A lot of HR people still play at the administrative level rather than the strategic level, meaning businesses miss out on a lot of key advice and help.
My role in HR led me to mentoring, as this is about making sure the business meets its objectives through effective use of its people.
There are many problems with office culture nowadays. The first step to solving them is understanding what the culture is and the major drivers behind it.
One of the first things for the board to establish what the right culture for the marketplace is and how this will be achieved. Without top level agreement from the board, there is no point doing it.
Then it’s a simple case of working backwards.
It’s all about behaviour. You can’t change people’s attitudes and belief systems by telling them to change, but if you change their behaviour, they change themselves.
If you have a management team that does not take talent very seriously and isn’t held accountable, they could promote people without developing them properly.
Therefore one thing you could change within a culture is training and mentoring. You could also introduce performance-related pay for senior management, whereby pay is conditional on certain development targets for their staff being reached.
What is a maverick?
In my HR role I often get asked to help manage mavericks, otherwise known as troublesome talent. A maverick is someone wilfully independent.
Mavericks can be divided into two categories: those with maverick, wilful personalities, and those with maverick tendencies who work wilfully in specific areas, resulting in work which is distinct from anyone else in the industry. Within companies we need to encourage maverick tendencies and personalities. Mavericks can turn around failing businesses.
However, mavericks make up about 20% of the talent pool but, led wrongly, can cause 80% of the problems.
How do I know if I have a Maverick in my organisation? The maverick doesn’t just follow the rules, he or she looks at the big picture and questions the rules.
They are very blunt individuals who tell you how it is and often question “why?” They are not being deliberately provocative, they are genuinely want to improve company performance.
Another way to identify a maverick personality is how they think. They’re fast thinking, spotting trends and capitalising on them before anyone else.
Where to find mavericks
You’ll see a lot of mavericks in fast moving industries such as sales and media, and they tend to be extrovert mavericks. Those in technical industries such as engineering or IT are more likely to be introverted.
Upset an extroverted maverick and they’ll give you a vociferous response like “you’re wrong, this is the way it should be done and that’s how I’ll do it.” You’ll know when you’ve upset them.
An introverted maverick might tell you they disagree but they’ll do it your way anyway. It’s hard to spot these types of maverick as they keep their objections fairly quiet.
Finding the right role for mavericks
Companies can – and remember, very few of your employees are mavericks – employ them on a consultative basis, because they have a very low boredom threshold. When they have fixed a problem they need to move onto something else straightaway.
Mavericks tend to do things for compelling reasons only. And they like to work in companies whose aims and attitude are aligned with their own.
To lead its staff successfully, a company’s goals and how its goals are reached should be finely tuned to the individuals. That is what true management is about.
A lot of Mavericks are motivated internally, so they don’t need to be told when they’re doing a good job, unlike an externally motivated person.
Tips for becoming internally motivated
One of the most basic tips is to understand what you are good at doing and what you are not good at doing because people that are externally influenced in a negative way tend to know their weakness really well but don’t know their strengths.
People should list their strengths and how they are deployed. People might say they’re too trusting and see it as a weakness.
How can you turn this into a strength? These people will have a wide circle of friends, a major asset. Asking people you trust what you are good at and what you are bad at, and what they would change if they were you, could also be useful.
You can also have a step-by-step plan of how you’re going to get to where you want to be.
Confidence in the workplace
Whether it’s your own business or someone else’s, no one can argue with true confidence. If you’re not self-motivated and you really don’t think you’re good at what you do despite being told otherwise, you may need someone to work with you, to mentor you, to bring out your best qualities and give you a competitive edge.
The author is managing director of Dynamic Transitions, a leadership company specialising in working with Troublesome Talent® and improving leadership performance within organisations. Judith provides strategic mentoring for senior executives and business leaders and delivers innovative leadership programmes, leadership consultancy, training, coaching and mentoring to corporate clients. For more information visit www.developing-leadership.com or email jude@dynamic-transitions.co.uk
