Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
How ICs can scale their impact beyond their immediate circle of influence.
It was annual review season, and things were going well with my manager until he set me a new goal: “I’d like you to work on force multiplication.”
I knew this was part of growing in a senior IC role, but I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant in practice. To make it actionable, I came up with a definition to use as a north star. Force multiplying: driving positive impact at scale, without your direct involvement.
As someone who was so used to hands-on execution, it quickly became clear to me that I needed to explore a different way of working.
Over the course of the next year, I navigated a winding path towards force multiplication. I tried various approaches – some of which worked, and some that didn’t. Eventually, I was able to scale my impact as a senior IC, and here’s how you can too.
1. Multiply with shared knowledge
Not long after my review, I saw someone asking for help on Slack – they wanted to know how we make test payments in production. I’d seen this question many times before, and each time, I had responded to the individual with an answer. But, this time, instead of doing that, I wrote up a how-to guide. The question was answered, and I also walked away with a resource I could keep on sharing. Soon, this became the canonical document on test payments in our domain, getting shared by others instead of me. Better still, I see people editing it to keep it up to date. I learned that even these small investments can have a big impact – they free you from repeating yourself while giving others the tools to move faster and independently.
You can multiply your impact by getting knowledge out of your head and accessible to others. Focus on making resources that feel like tools, not obligations – they have the greatest multiplying power when people choose to use, update, and make it their own. Stay open to how others engage with what you’ve made; flexibility keeps a tool alive, while rigidity turns it into an obligation. Whether it’s a guide, a template, or a summary of useful context, your information can generate far more value if it’s out there in people’s hands. A document can carry that positive impact much further than you ever could alone.
Try: “I’ve seen a few comments recently asking for guidance on storing secrets, so I put this document together that includes our current best practices.”
Avoid: Creating write-ups no one asked for, in places no one looks.
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2. Multiply with delegation
If documentation scales what you know, delegation scales what you can do.
As a senior IC, you’ll often be encouraged to delegate – it’s a natural fit for force multiplication because someone else does the work. But you can’t treat it as simply dropping a list onto someone else’s plate. In a 1:1 with my manager, he once described delegating as “guide, don’t tell.” This advice is crucial to reap the full benefits of delegation and turn it into multiplication.
My manager had let me know a teammate was hoping to grow into a more senior role, so the next project that came up, I passed to my colleague. It was my turn to coach from the sidelines, while they took the lead.
At first, letting go felt uncomfortable. However, watching as they not only successfully delivered the project but also later passed on the tips and tricks we had used together was far more satisfying than leading from the front. This is the magic of delegation done well; positive impact ripples out across both people and product.
Delegate with confidence by providing guardrails that support your peer’s growth, relieve the urge to micromanage, and safeguard against projects going off track:
- Setting clear expectations: be specific about what needs to happen and by when.
- Not being too prescriptive: leave the “how” up for grabs.
- Staying close: much like bowling with the bumpers up, you enable freedom but prevent catastrophe. Keep communication open so you can sense when momentum is stalling or risks are piling up. And be ready to help clear the way, without taking over.
Try: “Do you want me to pair with you to write a kick off doc, or do you want to take a crack at it and run it by me in two days?”
Avoid: “Can you write this RFC for me? I want it to list these options, and make sure you recommend option B.”
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3. Multiply with smoother paths
As time went by, projects I’d once been deeply involved in were humming along without me, and people I’d mentored were now supporting others. With that space freed up, I started looking for new ways to multiply impact.
Delegation taught me that impact doesn’t always come from leading; sometimes it comes from stepping aside. Since I wasn’t deep in execution, I had a broader view that helped me spot friction points that were slowing other people down. For example, it looked to me like our front-end monorepo had grown bloated and difficult to work with. To make day-to-day dev work smoother, I pitched splitting it apart. But in this case, the idea didn’t land. An RFC written with a peer didn’t win buy-in, and I realized the issues I saw weren’t things others cared about. Not every attempt lands, and that’s okay – lesson learned: listen first!
Smoothing paths works when you remove obstacles that your teammates are really feeling. Even small fixes, like cutting continuous integration (CI) build times or creating a command line interface (CLI) for onboarding, can translate into hours of productivity. Instead of pushing your own work forward, you’re clearing the way for others to build things faster and with less pain. When you hit the sweet spot, you can unlock a flood of work that far surpasses what you could have delivered alone.
Try: “Based on the org-wide developer survey, many people are frustrated wasting time digging through confluence for information they need. So I’ve hooked up a Slackbot that queries the docs via an MCP server.”
Avoid: “I hate that one thing, I know it only bugs me, but I’m gonna sink a few weeks into changing it.”
4. Multiply with big pictures and little pushes
In the Staff Engineer’s Path, Tanya Reilly writes that senior ICs are uniquely positioned to go wide across a problem space and connect the dots that others miss when they are in the weeds. A colleague once described senior IC work as setting a boulder rolling downhill: you give it a push, and momentum carries it forward.
As another planning cycle came around, I stepped back and looked for some boulders of my own. I noticed one team looking into post-purchase upsells, another combo deals – two takes on the same idea. So, I asked my UX and product peers to collaborate with me on a pitch for a platform capability that would unlock both, as well as open the door to other features. Through 1:1 chats with project managers (PMs), whiteboarding sessions with tech leads, and sharing the post directly with stakeholders, we made sure this solution was on everyone’s radar. And even after I went on maternity leave, I heard the framing influenced how the product evolved, even without me there pushing.
Try: Keep a running list of inputs (customer feedback, internal chatter, upcoming OKRs) and block out regular “thinking time” to skim it and see what patterns you notice.
Avoid: Keeping your focus too tightly on one area, then making mandates without broad context.
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Looking back
When I first got the feedback to work on force multiplication, it was intimidating – not least because it meant changing the way I work, but also because it was unclear how to make that change happen. Having a definition as a foundation was a great start; it helped me see my usual work through a different lens. But looking back, through the wins and flops, the thread that connects every action was embracing enablement. I realized force multiplication isn’t about driving impact – it’s about enabling it. Whether it’s sharing knowledge, smoothing paths, connecting dots, or mentoring, when you hand others the tools to succeed, you create positive impact at scale.
I’ve since come to see force multiplication in everything. It’s more of a mindset than an action. So to any senior ICs looking to grow beyond execution – take a breath, start small, and let go. Then watch how far the ripples can go.
