The Maturity of the Leader

 

I have been always interested in Leadership topics. I have read many books about leadership and taken many courses about the same topic.

I truly believe that, when leadership is discussed, one of the most important aspects of a leader is related to maturity: the maturity of the leader.

How mature is the leader of a team? Maturity is not measure by the age of the leader, neither by his / her expertise or look.

Maturity is a combination of factors: attitude, skills, learning, education; but it is also a matter of values: honesty, respect, humbleness, loyalty.

Therefore, a leader might be very skilled but if he / she is not honest, then cannot be considered a mature leader.

And I want to emphasize the importance of having mature leaders in a company; usually, when a leader lacks of maturity, he / she creates and participates in fraudulent or illegal situations that affect the company’s interest. Therefore, “honesty” is one of the principal values of a mature leader.

Thru my work experience and what I have seen in the many different companies where I have worked either as a consultant or as an auditor, this is what I have noticed regarding mature leaders:

1. Mature leaders want to build teams. Immature leaders want to build flocks.

This is clear and does not need further comments. Flocks are easier to control and manage; and do not require great knowledge, skills or values. You just need a stick and a loud voice.

2. Mature leaders hire talent while immature leaders hire friends.

An immature leader builds a team based in friendship and favors. This is like a “mafia style”. So talent is not important. An immature leader is looking for “friends” who can return him/her favors when he/she is in troubles.

3. Mature leaders clearly define strategies and action plans to be followed by the team. Immature leaders feel comfortable with the team acting on an “ad hoc” basis.

Immature leaders feel comfortable with the chaos and confusion that the “ad hoc” basis style creates, because if nothing is formally defined, then they feel they have no accountabilities and they can get rid of difficult situations blaming others instead of facing those as a team.

4. Mature leaders take ideas when the subordinates have different opinions from theirs. Immature leaders take retaliation when a different opinion is brought by any subordinate.

This is very common from an immature leader: whenever something different from his / her opinion is said or suggested, retaliation will be taken. Again, this is because the leader feels threaten with a different idea or opinion.

5. Mature leaders have healthy and professional discussions with the subordinates to benefit the team. Immature leaders try to defeat the subordinates to get the false sense of winning.

An immature leader cannot stand healthy discussions with the subordinates and gets into discussions to beat and humiliate subordinates. Immature Leaders are passive violent aggressors when it comes to hold discussions. At the bottom, the immature leader has the intense need to feel superior and this is accomplished by causing fear.

6. Mature leaders feel proud of the team’s accomplishments. Immature leaders feel threaten by the team’s accomplishments.

An immature leader feels threaten by talented subordinates. As a result, immature leaders will try to hide any team’s accomplishments; even will impede the subordinates to improve their skills. Immature leaders will also “steal” the team’s accomplishments, showing them as theirs. To the eyes of the others, the leader will expose himself / herself as the talented piece of the team.

7. Mature leaders motivate communication to flow in different ways. Immature leaders block communication.

I have noticed in many cases that immature leaders prohibit their subordinates to communicate with other leaders or teams; sometimes they even create communication gaps to have a false sense of control. Immature leaders feel comfortable with these communication gaps and do not like to clear things up.

This is a great one for the season:

8. A Mature leader goes to the Christmas social events, spends a couple of hours with the team, and makes a toast. An immature leader goes to the Christmas social events, stays until the end and the subordinates have to take him/her home because is too drunk to drive.

And just to think about:

• What are the behaviors that you have noticed from mature and immature leaders?
• What behaviors do you have as a leader?
• Are you a mature or an immature leader?

Adriana Acosta, CISA, CISM, CRISC, COP, ISO27000, TOGAF practitioner
Mexican Experienced Consultant and Auditor
Works for a leader financial institution; in a Latin American regional responsibility position