“Great leaders don’t succeed because they are great. They succeed because they bring out the greatness in others.”

Generally, we relate generosity with money, gifts, donations, and all the philanthropic aspects. But have you associated it with leadership, which is one of the best elements of a successful system? Have you ever thought about a generous leader who is built with self-confidence to instill positive values in his/her teammates?  A  generous leader will ensure that he/she is helping his/her team members to become more self-reliant.

Generosity-one of the most unexplored aspects of leadership

According to me, generosity is one of the most unexplored aspects of leadership. We generally would have also seen leaders who are hard taskmasters and who don’t contemplate too much about the individual development of the people under their leadership. But they are partly to be blamed. The leadership culture around the world has been so devised such that the major goal of the leader should be to get the job done from the teammate; nothing more, nothing less. But times are changing. There is lot of lessons learned by workforces, and  helping in empowering a self-reliant teammate is one of the key attributes of a good leader.

What are the traits of a generous leader?

Provides opportunities to his/her team members to utilize and hone their strengths

Gives his/her teammates the liberty to learn things at their own way without forcing their ideas too much on them

Ensures that there is personal growth of his/her teammate besides appreciably completing the work

Gives the team members the privilege to focus their attention on their areas of expertise

Generosity brings generosity

True indeed. When the leaders are generous enough in sharing their knowledge and spending their valuable time for the team members, the latter will also have the sense of responding well. The time taken by the leader to help the team member to bring out his/her full potential will eventually lead to the latter reciprocating with good work. That said, this requires lot of self-confidence of the leader and a sound judgement of members working under his/her supervision.

Take-home message

These points may seem like some utopian ideology, but once you start understanding it you will realize that goodness results in goodness, and generosity is a noble virtue. Just relax and don’t question whether generosity in leadership, where there is willingness to support the team member especially more than is usual, is really needed. After all, a true generous leader is not naïve but filled with self-confidence that his/her walking the extra mile will definitely bear fruits.