Is a Socialised Maverick just a maverick with no teeth?
This is a common question and comes from a misunderstanding of what a maverick is. Films such as ‘Maverick’ or ‘Top Gun’, and the inclination to label all misfits or disruptive influences as ‘maverick’ fuels the confusion. In comparison to that narrative a Socialised Maverick becomes ‘sociable’ or ‘nice’.
The Socialisation aspect is relative to the Extreme Maverick and no one else. It relates to how you utilise your maverick nature and attributes. Are you working for the greater good or yourself? Are you a person of integrity and bound by your principles, or not?
This is relative to an Extreme Maverick, not a Conformist or a Maverick Behaviourist. It’s important to remember that.
A Socialised Maverick is very much a maverick (a wilfully independent person) – they are a maverick who has their attributes and capabilities working in balance. This is a great advantage for those that the maverick chooses to work with. Most people can see the benefit of working with a highly analytical, objective and empathetic leader who is able to execute on the goals that are set.
These mavericks are often underestimated by others, especially if they have learnt to harness their maverick nature effectively. Those that utilise the Maverick DRIVEN Leadership™ Methodology have learnt to lead others in a transformational way.
These types of mavericks are excellent at building rapport and finding ways to anticipate others needs and exceeding expectations. The potential downside is that they can become so good at working for the greater good, then can forget to attend to their own needs and suffer from a low level form of depression due to the amount of cognitive dissonance that they feel. This is often because they choose to put other people’s needs ahead of their own.
This is unsustainable. They know this and are struggling with deciding to either become more Extreme Maverick in their behaviour to get what they want or accept things for what they are. This is against their very nature and thus can cause them some emotional harm.
Transformational Leadership
“E Joyce and A Timothy found in 2004 a correlation between The Big 5 Personality Traits and transformational leadership. It seems that the Socialised Maverick’s personality lends itself directly to someone who practices Transformational Leadership” – The Maverick Paradox: The Secret Power Behind Successful Leaders, Judith Germain.
Transformational Leaders look to develop these 4 components (ckju.net):
# Individualised Consideration – the extent to which a leader attends to the individual’s needs.
# Inspirational Motivation – how to narrate your vision in a way that inspires action.
# Idealised influence – Intellectual Stimulation –
Transformational Leaders get things down, because they inspire others, can translate the vision, are objective and execution focused.
The reason why Socialised Mavericks are required for all successful teams and that emulating them is often key to extraordinary leadership is:
# their ability to understand how to balance and develop the right attributes,
# having winning capabilities and strategies
# understanding how to utilise power correctly.
The Maverick Paradox is the secret power behind successful leadership.
