“Despite there being more than 15,000 books on leadership in print today, most organisations and most leaders show very little leadership.” So contend the authors of the recently released book Mavericks: How bold leadership changes the world’ (2022) ¸ by David Lewis, Jules Goddard and Tamryn Batcheller-Adams.
The authors are a mix of global business consultants and leadership academics bringing a wealth of experience and academic rigour. Their premise is based on a study involving people from over 50 different organisations from different sectors and countries. Their examples and stories are of humble people like you and me, but who have done abnormal things in abnormal normal ways to get abnormal results.
The issue they seek to address is why most leaders accept that the way things are done in our organisations and the outcomes that could be achieved could be so much better? That being the case, why do so few of us do so little about it? The authors also contend that maverick leaders are not born they learn. Anyone at anytime can be a Maverick. The role of a maverick leader is to see and seize possibilities. They are brave souls that are prepared to fail personally to succeed collectively.
The authors identify five core characteristics of a maverick leader:
- Passionate
- Resourceful
- Challenge the status quo
- Experiment
- Undeterred
Something that is also really valuable is that the book not only helps people become a maverick leader but to also create an environment where other people can release their inner maverick. The book also takes it beyond the individual to also consider maverick styles of leadership, maverick organisations, and maverick societies.
This book challenged me and invigorated me. It is a must read for anyone that actually wants to see extraordinary things happen.