In this article I am coining the term ‘Benevolent Maverick’ to describe a specific type of maverick who acts as an intrapreneur to activate and mobilise benign disruption. This article is the first of a two-part series. This paper, Series I, will describe the traits and specific characteristics of a Benevolent Maverick. A follow on paper, Series II, will discuss why Benevolent Mavericks are relevant for organisations facing the challenge of becoming data-driven and AI-fuelled businesses.

What is a Benevolent Maverick?

‘Benevolent Mavericks’ are essentially activists and benign disruptors. They drive change and transformation in a gradual way that builds momentum and sponsorship across an organisation by breaking down silos, influencing naysayers and building on successes to prove value and expand their pool of supporters and contributors.

Common to their maverick cousins, Benevolent Mavericks are the people in an organisation who bring a fresh outsider perspective, who are innovative and creative thinkers and who add value by identifying alternative ways of doing things that are often unorthodox and non-traditional.

What makes the type of mavericks that I will discussing in this article unique is their benevolence. But before we get into why benevolence is so critical to how these mavericks function and succeed, let’s first examine why traditional mavericks commonly struggle in large and complex corporate environments, where they are often lacking but greatly needed.

In large corporates, mavericks often struggle to assimilate and drive innovation because they feel held back by the lack of speed to innovate. The challenges experienced in executing on their vision can derive from multiple sources, such as risk-aversiveness, bureaucracy, politics or from the lack of a workforce with a critical mass of agile, dynamic and people with a growth mindset.

From the organisation’s perspective, mavericks can be tricky to tame and manage within their rules and structures. It can be challenging to support their ideas, empower them with the necessary resources at the speed they desire and to provide them with the coverage required to experiment, fail and get sufficient run-way to show return on investment. Unfortunately, for these reasons, companies “consistently pass up or cast out those who create friction, cause insecurity among leaders, or make other employees uncomfortable” (ref).

Benevolent Mavericks; however, function slightly differently to the purist maverick. This shade of maverick does not drive change through disruption; they are not out to break things, cause friction or challenge employees. In contrast, they are huge collaborators and drive transformation by influencing strategic decision-makers all the way down to delivery teams. Benevolent Mavericks are inspirational leaders and team players who see the power of communicating their ideas as a gateway to gaining champions and sponsors. They realise that they may be the brains behind great initiatives but they alone cannot be the muscle. They expend a great deal of energy towards gaining supporters and empowering their followers to become influencers and hence chain multipliers.

There are 3 very specific traits that are common amongst Benevolent Mavericks:

#1. They drive change by starting a movement.

Benevolent Mavericks act as a pioneer amongst their peers, they disrupt at the edge and innovate inwards to avoid being overly confronting or destabilising.

To start a movement, they are first bold and brave enough to stand out. Next, they embrace followers as equals and allow followers to gain additional followers so they are not alone in advocating for their vision or cause. They understand success relies less on them being the sole leader and more on them being the trigger of a chain reaction that will lead to scale and a collective force.

Benevolent Mavericks think big and work gradually, in a piece meal fashion; building momentum and driving change steadily across teams and across the organisation if required. They gain support for change at every obstacle. Rather than breaking the rules, they canvass and convince decision-makers, champions and sponsors to help deliver change and knock down walls with them. They build trust and cohesion in relationships and internal networks.

Upholding the maverick spirit, Benevolent Mavericks possess an original point of view and possess the courage to follow it to its end. They find common minded people and ‘believers’ that agree with their vision and find their purpose motivating.

It is critical for Benevolent Mavericks to garner supporters because these supporters are the subject matter experts that will help the Benevolent Maverick realise their new ideas and innovative concepts. Benevolent Mavericks are good at seeing opportunity even in areas where they are not the domain specialist or expert. In some ways to see things afresh, they come in not knowing a part of the business and the standard ways of doing things. As stated by a famous maverick:

“You know, I think my job is to walk in stupid every day.”

— Dan Wieden, the founder of Wieden & Kennedy — the largest independent advertising agency in the world.

Often because Benevolent Mavericks are good at figuring things out and learning quickly the details that are required to see new ways of doing things, they can frequently be referred to as generalists or be penalised for not sticking to one vertical or field. Benevolent Mavericks thrive in new and unknown territories, they are comfortable with being uncomfortable and thrown in the deep end where they can quickly learn the ropes, ask pointed questions and help create and shape new opportunities. For these reasons, they often seek out different business functions or areas in the course of their career to stay challenged and to leverage their ability to seek change and drive innovation.

#2 They acts as ‘Human APIs’.

‘Benevolent Mavericks’ are connectors and integrators across large and complex webs of concepts, processes, functions and teams. They possess the ability to not only find patterns but to apply logic to find insights and design new configurations and solutions that will deliver significant improvements and meaningful outcomes. In a broad sense, pattern recognition and inductive thinking form the basis for all scientific inquiry, so these individuals are curious, analytical, problem solvers who learn through observation and experimentation. They also apply this pattern thinking and ability to connect dots to people relationships.

As strategic thinkers, Benevolent Mavericks solve problems by communicating, negotiating and influencing others, connecting people across the organisation, identifying altruistic pathways and building partnerships by helping others whenever possible. Benevolent Mavericks can help push through difficult transformations by acting as an intermediary or buffer between teams and business units because they have their eye on the bigger picture and the endgame. Focused on the final outcome, they see value in building bridges between all of the parts that equate to the final sum.

Benevolent Mavericks by nature of their vision and passion are commonly story-tellers; they speak in analogies and colourful threads. The story is the fundamental platform for organising and persuading others about their ideas. The story that they relate to sell their ideas also helps to connect them emotionally with people. Benevolent Mavericks are earnest, therefore; their belief in the story they are communicating is visceral and genuinely contagious.

#3 Persistent drivers.

Benevolent Mavericks are purpose-driven. They are motivated by values and principles. It is their purpose that allows them to be benevolent and to tell an authentic story, to cipher up a movement of followers and to persevere from vision to execution. They truly believe in the importance of what they are trying to achieve with the power of others and are driven forward by the excitement of possibility, by every small win along the way and the communal energy of success. In large and complex organisations with numerous projects, competing agendas and priorities and strong voices, the Benevolent Maverick ability to demonstrate conviction, persistence and resolve is required to gain sponsorship and support.

Often the desire to achieve purpose leads Benevolent Mavericks to become customer-centric and customer-led leaders. Finding purpose in what they do is important for them and they will obtain this both from having a genuine belief in the company and its need to flourish but also, importantly, in achieving satisfaction from knowing they are part of a mission to create value for customers and that customers have high regard for the brand, its products and service and its positive impact on society at large.

The drive for achieving outcomes and the ability to organise change also explains why Benevolent Mavericks are often experienced program managers or product owners. Many of the common traits and skills to these roles overlap with those required of a Benevolent Maverick post the strategic visioning and ideation of a innovation or new way of delivering value. Benevolent Mavericks can exist at all levels within an organisation and are not limited to managerial or executive positions; but they often gravitate to leadership roles where they can influence strategic decision-making and be a people leader.

Summary

Organisations need to keep abreast of emerging data and technology and innovation. To do so, they need to be brave in hiring for skills over experience and for diversifying their workforce not only in gender and race but in cognitive diversity, allowing for a selection process that brings in people with a new and innovative perspectives. Hiring for someone who can run the business as usual and follow a set of processes or frameworks is very different to hiring for someone who is an problem-solver and change-maker; coming in with an open and curious mind. Both are needed in a balanced workforce. Large and long-standing organisations can often have a deficit of Benevolent Mavericks and need to make a concerted effort to bring them in and to develop them internally where they see potential.

Thanks for reading!

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