drama. The most effective colleagues lighten others’ loads—practically and emotionally. Wiseman’s sixth behavioral pattern, Make Work Light, shows that being easy to work with is a serious performance differentiator. It multiplies a team’s capacity without increasing headcount.

Lift, Don’t Weigh

Genie Chance’s calm communication during the 1964 Anchorage earthquake offers a vivid metaphor: by projecting stability, she gave others mental bandwidth to act. Similarly, Impact Players manage their presence as much as their output. They reduce uncertainty, surface humor, and keep operations moving smoothly. Karl Doose at SAP became indispensable by pre‑packaging materials his boss needed, delivering clarity before it was requested. These micro‑acts create time rebates that leaders treasure.

Habits that Keep You Light

• Be low maintenance—no excessive check‑ins or drama.
• Anticipate others’ needs and deliver early.
• Project optimism and gratitude without denial of difficulty.

These acts make you the colleague who amplifies others. Karen Kaplan’s rise from receptionist to CEO exemplifies it—her “CEO of reception” approach wasn’t glamorous, but by making everyone’s day easier she built a power network. (Note: Being light is not servility—it’s strategic contribution that multiplies human energy.)

Wiseman argues that succeeding inside organizations requires decoding how value is actually measured—not just officially described. Formal job standards seldom capture what leaders truly reward. Impact Players practice upward empathy: they understand what matters to stakeholders and align their contributions accordingly.

Reading the Unspoken Metrics

Ben Putterman at Oracle realized executives cared about employee readiness, not attendance. By altering his reports to reflect readiness, he reshaped policy adoption across divisions. His insight proves a principle: aligning with leaders’ hidden priorities amplifies your work’s resonance. Observe what gets celebrated, funded, or defended; that’s your guide to what really counts.

Practice Upward Empathy

Evan Hong at Target exemplified this by pre‑emptively preparing his manager for a risky presentation and offering to co‑present. Instead of competing, he made his boss look good and earned significant visibility himself. Upward empathy turns managerial anxiety into cooperation rather than control.

(Try a two‑sentence alignment pitch: “I see our top priority is [goal]. Here’s how this project helps that and what I need from you.” This small act signals comprehension of the real rules and secures meaningful support.)

Transformation, Wiseman reminds, depends on evidence, not intention. Impact Players treat self‑improvement as experimentation. They test behaviors, collect results, and surface those proofs so others can invest confidently in them. The result is a credible growth narrative that elevates both self and culture.

Experiment and Reflect

Run small, controlled experiments on your behavior. Andrew Ritchie’s “three chips” test—limiting his speaking turns in meetings—raised his influence nearly instantly. Mini‑experiments like this provide tangible metrics that outperform self‑promotion. (Compare to Carol Dweck’s mindset theory: behavior change sticks when you see data confirming it.)

Make Growth Observable

Visibility reinforces credibility. Share short FYI updates, before‑and‑after outcomes, or simple notes about issues resolved. Think of Intel’s “Intel Inside”—a subtle label that helped end users value unseen work. The same principle applies to you: tasteful transparency turns invisible labor into recognized contribution.

Lift Others as You Grow

Real influence compounds when you elevate peers alongside yourself. Lauren Hancock spread data rigor at the Wiseman Group by framing it as team growth, not personal expertise. Shared evidence of learning builds a contagious performance culture that scales far beyond individual capability.

Ultimately, experimentation plus storytelling equals credibility. Collect evidence, share it lightly, and your new reputation will match the version of yourself you’ve been becoming.

Individual players matter, but sustainable excellence comes when entire teams adopt the Impact mindset. Wiseman’s later chapters guide leaders in recruiting and coaching people to replicate these behaviors across an organization.

Hire for Outlook Over Skill

Philadelphia 76ers executives Scott O’Neil and Jake Reynolds built record fan engagement even in losing seasons by hiring for attitude, not resume gloss. They used a SOAR interview method—Situation, Outlook, Action, Result—designed to surface whether candidates viewed messy challenges as opportunity or threat. People who visibly lean toward ambiguity typically outperform those with perfect credentials but fragile mindsets.

Coach for Safety and Stretch

Managers must create climates that mix psychological safety with demanding stretch. Define What’s Important Now (the W.I.N.), critique work not person, and ask for persistence until the job is truly done. Encourage rotating leadership—letting different people step up and then step back. (Amazon’s Dan Rose learned under Jeff Bezos that relentless completion norms yield ownership maturity.)

For distributed teams, replace proximity with intentional clarity: explain context, clarify decision rights, and schedule real problem‑solving sessions instead of status calls. Those structures rebuild trust across distances.

By coaching through safety and stretch, you build deputies, not dependents. The result is a culture where leadership is fluid, feedback non‑punitive, and finishing the default setting.

Wiseman closes with an exhortation: don’t confuse overwork with wholeheartedness. Being all in means choosing agency, boundaries, and joy—not exhaustion. Impact Players bring full energy to what matters most, while retaining perspective and humanity.

Choose Agency Over Obligation

Reggie White’s blend of ferocity and compassion—checking on opponents after a tackle—illustrates productive intensity. Jojo Mirador’s surgical anticipation shows similar mindful engagement: attending to others’ needs at the speed of intuition. These stories highlight agency, not martyrdom. You play all in when you direct your energy toward chosen missions rather than reactively absorbing every demand.

Define Your Arena of Impact

Pick work aligned with your native genius—the intersection of what energizes you and what the organization truly values. Negotiate the support, recognition, and boundaries you need to sustain great work. Bradley Cooper’s deliberate shift to directing shows this principle in action: he expanded his platform by preparing obsessively and asking for the chance to do more. You can do the same by mastering core mindsets first, then requesting assignments that stretch you.

Impact Players don’t rely on fate; they shape it. As Wiseman reminds, life may be uncertain like a feather in the wind, but your agency determines where and how you land. Your task is to see, act, learn, and lead in ways that bring both progress and joy—to play all in, not to burn all out.