John McCain styles himself a maverick.
Originally, "maverick" referred to an unbranded young animal
separated from the herd. It became the property of
whoever found and branded it.
The name came from a Texas cattle baron named Samuel Maverick who found that not branding his own livestock made it easier to claim his neighbor's calves. By this definition, the blank slate-flanked Sarah Palin certainly seems to qualify as a maverick.
But we were talking about the Maverick-in-Chief,
Depending on your age and cultural frame of reference, the word today may conjure up wild west gambler James Garner or top gun Tom Cruise.
We are supposed to believe, like them, McCain is a winking, easy-going rebel, an independent sort who scorns orthodoxy, takes risks and resists established power. In fact, all the way back to his days at Annapolis, that was McCain's self-image.
Setting aside for the moment whether McCain is an authentic maverick or
simply plays one on TV, let's consider the underlying premise:
that the country needs a maverick as president — and just in case, a
mini-maverick to back him up.
As a square peg in a Fortune-100 hole for more than a decade, let me tell you that large corporations and hallowed institutions do need mavericks. Leaders in well-managed companies actually tolerate and even value them — at least in small doses — because a certain amount of contrarianism is a useful, creative force in an organization. The maverick spirit fights inertia, challenges conventional thinking and pushes for change.
As a manager and business owner, I found my most valuable people were usually the biggest pain in my ass.
But a maverick running the company? I don't think so. The Senate, not the Oval Office, is the right place for a John McCain.
A maverick's nature is to remain on the outside, to react against the system. Putting the maverick in charge of the system takes away his reason for being. Expecting him to build consensus contradicts his self-definition as one apart from the crowd. An executive role neuters his strengths and demands what he has little interest in or facility for doing.
Mavericks at the top don't just change organizations. They can destroy them.
It's an extremely rare person who can cede control and institute order after fighting both forever. That's the same reason entrepreneurial companies rarely rise above their founders if they hang on to the top job.
Organizations need leaders with integrity who continually challenge their people to do better. But they also need consistency and coherence from leaders who see the big picture and communicate it clearly and convincingly. They don't need leaders who swoop in at the last minute to play hero, assign blame and then ride off into the sunset before the cleanup starts.
If you have watched John McCain's performance over the past month, you can see the pattern of his life. Maverick types may inspire initial romantic attachment, but once cast in executive positions, they wear Ventura thin.
The Brett Mavericks belong in frontier towns — where hardly anyone can get hurt when they shoot from the hip.
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