When are you mature enough to be a leader?

Through a recent Leadership Coaching intervention, I’ve been introduced to a group of pissed-off individuals who, much to their frustration, have had their application for a career promotion declined. The organization feels that they are ‘not ready’ for more leadership responsibility, that they are ‘not functioning at the level of maturity’ that is required for the new role. It’s elusive - this notion of leadership ‘maturity’ - and the organization is struggling to articulate what it looks like.  Maturity, while sometimes but not always age-related, is definitely intention-related. In the simplest, linear terms the process of maturation is about the transmutation of intention from being here to get, to being here to give.

Etsko Schuitema, author of Intent: Exploring the Core of Being Human, reflects on the following key distinctions between being the immature child and the mature adult — the child is in the care of the adult, has little responsibility and is not accountable because it has poor command over its needs. Needs typically refer to those things that one wants to get. Needs-based behavior is concerned with getting something from the other in order to gratify the self. To act on the basis of needs is to take. Values, on the other hand, refer to that which is correct. In so far as they define correctness values define what one should be giving in a particular situation. Therefore, acting on the basis of values, giving and reflectiveness are consistent with maturity. And, of course, the key muscle in the process of maturation involves a process of the cultivation of awareness.

Schuitema’s table below offers a #guide to the behaviors consistent with the mature individuals. It can help us to define, set direction and intentions for our own continued growth.

Are you here to get, leader? Or to give?

I am a leadership and Personal Branding Coach currently based in Latin America. I work with English-speaking leaders across the globe. If you are ready for a career promotion and want to step up to the leadership plate, I want to hear from you. Visit www.motivcoach.com for a no-obligation Skype call.

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